Hymns by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette
Our God, you called to Moses to set your people free.
What wrongly some suppose is: he answered easily.
"I'm not the one you're seeking!" he seemed instead to say.
"My strength is not in speaking; God, find another way!"
And yet, O Lord, you told him to trust in what you said.
Your strength would surely hold him through all those days ahead
Though many would oppose him, by your own name he'd know:
You were the one who chose him to help your people go.
You call each congregation to serve those lost and poor.
We doubt our own vocation; we ask, "Lord, are you sure?"
Yet you give gifts for sharing, you show us what to say.
Your Spirit gives us daring to serve Christ every day.
Hymn Use Permission: Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Upper Room Books, 2009) includes a permission note for those who own this book to use this hymn (along with the 76 other new hymns in the book) in their local church's worship services. People who do not own Songs of Grace are asked to contact Carolyn (bcgillette@comcast.net) for permission to use the hymn and to get a copy of the hymn formatted for worship bulletin use.
When Bill O'Connell was serving as pastor of Glassboro Presbyterian Church in New Jersey, he was invited to lead a presbytery worship service at that church. He used a delightful chancel drama called "Here I Am! Send Claude!" from David Steele's book The Next Voice You Hear: Sermons We Preach Together (Geneva Press, 1999).
Bill asked me to write a hymn to go along with this chancel drama's theme of the call of Moses and our calling as Christians. This hymn was written to be a lighthearted complement to a lighthearted chancel drama, and yet it also has a thoughtful message. It can be used for many kinds of worship services where God's call is emphasized, including services of ordination and installation. The hymn is based on Exodus 3:1-4,17 and 1 Corinthians 12.
Tony Campolo, an evangelist with a strong concern for social justice, recently told a group of pastors that mainline churches really need to work harder at calling for commitment from their members. We need to challenge our children, youth and adults to serve God in the church and the world. All of us need to consider the gifts God has given us and find out how God is calling us to serve.
Sometimes, like Moses, we are hesitant. We may not have confidence in our own abilities. We may be concerned that we do not have time as family and work concerns press upon us. We may have been burned in the past. We may wonder how to discern God's call in our lives.
The Thoughtful Christian, a wonderful online resource for church discussion groups, has a session with the theme, "Listening to God's Call." The leader's guide suggests some ways God may call us: "Through a voice we hear in our heads, an idea or a "vision," especially one that refuses to go away; through words spoken to us by another person, especially a "foreigner" from outside our accustomed world, or a stranger, or a traveler, or an opponent; through a sermon or other elements of corporate worship; through reading the Bible; through a human need we become especially and intensely aware of; through a special talent we possess; through an event in daily life that speaks in some strong or unexpected way."
Once, when I attended church camp as a teenager, a seminary intern at the camp asked me, "Have you ever considered that God may be calling you to the ministry?" I had considered it, and that seminary student's comment helped me to consider God's call to ministry even more. Who has called you to do something for God? How might God be working through that person? It has been said that where the needs of the world intersect with your own gifts and abilities and interests, there you will find God's call. Frederick Buechner puts it this way, "The place God calls you to is where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet" (Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC). What is God calling you to do?
Copied from Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Upper Room Books, 2009).
- Check out the rest of this web site for other wonderful hymns.
- Consider buying Carolyn's two books of hymns that give permission to use the book's hymns in a local church: Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today's Worship by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Geneva Press, 2000) and Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Upper Room Books, 2009)
- Share the hymn and her hymns web site with people in your church and other online friends in other churches.
- Check out A Dozen Ways to Support Carolyn's Hymn-writing (including hymn use permission).