1243. Have you not planted in the human spirit

Author: Martin Leckebusch

Have you not planted in the human spirit
a restlessness we cannot satisfy?
Have you not set eternity within us,
a taste that haunts us till the day we die?
Have you not fostered in our lives a hunger
that wounds our hearts, and makes us question why?

2. The tides of life flow ever back and forward;
relentless trends and seasons cycle round;
in happy, healthy times our dreams can flourish;
in war or pain, our hopes are run aground.
Through all this change, contentment seems elusive,
and deep, pervasive joy is rarely found.

3. However far we travel life’s adventure,
however fine or rare the skills we hone,
however close the friends we trust and cherish,
however great the wealth we call our own—
all these together cannot yield fulfilment
that we were made to find in you alone.

4. Lord, may we hear, within our deepest yearnings,
your Spirit’s whisper, urging us to come
and find, in walking humbly with our maker,
our human purpose and our true shalom—
so may we recognise the love that formed us,
that calls our names, and longs to lead us home.

Based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8,11,15, 2:10-11, Micah 6:8