"Take My Intellect..."

  Nearly my entire life I have known the song "Take my Life and Let it Be." Whenever I sing in church, I do my best to make sure that I actually mean the words coming out of my mouth. Songs like "Take my Life and Let it Be" can be hard to sing with sincerity, and it has taken years of the Holy Spirit working in my life to come to a place where I can sing this song from the bottom of my heart. But as of late, I involuntarily shudder at the second line of the fourth verse: "Take my intellect, and use every power as thou shalt choose."
  Certainly, there is an aspect of this verse that is exciting. It could mean that God will take my intellect and use it as He did St. Augustine's or C.S. Lewis'. But there is also a terrifying aspect to those words. What if it means I will lose my memory? What if it means that the knowledge I have attained over the years will fade away? What if it means my intellect will crumble? Over the years I have seen some very sweet and dear Christians lose their minds to disease; so that possibility does not seem wholly unlikely.
  Christianity is not about living in fear though. I do not know what the future holds for me, but God does. Each event enacted in my life is in the palm of my Heavenly Father's hand. And He has given me the faith to trust Him with everything, even my intellect.