I heard Love calling me

                                    To heights I'd never known.

                            It struck a chord within my heart

                                    Of fuller, richer tone,

                            That made me yearn and set my heart

                                    To walk in Love alone.

                            This Love that called to me from heights

                                    That I had never known.

                            I stretched and strained with all my might

                                    This noble peak to scale.

                            I scratched and clawed It's sheer ascent:

                                    Endured It's windy gale.

                            But looking back on years of toil, told all a sorry tale.

                                    I'd never gained a single inch.

                            More effort would but fail.

                            I thought the wound was mortal

                                    that I suffered from this blow;

                            That Love had called me to a place

                                    Where I could never go.

                            So much the hurt it broke my heart

                                    and bowed me very low;

                            That Love should show a way to me

                                    That I could never know.

                            But from this place of brokenness

                                    With all my strength quite gone,

                            A trickle of God's Love began;

                                    Began all on Its own.

                            My first thought was to keep it

                                    'til much fuller It had grown,

                            But this I knew was something that

                                    God's Love would not condone.

                            Thus in unadorned obedience

                                    I gave this Love away,

                            And marveled that so small a share

                                    Could hold so strong a sway.

                            But every time I emptied out,

                                    Love filled without delay.

                            He first enlarged, then filled again,

                                    This vessel made of clay.

                            I found that strength from weakness came,

                                    And gain where all was loss;

                            That Love is fire that burns away

                                    Self's clogging, choking dross.

                            I found that Love seeks not Its own,

                                    And never counts the cost;

                            That Calv'ry-Love will never, ever

                                     Come down off the cross.

                            Let all who hear the call of Love

                                    Rise to Its lofty heights,

                            But let them know those sun-lit peaks

                                    Rise out of salty nights.

                            For no ascent can any know

                                    Who pay a mind to slights,

                            Nor any progress will one make

                                    Who holds to his own rights.

                            Mt. Calv'ry is a hill which seems

                                    To men so very small;

                            Where Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

                                    Redeems man from the fall.

                            But when they see, for them He died

                                    And bore the sins of all,

                            At once they see Its majesty

                                    Expanding strong and tall.

                            The smallest mountain of them all

                                    God chose to dignify.

                            He did not choose an Everest,

                                    Or use Mt. Si-na-i.

                            But choosing little Calvary

                                    God sought to signify

                            That He would use the foolish things

                                    The wise to mystify.

                            Let all who would ascend in Love

                                    And know such blessedness,

                            Know first that they must downward go

                                    To utter brokenness.

                            For, to all wise and able men

                                    Christ's way is foolishness;

                            And God will choose the weakest one's

                                    Obedience to bless.

                            For though we preach and prophesy

                                    And speak with angel tongue;

                            And though we know such mysteries

                                    That songs for us are sung;

                            Though every gift of God is ours

                                    And mighty works are done:

                            If we have not God's Love to share

                                    Our very works are dung.

                            Love does not call us to a place

                                    where men stride to and fro,

                            Or to a place where flesh maintains

                                     It's numbing status quo.

                            It calls us to a way so strait

                                    We must stay very low;

                            A place where only Love can walk;

                                   Where only Love can go.