Friday, 22nd October 2010, 22:32 hrs
During teenage years, my eldest brother taught me a Christian folk song that belonged to the conservative evangelical ethos and is eschatologically orientated. It goes as follows:
I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
A-traveling through, this world of woe.
Yet there's no sickness, toil nor danger
In that bright land, to which I go.
I'm going there to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam;
I'm just a go-ing over Jordan
I'm just a go-ing over home.
I know dark clouds will gather round me
I know my way is rough and steep;
Yet beauteous fields lie just before me
Where God's redeemed, their vigils keep
I'm going there to see my mother
She said she'd meet me when I come;
I'm just a go-ing over Jordan
I'm just a go-ing over home.
I'll soon be free from every trial,
From every sorrow, and each deep grief,
Stressed by Christians I feel so tired,
I wish to leave this world in peace.
I'm going there to meet my dear wife,
Who's waiting for me everyday;
I'm just a go-ing over Jordan
I'm just a go-ing over home.
I want to sing salvation's story,
In concert with the blood-washed band;
I want to be with my dear Jesus,
When I get home to that good land.
I’m goin' home to see my Savior;
Who shed for me his precious blood;
I’m just a-goin' o'er Jordan,
I’m just a-goin' o'er home.
The above folk song somehow captures my thoughts and, perhaps, some of my 'emotions' (if there are any). I have reflected over the past two years on my journey to Hong Kong. I've wondered about the things that have happened to me and understood that in life, there would always be good and bad decisions, choices, regrets, and such like. What decisions and choices I have made and how I feel, I do not think it wise to explicitly express them here, since I'm in a community of rumour mongers. But the title of the song and some of the lyrics are so well written and reflect so much of what I feel.
Thank God for songs!
