At a recent Stirring worship service, we sang the 19th century hymn Take My Life and Let It Be. I’ve heard it a hundred times before. The version I know has a schmaltzy tune and I’m usually eager for it to be over and gone.
But this time I heard it in a whole new way. The two lead women singers dressed all in black and the musicians with electric guitars, bass, violin, and keyboard made the hymn new. Whether it was their arrangement, the beautiful voices, the heart they put into it, or my own receptivity on that day, I don’t know. But the words, a prayer for God to inhabit every particle of my being, popped out and zinged me. “Behold, I make all things new” says God in Revelation 21:5 (KJV). The old hymn was completely fresh and new.
Take My Life and Let It Be (1874) was written by Frances Ridley Havergal, the daughter of a minister. Below is the abbreviated text I know from The Hymnal 1982.
Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord to thee;
take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of thy love;
take my heart, it is thine own; it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my voice, and let me sing always only, for my King;
take my intellect, and use every power as thou shalt choose.
Take my will, and make it thine: it shall be no longer mine.
Take myself and I will be, ever, only all for thee.
Listen to Chris Tomlin sing Take My Life on You Tube
Drawing: Sybil MacBeth
