Day 95: Tuning our Hearts

Over the last 95 days, we have tuned our hearts toward the spirit of giving each Monday. By using our "hunger lens", we have shed light on just a few of the many songs, hymns, and tunes that can inspire us to help our neighbors in need. Notes became nudging, phrases became pleas, and words became worship.

Can you match these hunger-related texts to their title?

(answers can be found beneath the title choices)

(1) COME! Open your heart!
Show your mercy to all those in fear!
We are called to be hope for the hopeless,
So hatred and blindness will be no more.

(2) Neighbors are wealthy and poor,
Varied in color and race,
Neighbors are nearby and far away.

(3) This is my prayer, O Lord of all earth's kingdoms:
Thy kingdom come, on earth thy will be done,
Let Christ be lifted up till all shall serve him,
And hearts united learn to live as one.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
Myself I give thee: let thy will be done.

(4) Cure your children’s warring madness,
Bend our pride to your control.
Shame our wanton selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss your kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss your kingdom’s goal.

(5) I, the Lord of wind and flame, I will tend the poor and lame.
I will set a feast for them, my hand will save.
Finest bread I will provide, Till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give my life to them, Whom shall I send?

(6) All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above,
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord
For all his love.

(7) Recall the outcast woman with whom our Lord conversed,
Christ gave her living water to quench her deepest thirst.
Like her, our hearts are yearning, Christ offers us his word,
Then may our lips be burning to witness to our Lord.

(8) As birds in the morning sing their praise,
God's fatherly love we cherish,
For giving to us this day of grace,
For life that shall not perish.
The church God has kept two thousand years,
and hungering souls did nourish.

(9) Longing for food, many are hungry.
Longing for water, many still thirst.
Make us your bread, broken for others, Shared until all are fed.

(10) Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross;

Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss.

From victory unto victory His army shall He lead,

Till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.

(11) Praise God for love, Praise God for life
In age or youth, in husband's wife.
Lift up your hearts, let love be fed
Through death and life, in broken bread.

(12) With joyful lips we sing to You,
our praise and gratitude,
That You should count us worthy Lord,
to share this heavenly food.

(13) We come to the hungry feast, hungry that the hunger cease,
And knowing, though we eat our fill, the hunger will stay with us still
We come, we come to the hungry feast.

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(Click on the title to re-visit that day)

(a) O Day Full of Grace
(b) We Come to the Hungry Feast
(c) Christ, Be Our Light
(d) Here I Am, Lord
(e) Gift of Finest Wheat
(f) Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus
(g) For All the Faithful Women
(h) When Love is Found
(i) God of Grace and God of Glory
(j) We are Called
(k) Jesu, Jesu
(l) We Plow the Fields and Scatter
(m) This is My Song

(Answers: 1J, 2K, 3M, 4I, 5D, 6L, 7G, 8A, 9C, 10F, 11H, 12E, 13B)

Day 95. Dollar 95. God of grace and glory, we are indeed called to help those in need. Love is found when we stand up for the cause Jesus himself believed in, helping those who hunger not only for their daily bread, but also for the feast that is to come. We give thanks for those faithful men and women who plow the fields so that others may eat, and for gifting us with the finest grains of wheat from the field. This is truly our song to you, God of grace. As Christ was our light, let us continue to shine that light for others, in Jesus' name. Amen.