If the Lord delights in the song of the heart, then He must equally delight in the heart that writes the song. Well, this is the story of an inspired song.

A few years ago, a friend of mine, Fay, was a sad and lonely college student – lost in the vastness of a huge university. Fay is also a songwriter.

One day a song that she had previously written came back to her mind and seemed to press itself upon her. There was a lyric that she felt she just had to write into that song, even though it would alter the theme.

The lyric said, “If I lose my way, will you come find me? If I forget who I am, will you remind me?”

Well, she wrote it. But then when she tried to make the rest of the song fit new theme, it wouldn’t fit. Inspiration just wouldn’t come, and she worked and she pondered; finally she asked the Lord to help her.

And then, two days later, on a Sunday morning at 6 A.M., she was awakened by a commotion outside her window. Groggy with sleep, she sat up in bed and looked down from her cramped second story attic apartment and saw a police officer, a police car, and a very old man. The old man was standing in the brisk morning air wearing nothing but his under garments.

“What are you doing!” the officer asked in a rough voice.

The old man looking like a lost little boy responded with a helpless shrug of his shoulders, but he said nothing.

“What’s your name?” the officer asked in a voice a little less rough.

Again, a blank shrug of the shoulders was the only response.

“Where do you live?” This time the voice was gentle and entreating.

But another shrug was the only reply.

And then it came: Understanding washed over Fay like the light of dawn, and her eyes filled with burning tears. Here was this sweet old man who had probably lived a long and a full life of service, and now he was lost, he was alone, and he was literally out in the cold. Where was his family? Were they looking for him even at that moment? Was anyone looking for him?

Humbled to the depths and feeling almost like an intruder, Fay watched quietly as the officer helped the old man into his car and drove him away. She was suddenly filled with the feeling that she just wanted to go down and help him; she just wanted to rescue him – do something for him! – The poor man!

She sank back into her bed, and her tears changed to sobs. But now they weren’t just for the old man, they were for herself. She was just like him. She knew her name, of course. She knew her address, but she was lost! She was empty and disconnected from her Heavenly Father.

Overcome by it all, she lay [lie] there in bed and just let the tears roll, and the image of the old man burn itself into her brain. She went to Church, and cried all through the meetings unable to forget him.

Somewhere in the coming hours and days, it came to her. This was it. This was the answer to her prayers. The Lord wanted Fay to finish that song, and now she could. Over the next few days, line upon line, the song came to be. And through the course of writing that song inspired by the old man, Fay too found her way home.

She wrote in the song, “And if I lose my way, He will come find me. If I forget who I am, He will remind me. It’s a long, long road, and I don’t have to make it on my own.”

My friends, as a servant of the Lord, I so testify. We do not have to traverse the path of life along. There is an iron rod nearby. The midsts of darkness will come, but they do not need to disorient us. Remember, and remember always, the light of the world is just up ahead.