Thankfulness Song

Lord of Creation,
create in me
a continuous harvest
of thanksgiving,
never ravaged
by the drought of looking afar
for springs of hope,
to energize;
Never darkened by the longing
for deep wells,
leaked out,
running dry,
of blind, worldly words;
to lighten me,

but only filled, spilling forth,
Your Joy,
Your salvation,
Your fulfillment of all
longings....

Never ending,
always renewed
forever freshened,
By Your Truth.

Overflowing with praises,
inward graces,
breathed out
For your Glory,
alone.

Poem by Philip James Elliot, my father

O Lord, against this bosom-blast

  of coiled and seething feelings,

Batt'ring passions, ebbing yearnings,

  oozing acne of inner man,

Raise Thou the flinty walls of

  stuff of which Thy Son was made-

Yea, build in me the buttressed

          bastions of faith

That shall resist the undersucking

          flow of soulish tide,

And make me to endure this late attack,

I pray,

In Jesus' Name.

-written in 1948, 1 year before graduation from Wheaton