Rev. Wes Pixler was a creative pastor who led many study groups in a variety of settings. One was a series on the Psalms, including writing your own psalms based on the patterns in the scripture: praise psalms, lament psalms. This one was printed in the bulletin for his memorial service.
My Heart Belongs to God
My heart belongs to God!
It is restless until it rests in the eternal arms of the divine.
O, I have tried to live life on my own terms
And deny that I am a child of God.
Can a man run from his own shadow?
Or a woman live outside of her own skin?
I can no more flee from God than I can run away from myself.
It is the God who created the whole universe
Who created me in God's own divine image.
It is a billion, billion light years from one end of the universe to the other
And then we have only begun to understand the vastness of God.
Yet God put me together one atom at a time.
God knows me inside out, upside down, and as far as the east is from the west.
I could stop loving myself--God knows how often I have.
I may cry out with lack of understanding for who I am--God knows how often I have done so.
Yet God could no more stop loving me than water could fall up a mountain
Or an apple blossom on a peach tree.
Even if that happened, God would still love me.
From before the beginning of time until after time is no more,
My heart belongs to God because God made it,
And only in God can my heart be what it was meant to be.
--Wes Pixler, 2001
My Heart Belongs to God
My heart belongs to God!
It is restless until it rests in the eternal arms of the divine.
O, I have tried to live life on my own terms
And deny that I am a child of God.
Can a man run from his own shadow?
Or a woman live outside of her own skin?
I can no more flee from God than I can run away from myself.
It is the God who created the whole universe
Who created me in God's own divine image.
It is a billion, billion light years from one end of the universe to the other
And then we have only begun to understand the vastness of God.
Yet God put me together one atom at a time.
God knows me inside out, upside down, and as far as the east is from the west.
I could stop loving myself--God knows how often I have.
I may cry out with lack of understanding for who I am--God knows how often I have done so.
Yet God could no more stop loving me than water could fall up a mountain
Or an apple blossom on a peach tree.
Even if that happened, God would still love me.
From before the beginning of time until after time is no more,
My heart belongs to God because God made it,
And only in God can my heart be what it was meant to be.
--Wes Pixler, 2001