Welcome!  Hymns have been and continue to be a real source of inspiration to me.  My desire in this blog is to share special hymns with my readers hoping that the words will minister to them, especially in times of great personal need.  If one of these hymns ministers to you, please take time to leave a comment so that I know that my blog is helping others as much as it helps me. Sometimes I will also provide a link where you can go to hear the hymn played.  So, please join me here each week and sing along as we praise God together.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

HELP SOMEBODY TODAY



        The story of the Good Samaritan is one that we should study and reflect upon quite often.  Bruised, beaten and in need of help, the injured traveler was passed up by several "good" men, a priest and a Levite, who could have provided him with the help that he needed but chose instead to travel on  But, fortunately there was one who cared and took time to help.  "He had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him." Luke 10:34.  Now it is so easy for us to be critical of the two who passed him by, but are we really any different?  All around us there are folks who are lonely and hurting and in need of somebody who cares. Oh how they would be helped by a visit, a phone call, a letter, a meal, a helping hand or a word of encouragement.  But what do we do?   Sometimes all we feel and see are our own problems and needs and not those of others, and as it were, we pass them by.  How much better we might feel if we took the time to help others who are in need.  Recently I featured another hymn by Carrie Breck (1855-1934), a homemaker who wrote poetry in her spare moments.  Mrs. Breck must have been very aware of the need to help others and it may have been her own experiences that led her in 1904 to pen the words of this week's hymn choice .  In Matthew 25:35-36 we read, "for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'  Then a few verses later we read, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."  Let me encourage you this week to look around, along life's way, and find someone in need that you can encourage and help.  Not only will they be helped but you will as well. God uses our hands, our feet and our mouths to do His work. Being able to help others is one of our many blessings for which we should be thankful! 


1     Look all around you, find someone in need,
Help somebody today!
Tho' it be little--a neighborly deed--
Help somebody today! 
Chorus:
Help somebody today,
Somebody along life's way;
Let sorrow be ended, the friendless befriended,
Oh, help somebody today! 

2    Many are 'waiting a kind, loving word,
Help somebody today!
You have a message, O let it be heard,
Help somebody today! (Chorus)

3    Many have burdens too heavy to bear,
Help somebody today!
Grief is the portion of some everywhere,
Help somebody today! (Chorus)

4    Some are discouraged and weary in heart,
Help somebody today!
Someone the journey to heaven should start,
Help somebody today! (Chorus)

Because this song is not familiar to many, I was only able to find one good link for it.  And while this link is not a great rendition, it will give you a chance to hear this song if you have never sung it yourself.   LISTEN
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1 comment:

Don Haynes said...

I am 85 years old and am writing a book about the stories behind our hymns--who wrote them, when and why they wrote them.

This is a hymn on which I grew up singing in a small Methodist church in rural North Carolina in the '40's. It wold be followed by the request for anyone to name a family who was in dire need. Then a motion wold be made to either send them a sack of pinto beans, a bushel of potatoes, and some flour and corn meal; or some winter coats and shoes. We did not know the meaning of the word "social justice." This was simply living out the Parable of the Good Smaritan and Matthew 25. It is not considered a "sophisticated" hymn, but it taught me as a child to "look all around me, find someone in need." I think that this song contrbuted to my being called to ordained ministry at age sixteen.

Dr. Donald W. Haynes
retired United Methodist clergy

December 30, 2019 at 12:14 AM

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