February 8

  The red-brick church…

#96  a gift broken

#97  a gift fixed

#98  a gift thrifted

This afternoon I was thinking of the eucharisteo – thanksgivings to thank God for today…a gift BROKEN, a gift FIXED and a gift THRIFTED.  While I was driving to pick up my son and the neighbor friends from school, a little bit before the exact same place I saw the red brick church yesterday, I decided to switch from radio to CD.  And these are the words to the song I had not heard in a long time that played.  I began singing…driving right by the church… not realizing at first what I just sang…

“Lord…take my BROKEN offering and make it whole
And set my feet upon the road that leads me home
Let me walk as one FIXED upon the goal
Even though I've got a thousand miles to go.”

Maybe that place on the road, by the church is a little piece of holy ground for me.  My offering is broken…as a sinful child of God, I will always fall short of his glory on this side of heaven…YET that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t stay fixed on the goal to be more like Him.  Knowing that God is actively perfecting and conforming us into the image of Christ is a profoundly hopeful thought…because I know I cannot do it by myself…and that is the only way to offer myself to Him…gifts broken yet fixed on Christ…even though I have 1000 miles to go…clinging to that hope and promise.

The rest of the words to that song go…

I have stolen, Lord, let me give
I have left Your house a fugitive
I have wandered in my own way
Squandered everything You gave
But my dying heart You saved and let me live
I have cursed the air and clenched my fists
I have hungered for Your righteousness
I have tried to walk the line
I drew between Your heart and mine
But You forgive me every time the mark is missed
So take my broken offering and make it whole
And set my feet upon the road that leads me home
Let me walk as one fixed upon the goal
Even though I've got a thousand miles to go
I have sought Your grace in my defense
I have plundered Your magnificence
Until my journey is complete
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
That I might sow what I have reaped
From Your great love
As I struggle for Your hand
You use me in ways I can't understand
You take this sinful man and renew me
Working through me

And so for #98, I thrifted those words to use in my blog from Caedmon’s Call Back Home record…the song “Thousand Miles”