When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll;
When life rains it pours. It never seems to release just one hardship at a time. Like many of us, the life of Horatio Spafford, a wealthy Chicago Lawyer seemed to deteriorate as he met various hurts in a short period of time. He and his wife had just dealt with the overbearing loss of their young son, followed by the devastation of the Chicago fire not too long after, as it burned through every real estate investment Spafford had made.
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.
With the toll of the tragedy Spafford decided that he and his family would do well with the relief of a vacation. His wife and daughters were scheduled to lead the way on a boat trip to Europe, but he would stay back a few days to handle some unexpected business issues.
A few days later he received noticed that the boat had been in a collision, and all four of his daughters had drowned. The only remainder of his once wholesome family was his wife, Anna.
He boarded a boat to retrieve his grieving wife. Somewhere along the trip he was alerted that they were in the proximity of where the boat had gone down, to which Spafford coined the phrase “It is well with my soul”
It is well with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul.
How?
When facing hard times people ask you a lot of ‘how’s.’
“How are you doing with it all?”- “Um…average I guess?”
“How can I help?”-“Um… I don’t think you can.”
“How do you do it?”- “Um… give me another option.”
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
That’s how.
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!— My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
Could you imagine a life where we were granted no peace in our hurting? Could you imagine saying goodbye and truly believing you would never see them again. Could you imagine a life where hardships are hardships and there was never good behind them.
Quite frankly I’ve always felt that if you don’t believe in my God, then that’s your own belief, but DO NOT try to convince me of your lack of one. I don’t want my soul to suffocate in that life. Because my God gives me hope, he makes sense of my pain eventually, in him I know goodbyes are never eternal, because in him I know life is eternal, so why? If you live this sad broken life of disbelief, why would you ever want to take away someone’s peace for you closed bottom logic.
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live: If Jordan above me shall roll, No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
Breathe. Just breathe. Breathe and believe. Believe what you breathe.
But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait, The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
This is what makes us well. This goal of the sky. People live this life and they always talk as though the grave is the end. They talk of the end of life as if there is an end. The grave is but a stone. Nothing more than a stone.
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord! Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!
Let you soul rest even in its tragedy, and help the soul of others to rest as well.
And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul.
We live in a world of tragedy that often shakes us. Our hearts bind and tighten and bleed at times. This place we dwell really knows pain, and we, as inhabitants of this world, are just as familiar with this pain. But if we really understand that God has the world under control, then what do we have to worry about?
James 1:2-3 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
Find the peace of God in your heart during trials, and understand that you are growing. Find a way in him to persevere, declaring to yourself, “It is well with my soul.”
photo by : Chelsea Sweet
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