Wholly Yours

I am full of earth, You are heaven’s worth,
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity,
You are everything that is bright and clean,
The opposite of me, You are divinity,
But a certain sign of grace is this:
From the broken earth, flowers come up,
Pushing through the dirt!

You are holy, holy, holy, all heaven cries, “Holy, holy God,”
You are holy, holy, holy, I want to be holy like You are,

You are everything that is bright and clean,
And You’re covering me with Your majesty,
And the truest sign of grace was this:
From wounded hands redemption fell down – liberating man,
But the harder I try the more clearly can I,
Feel the depth of our fall and the weight of it all,
And so this could be the most impossible thing:
Your grandness in me making me clean,
GLORY, HALLELUJAH, GLORY, GLORY, HALLELUJAH!

So here I am, ALL of me, finally, everything.
Wholly, wholly, wholly, I am wholly, wholly, wholly.
I am wholly, wholly, wholly Yours.
I am full of earth and dirt and You.

Some sundays ago there was baptism at my home church. It surprised me to see a girl who I've seen grow up step up to the podium to give her testimony and receive baptism. I was so so excited for her! Anyways, as she was giving her testimony, towards the end, she started describing the gospel and how she couldn't believe that a man, would die, nails piercing his hands, and bleed for us, the people who stood under the cross and hurled insults at his name, cursing him, hating him. That he loved us soo much to sacrifice his life for us, a people underserving. As she spoke, tears starting welling up in my eyes, and I was moved by not only by her description of such grace, but how this young girl, who I wasn't even aware that she was a christian, understood the gospel to its fullest, to its rarest form better than me.

Just the other day, when I was at work, Greg was sharing with me his passions for reaching out to the Jewish community and the chinese people. As he spoke about his daily pursuits about reaching out to each individual and how extremely tough it was, I was encouraged by his tremendous faith and his perspective that God still moves and loves all people. Each day I work with him, it even starts with him doing his devotions faithfully for an hour+. I'm so extremely moved that this man, who sustained a spinal cord injury, has hope each day in a God who saves and who loves. I can see such joy in his eyes and hope in his face for each coming day. Even hearing Lester share about how Dagan his old roommate told about how sad he was about moving out, but how excited he was to run into him in heaven again and to see Greg walk again brought tears streaming down his face..

When I think about the testimonies of just these 2 individuals, I'm challenged so much in my faith! I think back to when I was younger, even in middle school where I was already passionate for Jesus and even vowed to give up dating in high school to pursue Christ instead... and I wonder where my passion has gone. What about my dedications and sacrifices in my heart? Where have they gone? I had this view that as you spiritually mature with age, how much more you would know and how much stronger your faith must be. Actually, for some of us, though we may know more, be stronger in our faiths, and become more active in leadership/serving roles, sometimes you start to forget the simple gospel. Your heart, while externally serving God to its fullest, is actually drawing farther away from him as you neglect the foundation of where all your faith first stemmed from. As your eyes are opened and more exposed to the dirtiness and lust of this world, you realize there is a war, a war to fight against serving yourself and craving the sinful nature vs. craving spiritual food.

When I sing this song, I realize this has to be a song of reminder for each day. That I, an individual stained with dirt, with sin, with utter contempt, should not deserve, but receive a bright and clean and holy, glorious, majestic God, and that grace, should bring me to stand in awe of the simple news of the gospel yet again. To live each day with hope knowing our God saves, and he loves us so much which should awaken the passion in my heart once again to dedicate my heart to him once again.

Jesus, so here I am, ALL of me, FINALLY, EVERYTHING.I am wholly wholly wholly Yours. Amen.