Sunday, April 23, 2006

Too Trivial for Worship? A couple of years ago, I sang a Chris Rice song, "Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)", during the worship service. One of the choir members, who bemoaned the left turn of church music into the contemporary (and has since left our church over the music program) told me of her surprise that I would sing such a trivial song.

But I like Chris Rice (and maybe it does betray my low-brow tendencies), and the other day I heard another song of his that I would like to sing, "Go Light Your World". But I really wonder whether it is too light to sing in worship. Here are the lyrics, and I'd like to know what you think:

There is a candle in every soul
Some brightly burning,
Some dark and cold
There is a Spirit who brings the fire
Ignites His candle and makes His home

Carry your candle,
Run to the darkness
Seek out the hopeless, confused and torn
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle and go light your world

Frustrated brother,
see how he's tried to
Light his own candle some other way
See now our sister,
She's been robbed and lied to
Still holds a candle without a flame

So carry your candle,
run to the darkness
Seek out the lonely,
the tired and worn
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle and
go light your world

We are a family whose hearts are blazing
We raise our candles and light up the sky
Praying to our Father, "In the name of Jesus
Make us a beacon in darkest times!"

Carry your candle, run to the darkness
Seek out the helpless, deceived and poor
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle and go light your world.

2 comments:

Sandra (: said...

Sandra here, from Singapore. Stumbled onto your blog while looking for the lyrics to this very song! i personally like this song alot, anyway (:

And was reading some other posts which were both funny and encouraging :D Let's all press on for Christ!

Paul Stokes said...

Hi, Sandra from Singapore. Welcome!