Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior

So, tonight as I was trying to find a sermon I had saved on my computer, I ran across a folder of music that I hadn't realized I had and on top of that, it wasn't incorporated into my iTunes!  So, I proceeded to add it and then listen to it.  It's an album of hymns done by Fernando Ortega.  I've missed good, uplifting hymns lately.  I love praise & worship, don't get me wrong, but there's something about singing something that is over 100 years old and is still just as applicable today.  Frances (Fanny) Crosby wrote some of my favorite hymns, All the Way My Savior Leads Me, Blessed Assurance, God Will Take Care of You and Rescue the Perishing.  She actually wrote nearly 8000 hymns/poems.  But somewhere in there lay this little gem that God blessed my heart with tonight.  It put into words what I've been trying to pray lately and yet did it so much more beautifully than I could have ever done.  (She definitely had a gift and I'm thankful she used it to the glory of her Heavenly Father!)  Lately I have deeply missed the international missions calling I feel God placed on my life almost exactly 12 years ago.  Not that the calling ever went away, but God has chosen to have that calling take a path different from the one I expected when I was 18.  It's hard to not ask and wonder what I have done wrong that I'm currently living in the states and not currently involved in some type of international ministry.  But the beauty of His path is been incredible!  I'm currently taking a class called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement and I'm so challenged by hearing what God is doing around the world and the people He has used in the past to accomplish His work.  I know God has me here for a time and He's preparing my heart for such a time that He is ready for me to move on, but in this time Fanny's hymn has captured the prayer of my heart.  Lord, do not pass me by.

Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art smiling,
Do not pass me by. 

Refrain:
Savior, Savior,
Hear my humble cry,
While on others Thou are calling,
Do not pass me by.

Let me at a throne of mercy
Find a sweet relief;
Kneeling there in deep contrition,
Help my unbelief.

Trusting only in Thy merit,
Would I seek Thy face;
Heal my wounded, broken spirit,
Save me by Thy grace.

Thou the spring of all my comfort,
More than life to me,
Whom have I on earth beside Thee,
Whom in Heav’n but Thee.