Through the years a lot of work has gone into developing hymnology tools that aid church musicians in finding appropriate hymns and choral music for special occasions. One of the most useful of these tools is the topical index at the back of our Trinity Hymnal. Unfortunately I often find that the topic I am looking for is not there. "Graduation," should be in there somewhere, I am sure. Unfortunately our topical index skips from, "Grace" all the way to, "Gratitude." However, after looking at a few blogs and posts and a little consideration of the topic myself, I came to the conclusion that
Be Thou My Vision would be a wonderful selection for our choir to sing on Sunday June 1, the day we recognize our graduates.
The text of Be Thou My Vision comes from a sixth century Irish monastic text. It was first translated into English by Mary E. Byrne in 1905 and was later versified by Ellanor Hull in 1912. The modern text we are most familiar with was edited and versified in 1964. The hymn, like so many others like it, is a prayer to God. It is an excellent prayer for anyone, but especially for a young person taking the first steps out into a big wide confusing world.
When we translate a hymn from one language into another and then try to versify the translation so that it fits the rhythm of the original tune to which it is sung, sometimes we get confusing and jumbled wording.
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart,
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art,
Thou my best thought by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
The first stanza of they hymn is a petition for a single-minded devotion and focus on the things of God. The request is that God, and God alone would be the Lord of my heart. The confusing second line is saying, "Nothing else, only Thou!" The petitioner, knowing that in him dwells no good thing, declares that the best thought he can have, day or night, awake or asleep, is to think on the Lord. He fully acknowledges that God must be not only his vision, but his light. For those graduates who embark on a collegiate career, you need to prayerfully ask God to be your vision. You will see great and marvelous ideas, theories, and world views that you will find wonderfully tantalizing. You will be exposed to wonderful explanations of facts that will challenge the very foundation of all you have been taught. You will literally hear that good is evil and evil is good. You will need to have God as your Vision, and the ruling thought in your mind. Believers, this is a good prayer for all of us, regardless of our age.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my True Word,
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father and I Thy true son,
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
This second stanza of the hymn is actually about the Word of God. How can God be a believer's Wisdom and True Word? By the believer reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on the written Word of God. Only by the process of reading and studying God's Word can be achieve the duality expressed in this stanza. As God's Word becomes part of us we become more aware of the mind of Christ. We truly begin to act like children of the Father as His Word becomes part of us. Graduate, if you are not already, it is time to become a student of the Word of God.
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always,
Thou and Thou, only, First in my heart,
High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
It is my sincere hope and wish that every single one of our graduates would have very successful and lucrative careers. Many a young person has sought a career that promised wealth or prestige, but what he found was bankruptcy of the soul. Be successful. Pursue your dreams. Remember, however, that if you are a believer, you are already a child of the King and there is no higher claim to fame than that. There is no greater inheritance. There is no greater treasure than what you already have. This is a perspective we loose site of in the struggles of life. Believers of all ages, as you face the challenge of life, remember that your Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's Sun,
Heart of my own heart, whatever be fall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
The last stanza, graduates, is about a subject you do not think on that much. It is about the end of life. I pray God grants you a long productive life full of challenges, victories, and few defeats. There are people I went to school with who did not live to graduate. There are people I went to school with, who within a decade of graduation no longer walked the earth. This final stanza reflects upon the ultimate and final graduation. It refers to the end of life as, "my victory won." Even as you see your high school life ending and a new life beginning, one day you will graduate from this mortal school of hard knocks and, like a victor, you will enter into eternity. But notice even now the petitioner, while addressing God as, "Heart of my own heart," requests that God continue to be His Vision, whatever may happen.
You will have a vision and an outlook that characterizes you life. People will know you for your vision, whatever it is. You can adopt the vision of your professors, or your employers, or that of your favorite celebrity you follow on various social networks. Or you can seek to have the Master and Creator of the universe as the source of your vision, and your outlook. He can be the world view that characterizes your life after this graduation, and those to come. God Bless you graduates.
