Today is my 30th wedding anniversary.听Thirty years ago I vowed faithfulness, friendship, and my entire future to Trudi Lynn Wilson.听Apart from following Christ, it was the best decision I ever made.听Trudi has shown more love, compassion, and grace than I could have ever hoped for, and far more than I deserve.听She has willingly tramped all over the world with me, setting up home, family, and ministry in Portland, Berlin, two cities in Turkey, Los Angeles twice, Philadelphia, and New York.听But this post isn鈥檛 a veiled attempt to get you to send notes of congratulation (though gifts are welcome).听I decided today might be a good day to share a song I wrote for Trudi about five years into our marriage.听

This isn鈥檛 the only song I鈥檝e ever written for Trudi; there were quite a few before this song and more after.听But I wrote this song with a different purpose than simply to communicate my affection.听When we were young, Trudi and I dreamed big.听We believed that God wanted us to change the world.听By the time I wrote this song, we were on the mission field, about to try to open up a new unreached city, and had begun to face some hardship as a result of our commitment to follow Christ.听This song was a call to renew our passionate pledge to live as a Christ-centered couple on a mission regardless of what our future held.听I share it with the hope that other couples will read it and refresh their shared commitment to follow Christ and his call 鈥� no matter what.

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Will You Walk With Me?

Verse 1

Yesterday we loved with the freedom of our youth

I was to you Boaz; to me you were my Ruth

We dreamed that our lives would change the world

We sacrificed it all to buy a precious pearl

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Verse 2

Today we face the foes we knew that we would see

The lure to live our lives in mediocrity

But we still dream that we鈥檒l reach our goal

We won鈥檛 let go of the hope to which we hold

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Verse 3

Tomorrow, who can say what will lie ahead?

I just want to know it鈥檚 not been left unsaid

That I love you, I need you, I do

You鈥檙e mine, and forever I鈥檒l walk this path with you

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Bridge

But with each passing week, we can choose to seek

To live to be all that we can be

Not a solitary life, but as husband and wife

I need you there to walk it next to me

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Chorus

Will you walk with me

Through the challenges we see before our eyes

Through the happy days and through the darkest nights?

Will you share with me

All the changes that for us are meant to be

All the pain and all the problems we might see?

Will you love with me

Touching heart to heart as each time we embrace

Holding fast the hope that sparkles from your face?

Will you walk with me鈥hare with me鈥ill you love with me?