Alone

I pray in my own Gethsemane, far from my Saviour’s tomb.
I’m down on my knees as I sob my pleas, alone in a dim lit room.

Though the blood doesn’t pour from my every pore. like my Saviour shed for me,
The tears it seems, shed their steady streams, from my eyes that no longer see.

It takes times like this, then it happens: a broken heart is made whole.
His love is felt, by the words that melt the ice from a troubled soul.

He speaks to me at length of strength, and a time so long ago,
When he offered free his gift to me, and I feel my spirit glow.

When I rise with the dawn, my trials are gone, and I feel the warmth of his light.
The sins of my past are forgiven at last, and are left with the dark of the night.

-Doug Garrett

The Promise

For so long the land lay waiting, undisturbed until that day,
When their footsteps crashed like thunder, bringing dreams from seas away.
Like great waves they filled the forests. Onward as a mighty flood.
Steel rails reaching for horizons, gripping sleepy prairie mud.

As they filtered through the mountains, as they plowed the eager earth, 
A vision burned within their hearts – a nation was in birth.
They built with strong traditions, they dreamed upon their youth,
This nation of the future: A nation built on truth.

Tell me brother, tell me sister, are you not the ones they bore?
Are you not the ones they witnessed that made their spirits soar?
They left for you a nation, they sowed you in this land.
They put these gifts of nature into your waiting hand.

Have you seen the nations wealthy standing on the nations poor?
Longed for strong and righteous leaders to keep crisis from our door?
We now face the troubled future. Hope’s not vested in the weak.
You were born to keep a promise. It is you they search and seek.

Hush your chatter, pause your laughter, still your hands from noisy toil.
Hear the sound the soft wind whispers, bringing voices from the soil.
Wake up, wake up, its urges. Claim your legacy and land.
Faith will fill your heart with courage. God will guide your trembling hand.

-Doug Garrett

Nephi’s Lament

Based on: 2 Nephi: 28-35
Set to the music of: You Raise Me Up

Awake my soul, no longer droop in sin. Slack not thy pace because of faults therein.
Rejoice my heart and cry unto the Lord. Give place for him and waken to his word.

Lest I give room for evil in my heart, destroyer of my peace from me depart.
I’ll not embrace the scorn of pressing foes; The gates of righteousness to these will close.

My God, my rock, forever be my might. Upon the wings of truth my soul take flight.
No more the groaning of my heart dissuade, nor lead me from my promises hence made.

-Doug Garrett

Loss

For Donna (June 16, 2000)

When bitter loss seems hard to bear,
think long before you pay such fare.
*”The wings of time though black and white”,
leave other colours in their flight .
Oft, before our heart grows cold,
our loss is filled a thousand fold.
From what may seem a finished lot,
such ashes prove that it is not!
And from them rise the greater means
to realize unfilled dreams.

-Doug Garrett

* Quote from  Ralph Waldo Emerson

One By One

Words and Music by Doug Garrett,  Music arranged by Donald A Garrett

In the quiet of the soul he teaches one by one,
By his still small voice he teaches, reaches one by one.
Touch his feet, touch his side. See how once he died,
For us, for us, to save us one by one.

A mighty storm arises, see the wind. As it sears my heart and causes doubts therein,
My trembling shoulders get crushed to the ground, by angry taunting voices all around.

Though strength is gone and confidence is torn, I rise and turn my face towards the storm.
My weakness seems to rob me of all choice. When all seems lost, its then I hear his voice.

He knows me by my name, I’m not alone. I have the strength to find my way back home.
And when I do, we’ll meet as face-to-face, I’ll hear his voice again as we embrace.

In the quiet of the soul he teaches one by one,
By his still small voice he teaches, reaches one by one.
Touch his feet, touch his side. See how once he died,
For us, for us, to save us one by one.

-Doug Garrett

The Trapped Chilean Miners

Hardly anyone of the millions who heard or watched the rescue of the Chilean miners who were trapped 700 meters underground for sixty-nine days, will ever forget the complete fascination and anticipation that kept us glued to our TV screens in 2005. Yet this was only the dramatic conclusion to a greater, bolder, courageous, personal drama that had been unfolding for months earlier — half a mile below the surface in the Chilean Mountains.

Thirty-three miners had been trapped in the San José copper mine in Copiapó, Chile for 17 days and none of them had heard a word about their fate. Somewhere, somehow, in those first 17 days, someone initiated the idea and convinced the others that their desperate situation was not hopeless. It is the miners code that no matter the cause of the entrapment, and regardless of how long it may take, or how great the cost or effort, those above will come and find them, dead or alive. All the buried men had to do was muster the means and will to stay alive until they were found. 

No doubt there was contention and arguing at first between those miners who were convinced and those who doubted. But in the end, we know they all agreed. They agreed to share their water, their food, and the batteries in their lights which were only intended to last 48 hours. All knew that on their own as individuals, there was no hope any one could make it. But if they were willing to share and work together, there was a slim hope they could all make it out together.

As they began to organize themselves, their thinking began to shift. Instead of just thinking about the problem, they began to allow themselves to consider and plan for a future. They began to think about what would happen if they actually survived!. They would imagine themselves being cheered and greeted by their family, friends and the news media around the world. Slowly but surely the feelings of hopelessness were replaced by a concern for their other miners and their families. That faint flickering flame of hope was being fanned and embellished each time they thought of their future instead of their present condition.

Each man was given an immediate responsibility. One was made responsible for the food supply and to insure each ate something three times a day. Another with First Aid experience was made the official “ Doctor”. Still another was assigned to keep a daily journal and to encourage the others to add to it. As their lives began to take on a structured feeling again, they began to encourage each other to pull together and hope together.

Can you imagine the moment when a pipe was pushed into their isolation? Contact from those on the surface, along with fresh air, water, food and supplies coming down the pipe. The greatest thing they received when that pipe broke through their dark hole was hope. Now they knew they were no longer alone. They knew someone was working to save them. They didn’t know how it was going to work, but somehow, somewhere, someone up there had a plan to save them, something they painfully understood, they could not do for themselves.

They were right. A plan had been put in place to rescue them one at a time. A capsule, just big enough to carry one man, but small enough to slide down the bore hole, could bring them back from the dead to the living again. Yet the first capsuled lowered to the waiting miners did no go down empty. In it was its creative engineer who felt he personally had to go down to show his faith that the capsule functioned correctly and to be there so others would know how it was done.

This is where the TV worldwide coverage had picked up the events that we had all watched.

Included were skilled technicians and ground crews from many countries around the world, the Presidents of Chile and Peru, and planners from N.A.S.A. Also waiting and cheering were family members and friends, who had camped in a makeshift village while keeping a candle light vigil and hope alive until their loved ones were safely back with them. As the miners came up, one by one, from the bowels of the earth, they were embraced in the arms of their loved ones and we all shouted and wept for joy.

How much like the miners we sometimes feel when we are in a dark hole, where we fear there is no hope or way out. We have nothing but a small flickering light and limited reserves that are about to expire. We may have even felt such self-pity that we thought no one really cared if we lived or died. 

Yet, high above us, there is a plan in operation to bring us safely out, if we will just do everything in our power to hold on until the rescue party comes and shows us how. That rescue party is Christ and his Church. It has come. The Savior personally came down to earth to show us how it’s done.

Have faith, reach out and climb into the rescue capsule. Christ promises us, if we do so, he will bring us back home to our loved ones.

Note: THE 33 is a movie that has been made about these courageous men and their remarkable rescue.

Doug Garrett