As I joined my less-than-glorious voice with the angelic-sounding choir around me, I did my best to blend in while shifting my attention to the lyrics. Though I have sung the hymn many times, knitting my heart to the author’s, this day the words were resoundingly a missionary-sending anthem.
“Take My Life and Let It Be,” written in 1874 by Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879), echoes the soul-cry of many a missionary and their supporters. Ms. Havergal, daughter of a pastor, lived to glorify God and share her delight in Him through poem and song, inviting others to behold the love of her Savior.
As the Rev. James Davidson, B.A., Vicar of St. Paul’s, Bristol, England, said, “Her poems are permeated with the fragrance of her passionate love of Jesus. . . . The burden of her writings is a free and full salvation, through the Redeemer’s merits . . . her life . . . devoted to the proclamation of this truth . . . and earnest interest in Foreign Missions.”
Yes, her heart for mission, foreign or otherwise, is undeniably infused in the lyrics.
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for thee,
Swift and beautiful for thee.
In hymnal or on phone, with friends or alone, join me in meditating upon the prayer of Hymn 330.
A consecrated life. Moments and days. Hands and feet. Intellect and voice. Messages from Him. Endless praise to Him. Silver and gold. Will His own. Heart His throne. Love for the Lord. Self—ever, only, all to Him.
May we unite our hearts with our Savior’s, His interest ours, reaching family, neighbors . . . the unreached. His commissioning of Jeremiah (1:9) is His promise to us, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.” Go!
