This is a time of great change for students at PTS. As yet another academic year draws to an end, we begin to transition. Some students anticipate a break from studies by going home to be with loved ones or leave for a vacation. Others will begin summer employment, CPE, and summer languages. For those who are graduating, the reality of completing the program is hard hitting. As we celebrate those who know where they will be serving, we also celebrate those who don’t know what is next. Regardless of where we find ourselves, change is upon us. The directional pull of change is strong. It is strong because the sovereignty of God is always at work in that change. For this, I am grateful.
On the days where I am overwhelmed, I find myself singing “Have Thine Own Way, Lord!” This hymn has preached to me over the past three years. The hymn was written by Adelaide A. Pollard who was a Bible teacher and hymn writer. Pollard, was hoping to go to Africa as a missionary, but could not make a way financially. Greatly discouraged, she attended a prayer service at church when she overheard an elderly woman praying these words “It really doesn’t matter what you do with us, Lord, just have your own way with our lives.” Those words inspired Pollard while she contemplated the story of the potter in Jeremiah 18:3. When she returned home after the prayer service, she wrote all four verses of this beloved hymn. Although I don’t know what is next for me beyond PTS, I trust that God will continue to have His way in my life so as to reflect Christ in me by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so He will in us all.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit ’till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.
Melanie is a senior MDiv student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.