It’s a Secret

Sister Alma Rose Writes Gospel Songs

Me, Fanny McElroy

Hundreds! Sister Alma Rose has written hundreds of gospel songs.

Who knew?

This is the one I like best. The music is pretty, but I don’t know how to reproduce it for you here. Later, I’ll ask Pablo. He knows how to do everything.

Somewhere Inside Me

Help me, O, Father, go with me today.
It’s dark and it’s cold, and I’ve lost my way.
Life used to run easy, like water a-flow;
Where did my river of happiness go?

Somewhere inside me there still burns a fire;
Even in darkness, I feel it rise higher.
Warm and embracing, my soul does not weep.
Help me, O, Father, this spirit to keep.

Help me, O, Mother, my comfort, my peace;
Kiss me with tenderness, sing me to sleep.
Birth me again, let me start my life new;
Sinless and pure, may I be e’er with you.

Somewhere inside me is joy I still feel,
Joy that the world and its greed cannot steal.
Warm and embracing, my heaven remains
Somewhere inside me, through fire and rain.

Help me, O, angels, please carry my sin
To my Creator, who dwelleth within.
Why does salvation seem so far away
Though it surrounds me and fills me today?

Somewhere inside me my God ever is;
All of my trials and sorrows are his.
Father and Mother, the clouds of despair
All float away in the clear, sunlit air.

Somewhere inside me, my soul never dies;
My heart is renewed like the eagle who flies
Higher and stronger, her fetters removed;
Like hers, O, God, may my strength be renewed.
Sinless and pure, may I be e’er with you.

* * *

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Sister Alma Rose’s Prayer for a Time of Sadness

Great God, Redeemer, Our Shelter in Joy and Sadness — I read today that “sadness is a is a cleanser, a clearing, a healthy rain needed in every emotional climate…. Rejoice in the rains… of sadness. See it as part of the larger cycles. But be careful when the snake of sadness feeds upon itself, resulting in a stuck or escalating sadness that feels like emotional quicksand.” (Bradford Keeney, Shamanic Christianity, on spiritualityandpractice.com)

People bring their sadness to me. They want me to take it away. They say, “Sister Alma Rose, y’all seem happy all the time. Tell me your secret.”

O God, you know how wrong they are. I tell them, “I am not happy all the time. Who could be happy all the time when there is suffering all around? I serve where I can, I pray where I can’t.”

Sometimes I am sad. Never do I despair. Only you, God,  can see around the corners. So I ask “What if?” only when I am creating, never when I am thinking about the past or contemplating the future. I have no guilt, no regrets, no worries. You have offered to take them, by your grace. Why should I refuse such a gift?

People bring their worries to me. They say, “I pray, and God doesn’t answer.” I tell them,

Prayer’s like planting vegetable seeds.

You poke them in the ground in spring

and pull the weeds that would surround

and choke them as they germinate. In

short, you have to nourish them with

food and water; then you wait, but not

so long, it only seems that way. Be patient;

soon the strongest grow and

flower. Then a nubbin of zucchini , pepper,

bean, or pumpkin peeks out from the

foliage, and you feel like it’s your

birthday. Woe to any cheeky rabbit

who perceives a meal in store and

tries to steal your marvelous romaine

before it’s ready to be harvested. 

Some will fail, some won’t come up at

all, but they enrich the soil to nurture

seeds you plant another season.

If the seeds don’t grow the way you think

they should, is that a reason to believe that

planting seeds won’t do you
any good?

— from Unfamiliar Territory, LifeIsPoetry.net

 

Sadness is one of your great gifts, I praise you for it, God. Sadness is filling, like molasses bread. It ain’t birthday cake, it ain’t strawberry fondue… but it ain’t emptiness, like depression or despair.

 

And like molasses bread, sadness, too shall pass. Amen.

———–

Most of the time we cry for the things which do not cry for us. —Rohit Sharma
Check out meditation pages, cards, gifts, books, and more at LifeIsPoetry.net
Read about Sister Alma Rose in The Ancients, Part 1: Daddy Pete