Does it ever feel like the world is falling apart? I know a lot of people have just given up on listening to the news because it always sounds this way. I’m not there yet (though I do need to take breaks sometimes). I still try to stay informed and looking for ways I can be engaged the problems of the world, but it can get pretty heavy sometimes.

Not too long ago I was feeling like the world was all messed up at every level and getting worse. And then lines from this old hymn began coming to mind (God does things like that). I haven’t been in a church in a long time that sang hymns on a regular basis but the words started slowly coming back to me and I began to sing them – “that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet”. As I did I began to feel differently about things, about life, about the world, about current events.

Over time this song has become a regular response to the despairing feelings that the news can bring on – I read, I learn, I think, I sing. My wife even made a laminated copy of the lyrics for me to put in my bag.

Try taking in all the ugliness of the world and sing this song back to it sometime. Maybe it will be the gift to you that it has been to me. It is called, “This is My Father’s World.” Lyrics are below and you can also listen to it on YouTube.

This is my Father’s world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world,
the birds their carols raise,
the morning light, the lily white,
declare their maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
he shines in all that’s fair;
in the rustling grass I hear him pass;
he speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!