This is My Song

This remarkable hymn inspired me as I sang it with a group of wonderful people who were memorializing my nephew!
by Charlie Leck

I was in Boston over the last few days to attend a memorial service for one of my nephews – a guy I was very close to and for whom I held enormous admiration and love. The service was arranged by the department for which he worked at Boston University. It was an extraordinary event and it was deeply helpful to all of those in mourning. Though a hot, hot, hot day in Boston, the large, non-air conditioned chapel at the University was packed with admirers, followers and family of my nephew.

My real point here is to say that I was terribly impressed by the closing hymn of the service – one which I can’t remember ever singing before. It contained a message that I think all Americans should understand and carry in their hearts. I’ll present it here for you to think about. Put to the music of Finlandia by Jean Sibelius, it was very inspiring music. I prefer the first two verses that were written by the rather obscure poet, Lloyd Stone, in about 1935. The other stanzas were added at a later time and clearly carry a less universal and more Christian tone that spoil the spirit and message of Stone’s poem. Therefore I’ll give you only the first two stanzas and attach the final three as only an after-thought.

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine;
this is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
but other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine:
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
a song of peace for their land and for mine.

If you ‘d like to hear the hymn sung, go to this version by Joan Baez. Below are the other three verses that I think detract from the extraordinary message of the first two.

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a prayer that peace transcends in every place;
and yet I pray for my beloved country --
the reassurance of continued grace:
Lord, help us find our one-ness in the Savior,
in spite of differences of age and race.

May truth and freedom come to every nation;
may peace abound where strife has raged so long;
that each may seek to love and build together,
a world united, righting every wrong;
a world united in its love for freedom,
proclaiming peace together in one song.

This is my prayer, O Lord of all earth's kingdoms,
thy kingdom come, on earth, thy will be done;
let Christ be lifted up 'til all shall serve him,
and hearts united, learn to live as one:
O hear my prayer, thou God of all the nations,
myself I give thee -- let thy will be done.

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Words from 1 John 4

I am in Boston today (12 July 2011) for a memorial service for Jim Leck, my nephew, and this is what I will read at his service.
by Charlie Leck

The disciples of Jesus – the men who walked the earth with him – must have been stunned and confused after his death. They were anxious to explain their loyalty to this man and how extraordinary he had been. They also wanted to explain what he had been trying to teach them about God and their personal relationship to the Creator.

When I think of Jim, I immediately think of the letters of John in the New Testament and how John defines and describes God. I promise you, it works for Jim and he’d be nodding his head as I read these words.

“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love / does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him….”

“If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.”

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Jimmy Leck

I have never met a man like him; one who could so happily laugh at the world and also cry for it with such passion!
by Charlie Leck

This is a very personal blog. I write it in a great state of mourning. So, perhaps, it is not meant to be read – only written. It is a way of heaving up the pain I feel.

Jim, a nephew of mine, died in the morning on 4 July. He was far too young to leave. And, he was a deeply good and kind man who had so much more to give to this world.

No other person could make me smile and laugh the way Jim could; nor could anyone else make me weep for the world as he did. He loved as cavernously as a man could love and he felt the pain of those who suffered as if he were Christ-like. He talked often of justice and how allusive it is. Why, he often wondered, did injustice and cruelty prevail on such a beautiful planet?

I so enjoyed the Dom Delouise imitation he could do! I and my family would rock with laughter when he did it for us. Lord, he was a funny man.

Jim did not shake my hand when we encountered one another. He would give me a giant bear hug and plant a kiss on my cheek and tell me he loved me.

His father – my brother – called me on the morning of the fourth and tried to tell me. Words wouldn’t form and agony wept from him. I heard only a painful squeal. Jim’s mother took the phone and shared the sad, terrible news. Jim’s big, loving and generous heart had failed him.

I tried to speak words of sympathy and to express my love, but something choked at me and slammed against my chest. For me, all the world, for an instant, was dark and lonely and so very desolate; for I had lost a love.

The laughter had stopped, but I closed my eyes so I could see his broad, playful smile and his gleeful, glistening eyes.

A candle flickered before the gentle breath of God; and, it went out! A good, loving and generous man died far too young. May he rest forever among the stars and in the arms of constant love!

I loved you, Jim!