Servant

A phone conversation brought this subject up – maybe I’ll be doing a presentation at a retreat/conference.
A theme that runs through the Scriptures. Not surprising that quite a few songs carry it. I was pleased to get the ‘Servant of Christ’ award (is that an oxymoron?) back in 2001. I was able on that occasion to give credit to Dorothy, the ‘gift of God’ & a servant of so many, especially me.

But one stands head and shoulders above them all.
She thought the newly written baptism song I sang for her in Ashford hospital in July 1973 was pretty good. In May 1981 she asked if the song I was working on for a student service was for an approaching wedding. ‘May we be one’ became both.
She’s been the editor of countless songs, has sung so many of them much better than I could ever do. She’s had numerous suggestions to improve old songs, and ideas for new ones that I might write. She is sometimes sharp in her criticism, makes some good jokes at my expense, but she’s always constant in her encouragement.
When I feel that others don’t care for the songs,
I know that she loves them — and me too.
I met Dorothy Joy Stiller in Sunday School when we were both 7 years old. Dorothy means God’s Gift; and a gift with Joy thrown in as a bonus. It’s been hard to cope with.

I wrote a song for that day — ‘Hardly a Secret’. We recorded a wedding version of it for our ‘Intimate’ CD in 2003. The original is yet to be recorded or published.
2. It’s hardly a secret, that you were a friend,
to so many outsiders, women and men,
to lepers and taxmen, and kids on the street —
a servant will wash any feet.
Living relies upon dying each day;
love isn’t love till you give it away.
May Jesus’ love shine in what we do and say.
Help me be a servant today,
help me be your servant always.

“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve & to give his life a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45)