Abide with Me
Do you ever wake up with a song stuck in your head, or more importantly in your heart? The old hymn, Abide with Me, has recently lodged itself within me, calling me to pay attention to it. Just as I think it’s run its course and left me, I hear it again — literally hear it — even on a recent episode of one of my favorite PBS series, Father Brown, the song was sung in its entirety!
So I’m stopping to listen, to give pause to what feels like a prayer asking Jesus to abide with me, stay with me, as the disciples on the road to Emmaus asked, “Stay with us for evening is approaching.” I am drawn to this prayer because it isn’t focused so much on how I can or should abide with Christ (although he asks that I do), but rather in my ordinary life and in my persistent weaknesses, how does he abide with me and stay with me in it all? Lines from the hymn haunt me:
“Fast falls the eventide…the darkness deepens, Lord with me abide…
Help of the helpless, oh abide with me…
O Thou who changest not, abide with me…
Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness…
I triumph still if Thou abide with me…”
If I am still and sit with this reality of Jesus making his home in my world, I can imagine his calm presence in my sometimes chaotic thoughts and activity, in the midst of my boredom with certain facets of my life, in my relationships and daily tasks. He becomes the host and me the welcomed guest as he opens the door to his dwelling place deep within my soul where always meets my cry, “Lord, with me abide.”
Where could you use Christ’s dwelling presence in your life? How do you respond to the idea of Jesus making his residence in your daily life? How does this prayer hymn speak to you?
