Tune: ELLACOMBE (7676D) from 'Mainz Gesangbuch', 1833.

1. Before we start the journey,
before we take the cross,
before we move to follow,
you bid us count the cost;
How can we know what's waiting
around the nearest bend?
All we know is here and now,
we cannot see the end.

2.  And if we will not follow
but choose instead to stay,
Or if we choose a journey
that leads another way,
However we may travel,
wherever we may go,
we'll find you there already
and that much we can know.

3.  So let us choose your journey,
and let us take the cross,
oh let us choose to follow
and count it worth the cost.
Come, search our hearts and know us,
and break us where you must,
then build us, make and mould us,
and we will learn to trust.

 

Based on RCL readings for Proper 18/Ordinary 23

Jeremiah 18:1-11, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 or Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Luke 14:25-33