Rop Tú Mo Baile

The last drop of sunlight falls behind the hills of lush foliage in shades of green spilling out as far as the eye can see. A monastery rests in the crest of a hill where a nearly blind Christian Irish poet scratches out words with painstaking care and literary skill.

Rop tú mo baile, a Choimdiu cride:
ní ní nech aile acht Rí secht nime.
Rop tú mo scrútain i l-ló 's i n-aidche;
rop tú ad-chëar im chotlud caidche.

The words sat untouched from their original Old Irish form for nearly 1,500 years until the 20th century when two English scholars translated them into versified text. Set to the tune of an Irish Folk song, today we find them in the bindings of hymnals; stacked in the back hallways, resting against the worn wood of pews.

Back in highschool Laura Mace and I would hunt through the dust and grime to find this music we could play on junky pianos and violins with missing sound boards. I remember singing these words with missionary kids with our hands entwined making an oblong mass, and crying them when my grandma died earlier this year. Today I sit pondering the weight of what these words imply. The veracity espoused in the text; the challenge to live in light of their meaning.

“Be Thou my vision”

My vision. The vista by which I observe and perceive reality. To maintain the perspective of Christ is no simple task. The difficulty of allowing Christ to be the purpose of my vision can be found in the generality of living in a fallen state of humanity, and specifically in my own inordinate self-love. Do I think and act the way Jesus would in the way I handle relationships, in the way I spend my time, in the place I throw my money, in my priorities, in my goals, in my dreams, in my studies?

“Oh Lord of my heart”

Is he? Is he Lord of my heart, or do I merely say that he is? Perhaps it is my pride which truly rules the overwhelming majority of the time. Even in those times when I make my spiritual epiphanies known to the world around me. Even when I serve, is it really the Lord I serve? Or is it my ego? Is it my selfishness? Is it the image I want people to pin to my face and my name?

That Christ be eminent in all I do requires surrender; something of which I must struggle and toil to give. Galatians 1:10 has been consuming my thoughts today. “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

“Not be all else to me, save that Thou art”

Not be all else. Not be: to mean nothing. All: the entirety of. Else: anything other than Christ. That all else should be nothing to me in comparison to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. Wow. I’m so often so far from that standard it’s somewhat discouraging to think about. Praise God for mercy, forgiveness, and second chances.

“Thou my best thought, by day or by night”

He is the best thought, but how often do I forget that? How often do I fill my mind with meaningless entertainment, with empty clutter of our culture’s consumerist mentality? I wonder why we get caught up in the politics of it all, and how often we forget the sincere focus and the foundations of our faith.

Our thoughts should be centered on unifying truths about who God is, rather than on human division regarding issues lacking meritorious note. It was Merold Westphal who once said, “There is an atheism which is closer to the truth than a certain kind of religion, not the religion of ‘somebody else,’ but quite possibly our own.” Yet what an opportunity Christians have been given to return religion to what it should be; to remember the writing of James, that “religion our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this : to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

“Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light”

That the presence of God should be illumination into how I live my life. Illumination, the work of the Holy Spirit by revelation that God should give us the understanding we need through his Word. That Word which is perfect for life and godliness. What a gift we’ve been given through having access to a text whereby God proclaims himself to us. How often I take it for granted. How often I forget and make light of God’s ability to encourage and renew through his Word.

The more I study history, the more I see the endurance of God’s work through periods of time past and the lives of people throughout history. I just get goose bumps thinking about it. Reading through the creeds, and hymns from as far back as the 6th century like this one emphasize all the more clearly to me that my Abba is faithful, that he keeps his promises, that he is sovereign, that he is good. And this journey to know him is only just beginning… I love it.