Facing a Task Unfinished
A few minutes ago I was watching the live feed from the Urbana conference where 16,000 students are worshiping Jesus in St. Louis. The worship team on the stage sang this song — ‘Facing a Task Unfinished’. Do you know it? You can probably hear them sing it if you Google Urbana 15 and scroll through the opening event.
The song is sung to the tune of “The Church is One Foundation.” You know that tune. The opening words are “The church is one foundation with Jesus Christ Her Lord.” I am humming it right now.
Anyway, I love that tune, but the words are amazing. They were written in the 1920s by a missionary in the Inland China Mission. Here they are with a little commentary I found on the internet.
“‘Facing a task unfinished’ is one of those classic old hymns that I grew up with. But it’s also one of those old hymns I found thoroughly boring to sing (not me. I love that tune) as it comes with music that far too easily converts into a dirge. And so, because of the distractingly dull tune, it was only a couple of years ago that I realised that these words I’ve been singing my whole life are so amazing and incredibly challenging! Have a look:
Facing a task unfinished
That drives us to our knees
A need that, undiminished
Rebukes our slothful ease
We, who rejoice to know Thee
Renew before Thy throne
The solemn pledge we owe Thee
To go and make Thee known
Where other lords beside Thee
Hold their unhindered sway
Where forces that defied Thee
Defy Thee still today
With none to heed their crying
For life, and love, and light
Unnumbered souls are dying
And pass into the night
We bear the torch that flaming
Fell from the hands of those
Who gave their lives proclaiming
That Jesus died and rose
Ours is the same commission
The same glad message ours
Fired by the same ambition
To Thee we yield our powers
O Father who sustained them
O Spirit who inspired
Saviour, whose love constrained them
To toil with zeal untired
From cowardice defend us
From lethargy awake!
Forth on Thine errands send us
To labour for Thy sake
As you can see it is sobering to sing. Check out the second verse. The section about the huge numbers of souls passing unforgiven into the night is a terrifying visual, and one I imagine we’d prefer to not think about. And in a different way, the third verse also is quite scary with the weight of responsibility we share as ‘torch bearers’, plus the indication of the cost it could demand.
And yet how exciting! This song is steeped in evangelistic fervour. The task of sharing the gospel is undoubtedly hard, tiring and daunting, but yet so amazing as we consider the life-changing gospel that is ours to share, the countless brothers and sisters who have likewise laboured in the past, and most importantly, in verse 4, the fact that God has proven himself to be so much bigger and stronger than anything we face! Feeling fired up yet?”
I am sure many of you know this song. But it spoke powerfully to me. I wanted to share it and what better place than in my blog so all 30 of you can be reminded of our purpose, our function: to release the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world. People are dying out there.
John