And Can It Be

There was a time when not being in worship on Sunday morning was an unthinkable thing.  When I was growing up, it was mandated.  "If you put your feet under this table, you will do what you are told," is what I was often told and always I was told when Sunday came I would be going to church with the rest of the family.  And, then much later I ended up as one who was preaching and leading worship so no one had to tell me what I had to do on Sunday morning.  What was sometimes done unwillingly became my own choice through most of my life.    

Retirement put me into a different set of circumstances.  Or, maybe it was getting older and not being able to count on being able to do what I had always taken for granted.  Whatever the reason these days have been days of attending and not attending worship every Sunday.  I have discovered that sometimes what we might choose to do is not really being chosen for us.  If such makes little sense, continue to hang in there for life to unfold new possibilities.   

So, on a day when worship in the church was not an option, I pulled out my United Methodist Hymnal and started turning pages.  As I turned the pages, I saw some hymns I never thought I would have forgotten, but such was the case with some.  And I even found myself silently singing a few that have always stirred the deep places of my spirit.  One of those hymns was a Charles Wesley hymn entitled, "And Can it Be."  It is a glorious hymn.  It is a teaching hymn.  It is a hymn that tells the story told in the gospel in a powerful and compelling way.  It is a hymn of great victory as it ends with those words, "Bold I approach th' eternal throne and claim the crown, through Christ my own."  Would that I could be with a great crowd of believers to sing this hymn today!