Beauty in the broken

I've just discovered I've been singing a song wrong for all these years.

Be Thou my Vision is one of my favourite hymns and I've always sung the first line of verse 4 as 'Riches I need not nor man's empty praise,' but it turns out that it's actually 'heed not'. Which is a small but subtle difference.

I say I've always sung but, in fact, what I should have said is that I've always struggled to sing verse 4 line 1 because I do need man's empty praise. I shouldn't but I do. 

Which is why it's so lovely that Sean, leader of Zac's, tweeted a link to my article in May's issue of The Bay magazine. Here's what he said: A Sunday reflection on 'finding beauty in the broken' from our Liz

Isn't that lovely? It's so good to be part of a church that acknowledges the things you do inside and outside church. Acknowledges your value instead of treating you as a bit of a joke. 

Back to that subtle difference. It's probably worse that I heed man's empty praise even if it's usually briefly as I am here until it becomes in my thinking 'just Sean being nice and he didn't really mean it, and even if he did I don't deserve it,' and it disappears. Unlike man's empty criticism, which lives forever in my head.

P.S. In case you didn't notice you can read the latest issue, including my article, of The Bay online.