How long, Lord, how long it has been,
Since I have heard Your voice above the worldly din?
I often wonder, Lord, what my life could have been,
If I‘d not let life lead me to unrepentant sin.

Where else, Lord, where else could I go?
I have chosen all the wrong paths, Lord, this I know.
Before You I stand, Father, broken as can be,
I remember faintly, Lord, of Your loving mercy.

I have wandered from your straight line.
My sins of my youth are the sins of a lifetime.
How often have I strayed, not looked into your face?
So please tell me, Lord, again of Your saving grace?

Someone to tell me, one so bold?
I long for Your Spirit, Lord, on which I can hold.
Can You see the void, the emptiness in my heart, Lord.
Where therein Your loving presence used to be stored?

How often I heard Your Name, Lord,
Spoken by the world in loud anger and in vain!
Now I cry out to You, Lord, but not to blaspheme,
But only to speak Your name, Lord, not to my shame.

Look now, Lord, look, look what I see,
A servant with Your Word, Lord, coming here to me!
So lift me above life’s lonely, empty despair,
Can it really be, Lord, my life You come to repair?

I ‘m not angry, how could I be?
You have only loved me, how plainly I now see.
All the pain is mine alone, Lord, as I was free,
To make the choices, Lord, and wrongly now, I agree.

There’s an ember, Lord, left from before,
A spot where Your Spirit entered when I was poor.
At my baptism It came, but It did not flourish,
Like a seed it has lain on the ground, was not nourished.

I ask, Lord, restore me within,
Fan the ember, Lord, restore, make me whole again.
Let this my new freedom be to act for You, Lord,
Let Your Spirit, Lord, replace my desire to sin.

I hate it, Lord, the way I‘ve been,
Now my Hope is in You, Lord, heaven seen again.
A new life, Lord, replace old life, within renew,
Build Your Spirit, Lord; let me go in peace serving You.


Copyright © 2002 Gene White. Free use when not for profit.
Permission to use required for any other purpose.