Be Thou My Vision

Three final year medical students sat sprawled on a rattan mat in my flat. It was our monthly meeting when we huddle together to share our lives, renew confidence and find hope to forge ahead into a stormy future in the marketplace.

Aptly, it is called a 'Headstart' group. Learning the ropes before they set sail.

To go forward we needed to first remember. And so we recounted the journeys we had taken over five years in this secluded campus (fondly called 'the desert', 'the ends of the earth' or 'this God-forsaken place'). Comparing our spiritual maps, a pattern emerged : we found how God had taken us through the same milestones but excitingly different adventures.

We had all been shipped in the first year, lost, drifting and pretty much steering away from God. And toward our own faraway ambitions. (We all dreamed of A's but never got them in medical school!) Yet, by a series of shipwrecks, broadsides and running aground, we were brought into his wharf of restoration. Again and again. Each time more of His transforming love worked within. He never spared us the little trials to achieve great gain.

Rejections brought us to know His love, and in turn love and accept ourselves and others. Godly mentors who listened showed us how to be guides for others finding their way. Newfound freedom and space became the receptacle of His Presence. We came to grips with His purposes for ourselves and the world around us. And discovered for ourselves that there was no other life worth living but that of giving as Christ gave Himself.

One of them said, 'I now want to love God only for His' sake.'

Wow.

I sat at their feet and learnt.

Their lives were living crafts of the Master Potter's hand. The marks of His loving workmanship were distinctly carved in their histories.

We closed with 'Be Thou My Vision' and my heart swelled with each word. Weighed with praise for the Father who is the Guide, the Way, and the ultimate Port of Call for my dear brothers and I.
What distances we must travel to find Him who is already in us!
(Sing with me, wherever you are..)

Be Thou my vision
O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me
Save that Thou art
Thou my best thought
By day or by night
Waking or sleeping
Thy presence my light

Be Thou my wisdom
Be Thou my true word
I ever with Thee
And Thou with me Lord
Thou my great Father
And I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling
And I with Thee one

Be Thou my breastplate
My sword for the fight
Be Thou my armor
And be Thou my might
Thou my soul's shelter
And Thy my high tower
Raise Thou me heavenwards
O Power of my power