946. Stay with us, God, as longed-for peace eludes us

Author: Alan Gaunt

Stay with us, God, as longed-for peace eludes us;
stay with us if our health is undermined;
when no good comes and faithless hope deludes us,
when terror reigns and grief is unconfined.

2. When consequence on consequence of evil
brings dreadful judgement on the human race,
stay with us, God, through torment and upheaval,
defeat despair with your persistent grace.

3. Yet grant no easy answer, no conclusion
with which we might shrug off love’s agony;
bring us with Christ through grief and disillusion,
fast-bound by faith to love’s integrity.

4. Work out in us your love’s determination
to bear your children’s guilt and wickedness;
to harrow hell and harvest resurrection;
to forge creation’s joy from wretchedness.