Beginnings

I strode down the aisle of the La Sierra University Church in my blue and gold trustee robe. The organ music filled the church and the students and staff filled the pews.

Academic Convocation for the 2009-2010 school year at LSU commenced with the faculty, staff, and trustees (just me, actually!) joining the platform party for the spiritual dedication of the University. President Randal Wisbey would issue the challenge, "We Shall Be the Light of the World."

I am always drawn to the music of such an event. "Now Thank We All Our God" swelling from the church organ, a skillful violin solo by Jason Uyeyama, and the moving rendering of "This Little Light of Mine" by the LSU Chamber singers.

For this reason I was particularly inspired by a special hymn set to Beethoven's well-known tune, "Ode to Joy" (used for Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal #12, "Joyful, joyful, We Adore Thee"). Entitled "Praise the Source of Faith and Learning" and written by Thomas H. Troeger, it is a beautiful lyric describing the aspirations of Seventh-day Adventist higher education.

You can sing along by going to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPtuREcjl1M&feature=related

Praise the Source of Faith and Learning

Praise the source of faith and learning

Who has sparked and stoked the mind

With a passion for discerning

How the world has been designed.

Let the sense of wonder flowing

From the wonders we survey

Keep our faith forever growing

And renew our need to pray:

God of wisdom, we acknowledge

That our science and our art

And the breadth of human knowledge

Only partial truth impart.

Far beyond our calculation

Lies a depth we cannot sound

Where your purpose for creation

And the pulse of life are found.

May our faith redeem the blunder

Of believing that our thought

Has displaced the grounds for wonder

Which the ancient prophets taught.

May our learning curb the error

Which unthinking faith can breed

Lest we justify some terror

With an antiquated creed.

As two currents in a river

Fight each others’ undertow

‘Til converging they deliver

One coherent steady flow.

Blend, O God, our faith and learning

‘Til they carve a single course

While they join as one returning

Praise and thanks to you their source.

Praise for minds to probe the heavens,

Praise for strength to breathe the air,

Praise for all that beauty leavens,

Praise for silence, music, prayer.

Praise for justice and compassion

And for strangers, neighbors, friends,

Praise for hearts and lips to fashion,

Praise for love that never ends.