My poem of the week this week is one of my favorites from Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), missionary to India. I kept this poem on the wall of my dorm room in college in order to keep this powerful prayer before me.

Make Me Thy Fuel

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified,
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire,
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

-taken from Toward Jerusalem, by Amy Carmichael (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade,1988), 94