Thursday, October 30, 2008

Imprisoned by Goodness

"Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee..."


Ever strike you as an interesting image?

3 comments:

BenRI said...

This is not a deep thought, but I think I had always (for very small values of "always") pictured this as a kind of rope of leash keeping me close to God's help and mercy. But why/how should God's support constrain me from wandering?

Chestertonian Rambler said...

I actually always loved it.

We're handcuffed by God's goodness, so that we cannot (as much as we may sinfully try) successfully flee from God. Or, more specifically, we are praying that such shall be the case whenever we sing that song.

It's a nice prayer. One of faith, really, in not even our faith itself but in a truly external God. It's one of the reasons why I can always sing that hymn with a full heart, whereas the triumph of other hymns often sticks in my craw so that I find myself praying that they be true rather than boldly stating it in song.

Cliff said...

I concur with Chester.