Have you not planted in the human spirit

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Ecclesiastes 2:10-11
  • Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
  • Ecclesiastes 3:11
  • Ecclesiastes 3:15
  • Micah 6:8
Book Number:
  • 1243

Have you not planted in the human spirit
a restlessness we cannot satisfy?
Have you not set eternity within us,
a taste that haunts us till the day we die?
Have you not fostered in our lives a hunger
that wounds our hearts, and makes us question why?

2. The tides of life flow ever back and forward;
relentless trends and seasons cycle round;
in happy, healthy times our dreams can flourish;
in war or pain, our hopes are run aground.
Through all this change, contentment seems elusive,
and deep, pervasive joy is rarely found.

3. However far we travel life’s adventure,
however fine or rare the skills we hone,
however close the friends we trust and cherish,
however great the wealth we call our own—
all these together cannot yield fulfilment
that we were made to find in you alone.

4. Lord, may we hear, within our deepest yearnings,
your Spirit’s whisper, urging us to come
and find, in walking humbly with our maker,
our human purpose and our true shalom—
so may we recognise the love that formed us,
that calls our names, and longs to lead us home.

Based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8,11,15, 2:10-11, Micah 6:8

MARTIN E LECKEBUSCH © 2013 KEVIN MAYHEW LTD
Martin Leckebusch

The Christian Life - Submission and Trust

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Tune

A look at the author

Leckebusch, Martin Ernest

b Leicester 1962. King Edward VII Coll, Coalville, Leics; Oriel Coll Oxford; BA/MA (Maths) 1983; Brunel Univ Middx, MSc (Numerical Analysis) 1984. He worked for 16 yrs as a Computer Systems Programmer, followed by 5 as Support Specialist. In 2006 he was redirected to the role of Technical Design Authority for the IBM mainframe platform within Lloyds TSB. He has belonged to various CofE and Free Churches, including 6 yrs as a Methodist Local Preacher (1992–1998); currently a member of Kendal Rd Baptist Ch, Longlevens, Gloucester since 2001. His hymn-writing began in 1987; 144 hymn texts were collected in More than Words, 2000, some of which had appeared in earlier books including NewStart (1999, 6 hymns in a total of 71), Sing Glory (14 hymns), and Praise! A collection of 150 texts based on the Psalms, for singing to well-known tunes, appeared in 2006, giving a total of 275 texts by then in print. 6 of these are in Carol Praise (2006). In that year he also joined the Text Advisory Group (TAG) of Jubilate Hymns which he later chaired, and he also consults regularly with representatives of the more informal songwriters; he is active in the Hymn Soc, and lives with his family in Gloucester. In the 2005 edn of A Panorama of Christian Hymnody, which features 2 of his texts, Paul A Richardson notes their ‘conservative theology, biblical imagery and structural ingenuity’, adding that ML ‘advocates a restoration of hymnody in traditional forms to those who, like him, are in the charismatic wing of the church’. He is also keen to explore some issues often neglected by contemporary writers. By 2010, which saw the publication of a further collection Never Let the Songs End, the total number of his hymns had exceeded 400. Nos.270, 278, 285, 322, 381, 586, 604, 665, 756, 770, 771, 841, 856, 882, 892, 926, 936, 942, 1023, 1029, 1111, 1112, 1113, 1114, 1123, 1124, 1125, 1139, 1140, 1141, 1142, 1167, 1168, 1170, 1171, 1173, 1176, 1177, 1182, 1194, 1196, 1197, 1202, 1206, 1207, 1208, 1217, 1240, 1243.