Please let me know if you would like to use one or more of these and I will send you the words embedded in the music.

God, This Wilderness Seems Trackless
tune: Wachet Auf  8.9.8.8.9.8.6.6.4.8.8. 
Texts: Psalm 25:1-10; Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13
The tune is the same as “Wake, Awake, for Night Is Falling”
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

God, this wilderness seems trackless,
Dark night of soul a starless blackness.
Wounds, wrongs and losses tempt despair.
All my stumbling steps betray doubt.
My flailing mind can find no way out.
At last I fall to humble prayer.
I quiet as I wait.
The swirling sands abate.
Faith, courage, love:
Like stars they rise.  Light fills my eyes.
Christ shows the way, his truth makes wise.

Holy Spirit drives and leads me,
It teaches me, its angel feeds me
If I give God my will’s control.
Then when demons come attacking
And tempt with all that I feel lacking,
I turn to God and lift my soul.
Christ takes my outstretched hand.
He, too, has walked this sand.
He leads me through.
Strength to endure, faith’s steps made sure:
God’s steadfast love holds me secure.

Spirit leads to confrontation
With foes of soul and of Creation.
Christ leads us out to serve all earth.
Wilderness is our preparing
For paths of loving, healing, caring.
Dark nights of soul are throes of birth.
We reach the other side
Stripped of self-will and pride.
We rise, all God’s.
We follow on where Christ has gone
Down paths that lead to Easter dawn.

copyright 2009 Thomas Cary Kinder

 
The Wilderness Is Dark Tonight
tune: Woodworth   L.M. 
This is the tune of “Just As I Am”
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

The wilderness is dark tonight,
No path ahead, no star above,
No distant window throwing light
To guide me home to hope and love.

The Spirit’s dove first drove me here.
It left me then, alone and lost
In desert wastes of thirst and fear,
A land faith tells me must be crossed.

The Spirit asks I leave behind
The comforts I have craved and known,
It asks that I renew my mind,
A birth like death, my prayer, a groan.

A wilderness of stone and dust
Can tempt the strongest faith to doubt.
It strips my soul to one last trust:
God led me here, God will lead out.

O God of Moses, God of Christ,
I turn to you to find my way.
I offer all they sacrificed,
Your will the one will I obey.

For you, the smallest step I take,
For you, each work of word or hand,
And then night lifts, light comes, I wake
To find this is the Promised Land.

copyright 2013 Thomas Cary Kinder

 
Lent Insists That We Remember
tune: Calon Lân  8.7.8.7.D.
text: Genesis 1-3
This is one of the most popular hymn tunes in Wales.  You can watch a spirited performance of it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYOxBncgmLQ
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

Lent insists that we remember
That this life is mortal dust.
All we are we must surrender,
All we have we hold in trust.
refrain:
Dust to dust, one day returning
What we borrowed at our birth.
And whose dust are we, whose yearning?
Dust of God and dust of earth.

Ours to love, and ours to steward,
Ours to move along its course,
Ours to speak our dust’s one true word
On behalf of our life source.
refrain

Born to serve like Christ, our teacher,
Called to tend this dust with care,
Serving God and every creature,
Tending waters, land and air.
refrain


copyright 2013 Thomas Cary Kinder