all torn in pieces

for you alone
claire cloninger

how can i look at the scene of the cross and not be changed by the love in your face? how can i look at the nails in your hands and not be moved by the price that you paid?

how can my eyes see the road that you walked and turn my back and just go on my way? i see you now, oh my lord and my god, and i am faced with a choice that i must make.

i choose to live for you alone. to make your cross my only glory.. and your grace my only hope. to yield my will and to make my heart your throne. i choose to live this life you give for you alone.

how can i look at the grave where they laid you and not shed tears for my lord and my friend? how can i stand with the ones that you love and have courage to hope it's not the end?

but now the sky is ablaze with new light. the stone's rolled back and the dawn's broken through. you're with me now, oh my lord and my god, and i will lift up my life, my all to you.

i choose to live for you alone. to make your cross my only glory.. and your grace my only hope. to yield my will and to make my heart your throne. i choose to live this life you give for you alone.

* * *

we're going to learn this song (taken from "my utmost for his highest" musical) for the upcoming lenten recollection (04 april 2007). i loved this song when i first heard it some years back. claire cloninger certainly comes up with the most inspired melodies and lyrics.

i'm re-reading the words of the song now.. and for me, it really is more of a prayer than anything else. the way things are with me lately, though.. reading it brings a twinge of sadness too. it's like finding an old entry in your diary.. and realizing that the person who wrote it is so different from the one reading it now.

i wonder what lent has in store for me this year..