SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith for the Years of Winter… ©

I have to arise early, usually no later than 5:00, and often earlier, for medical reasons. I have always found that my day starts best with music, but Helen is still asleep, so I have to be quiet. However, I have discovered YouTube, which is better than ear phones because if I call up “Swing Low” or “Morning Has Broken,” I can see the hymn as well as hear it. I sit on the living room sofa with my coffee, turn my iPad down low, so that only I can hear it, and start my day with the classic hymns of faith and hope.

One of my favorites to start the day is by my old friend, Jim Manley. Don’t look him up on YouTube by that name, or you’ll get the trumpet player. Even James K. Manley won’t work. But you can put “Spirit of Gentleness” into the YouTube search box and you’ll get this delightful way to start the day, with Jim’s gentle, beautiful tune as the perfect setting for the lyrics:

Spirit, spirit of gentleness

Blow through the wilderness

Calling and free

Spirit, Spirit of restlessness

Stir me from placidness

Wind, Wind on the sea

You moved on the waters, you called from the deep,

Then you coaxed up the mountains from the valleys of sleep,

And over the eons you called to each thing,

Awake from your slumbers and rise on your wings.

Spirit, spirit of gentleness

Blow through the wilderness

Calling and free

Spirit, Spirit of restlessness

Stir me from placidness

Wind, Wind on the sea

You swept through the desert,

You stung with the sand,

You goaded your people with a law and a land,

And when they were blinded with their idols and lies,

You spoke through your prophets to open their eyes.

Spirit, spirit of gentleness

Blow through the wilderness

Calling and free

Spirit, Spirit of restlessness

Stir me from placidness

Wind, Wind on the sea

You sang in a stable, you cried from a hill,

You whispered in silenced when the whole world was still,

And down in the city you called once again,

When you blew through your people on the rush of the wind.

Spirit, spirit of gentleness

Blow through the wilderness

Calling and free

Spirit, Spirit of restlessness

Stir me from placidness

Wind, Wind on the sea

You call from tomorrow, you break ancient schemes,

From the bondage of sorrow the captives dream dreams,

Our women see visions, our men clear their eyes,

With bold new decisions your people arise.

Spirit, spirit of gentleness

Blow through the wilderness

Calling and free

Spirit, Spirit of restlessness

Stir me from placidness

Wind, Wind on the sea

[James K. Manley, 1978. Tune: Spirit]

John Robert McFarland

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

I tweet as yooper1721.

My new novel is VETS, about four homeless Iraqistan veterans accused of murdering a VA doctor, is available from your local independent book store, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, KOBO, Books-A-Million, Black Opal Books, and almost any place else that sells books. $8.49 or $12.99 for paperback, according to which site you look at, and $3.99 for Kindle. Free if you can get your library to buy one.