The music doesn’t all appeal to me, neither does the dance moves they chose for the video. But the very fact of their being there sends chills up and down my spine. You see, I’ve been there. I spent some time in Eastern Europe six years ago, and stood in this very square in front of the Millenium Memorial. It’s an old, patinaed monument–this wasn’t erected at the turn of the millenium, but in honor of the thousandth year of Hungarian history in 1898. And it sits in the middle of a bleak square with an acre of paving stones around it in the heart of Budapest–a city still very much under the shadow of its years of Communism and repression, when Christians were not allowed to practice openly.

This church that started small in those dark days has grown to encompass a significant portion of the community, now holding multiple services of tens of thousands apiece on Sunday morning. I’m not wholeheartedly comfortable with the trend of megachurches in US mainline evangelical circles, but the Lord appears to be doing a mighty work here. For even just six years ago I couldn’t have imagined so many of Budapest’s youth (and older folks, too) standing joyful in one of the bleakest spots in downtown Budapest and dancing and singing the good news. For the song they were singing was particularly meaningful to me, having seen the damage statism and tyranny has done to their country in the past century.

That day will be remembered as the greatest day in history
The fate of the world changed in one glorious moment
When Life triumphed on Resurrection Sunday

The hope of a people searching for life
The day will be brighter
The message of freedom rings in the sky
Spreading the fire
The flag of a nation ready to fly
Taking them higher
The heart of a land that rises to fight
Full of desire
When nothing is as you want it to be
Look up to heaven
Freedom was paid for on Calvary
The chain is broken
Making a way right to destiny
Borders are open
And Jesus has granted the victory
That Sunday morning

Joy in this life time, utterly free
More than the world gives, beyond what you see
For nations its time to rise their hope is in Jesus Christ
If the giants come, just hold on, the advantage is now on your side
Jesus, will take the final fight

A light dawned that Sunday Morning
It broke through the boundaries of time
Hearts start shining, calling to all mankind
Lets celebrate eternal life

When nothing is as you want it to be
Look up to heaven
Freedom was paid for on Calvary
The chain is broken
Making a way right to destiny
Borders are open
And Jesus has granted the victory
That Sunday morning

Joy in this life time, utterly free
More than the world gives, beyond what you see
For nations its time to rise their hope is in Jesus Christ
If the giants come, just hold on, the advantage is now on your side
Jesus, will take the final fight

Watch it. I can’t hear this without crying. For a country that’s been through so much, come through the fires and flames of secular humanism, it is time to rise, and their greatest hope is in Jesus Christ. Jesus will take the final fight!

Lord, show me Your way,
When I walk in the gray
Not in darkness, or in light
But the mists of my own sight.

Lord, how can I know
How to walk, and then to grow
In the fog, when I cry out
In the midst of fear and doubt.

Lord, I cannot stand,
Unless You’re with me in this land.
Lest then from Your path I stray
And be found out of Your way.

Lord, here in my storm,
Is little light and less of form.
Let me hear the blessed sound,
In trackless waste, of solid ground.

Lord, faith give to me,
That I may walk this stormy sea.
Let me trust now that Thy arm
Shall protect me from all harm.

Lord, I cannot steer,
My own course, through storms of fear.
Without Your light I soon should fail;
My soul be swamped, unless you bail.

Lord, when I shall guide
My own steps, from this side.
Then I cannot help but sink
‘Neath the waves and o’er the brink.

Lord, I cannot see
What Your will would have of me.
Let me cry, lest I should fall
Thy Word be my all in all.

Lord, please clear mine eyes
Balance all, and let me prize
In my heart Thy Word aright
That I may safe come through this fight.

Lord, now help me fight
Long as I stand within Your light.
Yet when clouds shall cover me
Let not my thoughts stray far from Thee.

Solid truth shall set me free
Bring safe to harbor, near to Thee
Let not me trust my darkened sight
Be thou, my Lord, my perfect light.

This event got me to thinking about the nature of creativity. I would hesitate to use the word “inspired”, because that implies a lot of other things. But this was one of the stranger experiences I’ve had with creativity…usually, I spend some time over a poem, constructing each verse and rhyme–rarely does anything of length come to me fully– (or mostly-) formed. Yet all our creativity stems from God, subcreationally, so should we be surprised when He takes different paths with it?

Note: I don’t have a tune for this, and so if anyone’d like to tackle it, shoot me a message! I did notice while I was writing this post that it fits fairly well with the traditional Celtic tune arranged by the Scottish band Runrig for “One Thing” on their The Stamping Grou

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea:
A great High Priest, whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart;
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Behold him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I Am,
The King of Glory and of Grace!
One with Himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God
With Christ, my Savior and my God

–Charitie L. Bancroft

When we are tempted to doubt our salvation or to despair because of the sin remaining in our lives, we need only to look to Jesus, to remember what he has done. We should no longer let Satan tell us that we still owe him service. The price has been paid and we are free. “Upward I look and see Him there, who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free… It was a joyous thought on this Sunday morning, to remember that we are no longer slaves but free, because God is willing and satisfied to look on his sinless Son and pardon us! Let us never lose sight of that incredible, overwhelming truth.

1. I had been out of touch this week, preparing for exams, and so when the pastor found out that we would have extra people for the service and would be using our backup hymnals, he went ahead and picked hymns so that he could verify that they were in both hymnals. No problem…yet.

2. I get the message such a short time before the service that I didn’t get to talk to the pastor about it.

3. When I read the list, I realized that two of the five hymns he had picked I didn’t even know! Needless to say, I couldn’t get to talk with him before I had to lead them. He had printed them in the bulletin this week, so there was no going back!

4. When I look up the hymns, I find that one is in 6/4 and the other in 6/8 time–both of them REALLY hard to conduct, at least compared to 3/4 or 4/4.

5. I’m pretty good at sight-reading, so I just ask the pianist to play the first hymn through once before we sing it…

6. Somehow, I manage to figure out the tune and lead the singing. Didn’t sound like many others knew the tune either, but it wasn’t the worst singing I’ve ever heard. When I finished, the pastor stood up and asked us to sing the second verse over again–a capella!

Somehow with the Lord’s help I managed to get through it without disgracing myself. When I talked to the pianist later (our pastor’s daughter) she was shocked I didn’t know them–apparently they are both old favorites in her family. Memo to self: I think next week I’ll make sure to correspond with the pastor and pianist about the hymn selections a couple days ahead of time!

Feeling somewhat more humble about his hymn leading now,

John Calvin Young