Hymns by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette
Our Lord, you were sent to a place wild and vast
To ponder your mission, to pray and to fast;
Then hungry and weary, you faced night and day
The subtle temptations to turn from God's way.
How could it be wrong to want bread on the shelf?
To seek, in one's serving, to first serve one's self?
But by God's own word you remained ever sure:
It's only in God that our lives are secure.
How could it be wrong to step out and to dare,
To prove with great drama the depths of God's care?
But you knew God's word, true since all time began:
It's wrong to expect God to work by our plan.
How could it be wrong to just once bow the knee,
To shake hands with sin to achieve victory?
Yet you made it clear that no matter the cost:
Your path was obedience, your way was the cross.
Our Lord, in your struggle you chose to obey;
God's word filled your heart and you trusted God's way.
Now risen, you save us from sins that destroy;
You give us your Spirit, your peace and your joy.
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.
Consider buying these books for yourself, your church library and your public library, where they have the potential of touching the lives of people you might never meet.
- The Selfless Way of Christ: Downward Mobility and the Spiritual Life by Henri J. M. Nouwen and illustrations by Vincent Van Gogh First published in 1981 as a series of articles in Sojourners magazine, Nouwen's book argues that the way of the Christian is the way of Christ: what he marvellously calls "downward mobility." Just as Jesus self-emptied for the sake of others, practicing humility, nonviolence, non-judgmentalism, and sacrificial love, so must those who call themselves his disciples. But the culture in which we live tempts us, of course, with the path of "upward mobility." Actually, this has always been a temptation in all civilizations. The scriptural story of Jesus' three temptations speaks to it, and the second chapter of the book is Nouwen's interpretation of the story. In his hands, the three temptations are the urge to be relevant, spectacular, and powerful. Carolyn's hymn lifts up these interpretations.
- The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring by Parker J. Palmer (see especially chapter six, "Jesus in the Desert: The Temptations of Action"): The Active Life is Parker J. Palmer's deep and graceful exploration of a spirituality for the busy, sometimes frenetic lives many of us lead. Through stories, Palmer shows that the spiritual life does not mean abandoning the world but engaging it more deeply through life-giving action. He celebrates both the problems and potentials of the active life, revealing how much they have to teach us about ourselves, the world, and God. The author of Courage to Teach and Promise of Paradox gives us another wonderful book.
- Temptation: A Biblical and Psychological Approach by Wayne E. Oates, one of the leading writers in the field of pastoral counseling. Wayne Oates discusses the forms and meanings of temptation, including the most subtle temptation to put ourselves in God's place; the personifications of temptation in scripture, both in Satan and in human psychic conflict; the relationship between temptation and oppression, both in everyday situations and in heroic persons such as Gandhi, King and Mandela; the relationship between temptation and pathology, such as addiction, anxiety, projection, reaction formation, and inner conflict. His chapter on overcoming temptation offers insights on responsibility, arrogance, lust for power and sex, despair, and decision. Throughout, Oates's view is that temptation is a time of opportunity, of testing, and of destiny and that temptation is not in itself sinful.
- The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis: This satire is a Christian classic. Screwtape is a veteran demon in the service of "Our Father Below" whose letters to his nephew and protege, Wormwood, instruct the demon-in-training in the fine points of leading a new Christian astray. Lewis's take on human nature is as on-target as it was when the letters were first published in 1941 when Lewis dedicated his book to his friend J. R. R. Tolkien. Check out the online video/audio program at the National Cathedral web site titled Devils Among Us: A Conversation with C. S. Lewis's 'Screwtape'.
- The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History by Jeffrey Burton Russell is an excellent summary history of the devil in theology, art and literature by a scholar who has many academic books about the devil.