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.

If you’ve been coming here hoping to find inspiration, then I daresay you’ve been sorely disappointed this past couple of weeks.  I have no good excuse for why my thoughts lately have been more on the mundane, and less on the things of the Lord, but I can offer something by way of explanation.  You see, my Ladies’ Bible study finished for the semester at Easter time, and my marriage Bible study has had a two week break.  So without these externals in place to force me deeper into the Word, it’s just been me and… well, the Word.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still been reading it every day most days, but without a study guide asking me probing questions, I’m afraid far too many of God’s precious thoughts just wash over me.

A few nights ago I was listening to hymns in the car (a different CD from my usual one, just to change it up a bit), and this great classic that I’ve heard a million times just hit me.  Truth be known, I was probably thinking about what I could blog about when I got home.  I have a list a mile long of things that are on my mind and that I would *like* to blog about (a new favorite YouTube clip, the Dugggars’ impending #18, and the 2007 Official SSA Top Baby Names, just to tease you), but none of them seemed quite worthy of my attention in light of the words of this great hymn.

“Thou my best thought, by day or by night,”  cut right through all of the fluff that daily fills my mind, and reminded my soul what it ought to be fixating on.  God, His holiness, His mercy, His unfathomable love: these are what my best thoughts rest on.  I just haven’t been having enough “best thoughts” lately.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

This second verse is equally powerful, reminding me to guard my spoken (or typed) words carefully.  God Himself is “my wisdom” and “my true word”.  What I say that honors Him and voices His truth, this is wise and true.  Everything else that comes out of my mouth (or keyboard): probably not so much worth saying.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

This verse brings me to tears if I read the words enough times.  How instantly my heart recognizes its own shortcomings when confronted with these words!  I wonder how many times I’ve thoughtlessly sung that God is my treasure, that He and He only is first in my heart, that I heed not man’s empty praise, while simultaneously wondering if my singing sounds okay to the people around me or how my hair looks to those in the pew behind me.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Yet in Christ, in spite of my tremendous failures, there is this incredible promise of hope.  Not hope in the I-hope-it-doesn’t-rain-tomorrow sense, but hope in the God-says-it-will-be-this-way-so-we-can-rest-assured-it-will-be sense.  God, in Christ, has already defeated this sin that so easily draws my heart away from the One who is my vision.  For now, I may be dull-minded and distracted and catch only glimpses of Him. But when I do have these moments of clarity, I can know that they are only the tiniest taste of Heaven’s joys, and that someday, when I am in His presence, my every thought will be “my best thought.”