It was a tough Monday—spent
much of it in the hospital with different families encountering
difficult situations. This is part of a pastor’s
life—we get the privilege of accompanying people
at crossroad moments, those times when sorrow looks like
it just may overwhelm our souls. As I write, I’m
thinking of the hauntingly beautiful hymn, “It is
well with my soul.”
There is a history to that
hymn. While the details vary, generally what we know is
this (taken from a Christianity Today website): A Chicago
businessman named Horatio Spafford and his wife lost their
only son before the Chicago fire of 1971, and then suffered
financial disaster in that fire. They decided that they
and their four daughters needed to get away on a vacation.
Wanting to hear the evangelist Dwight L. Moody, they made
plans to sail for England, but Spafford himself had to
send his wife and daughters ahead because of a business
emergency. The women sailed on the S.S. Ville du Havre.
The ship was struck by another
vessel and sank quickly in the cold waters of the Atlantic
Ocean. Although Mrs. Spafford survived, their four daughters
did not. When she reached Europe, she cabled her husband
with the sad message, "Saved alone."
At some later point, perhaps
when his own ship passed the area where the other ship
went down, or perhaps a year or two later, he wrote this
hymn. The words are somewhat out of fashion, full of “-eth’s”
and “thou’s” but the message remains
strong: whatever happens, no matter how difficult, how
impossible to comprehend, how bereft we may feel, it is
still possible to have a soul that is well. As Spafford
put it:
When
peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
When people are grieving, there
are very few words that actually bring comfort. However,
someone who has been through a similar tough spot and
discovered the resurrection of hope on the other side
may by his or her presence offer the possibility of life.
When the blackness is so intense that only one who has
lived through it himself or herself can legitimately say,
“You, too, can survive this. At some point, the
sun will shine again. Some day you will be able to smile
again.”
Wellness of soul has little
if anything to do with circumstantial ease or personal
wealth. That wellness comes from the ability to act from
well-formed character, faithful to the presence of the
Living God, in the midst of life’s challenges. The
one who can do that will always be able to say, “It
is well, it is well, with my soul.” Thanks be to
God.
