All Roads - Gretta Vosper

For this Sunday, the service is looking at privilege. So my hymn writing challenge veered off in that direction. An abrupt shift in the first verse might be disconcerting but it evidences the kind of “scales falling from our eyes” reality that consciousness raising so often is. And I hope that the song ends with a sense of cooperative movement toward a positive goal. The tune is Crusaders’ Hymn most often sung with the words to Fairest Lord Jesus

p style=”text-align: center;”>All Roads
Tune: Crusaders’ Hymn
Traditional Words: Fairest Lord Jesus

p style=”text-align: center;”>Silent, our wondrous earth
spins through the universe
clear, bright, and blue from a million miles.
Yet on its jagged face,
scarred by the human race,
there walks a lonely, hungry child.

p style=”text-align: center;”>Freedom, we all desire,
to wealth, we all aspire,
while she bears sorrows we’ll never know.
Might we not see our lives
as viewed through troubled eyes
and for her sake, our mercy show?

p style=”text-align: center;”>Faced with our privilege,
honoring our heritage
might ours be duty with love imbued.
Truth must we ever seek;
with wisdom ever speak;
the dignity of all pursue.

p style=”text-align: center;”>Some roads are walked with ease;
some make their pilgrims bleed;
all lead away from the world we’ve known.
Seeking another way
might we create the day
where all roads are with beauty sown?