"When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"

With the help and kindness of family and friends, this week I slowly but surely reentered the land of the living, having missed out on only one seminar.  It always amazes me how much the little things that you take for granted--like being able to sleep through the night, or even just having an appetite--seem to mean when you are sick and those things are no longer working right.  So it has been nice to get back to feeling better.  I'm particularly glad that I am feeling on top of things before my Sister Stephanie visits this week while she is presenting at a conference at TCU.  I'm looking forward to being able to see her for a few days, as it will be the first time I've seen family since mid-August.

Isaac Watts, English hymn composer

Today I taught the Gospel Essentials lesson on the principle of sacrifice.  This morning as I was making a few last minute preparations, I was reminded of one of my favorite hymns (unfortunately not in our hymnbook or our regular canon of inspirational hymns).  The hymn is "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," written by Isaac Watts in 1707 in England.  Watts wrote the hymn and several others, including "Joy to the World," "Sweet is the Work," and "He Died! The Great Redeemer Died," that have been popular throughout the Christian world and have been sung reverentially in our own worship services.  While I love each of these hymns, the words of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" have a special place in my heart.

When I survey the wondrous cross,

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord! that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ, my God:

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to His blood...

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

For me the words of this hymn evoke the spirit of true discipleship and the essence of the sacrifices that we are asked to make in this Church.  They remind me of the words of Amaleki, who urged us to "come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.  Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and prayer, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved" (Omni 1:26).  The call of the gospel is an for us to exchange our all for the Lord's all.  It is true that He asks us to consecrate our all to His kingdom, but He asks this only after have consecrated His all to us.  Indeed, I am confident that at the end of eternity, when we look back on the sacrifices we were called to make for the Lord's kingdom, we will find that the exchange rate was far more than generous in our behalf.

The words of this hymn also do something else for me.  They remind me how far short I often fall of the demands of true Christian discipleship and faith.  Like Ananias and Sapphira, I have frequently "kept back a part" (Acts 5:2) of that which rightly belonged to the Lord, and in the process have lost opportunities to grow.  Considering the sacrifice of the Savior, I realize how very little I have given, and in some cases, how very much I have held back from Him and how much I must repent.

At the end of the day, I am inspired by the fact that more than our possessions, treasures, or money, God desires our hearts.  Those other things simply don't mean very much in the eternal scheme of things.  From time to time, He asks us to give of them to His Kingdom, but He does so to loosen the hold that they have upon our hearts.  When such things finally become temporary trifles in our eyes, we are then prepared to give Him the thing that He truly desires: our hearts and our devotion.  And having given those things to Him, He can mold us into men and women who are truly prepared to receive "all that [our] Father hath" (D&C 84:39).

Brett