June 11, 2008

  • It Is Well with my Soul

    From the time I was a very little girl, I have loved the words to this hymn. Then, at the age of twelve, when my best friend's nineteen-year-old brother passed away from leukemia, our minister told the story of Horatio Spafford's life. The story made the hymn all the more powerful and comforting and through the years, as life's experiences guided by the hand of God have carried me (and many other brothers and sisters in Christ) along, it has become much more so. We sang it at Caleb's memorial service and then (as now) in the midst of the gut-wrenching, heart-breaking grief we have known the peace that passeth all understanding. Praise God for His goodness and faithfulness!

    It Is Well with My Soul

    When peace like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll;
    whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, "it is well, it is well with my soul."

    It is well with my soul; it is well, it is well with my soul.

    Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control,
    that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and has shed his own blood for my soul.

    It is well with my soul; it is well, it is well with my soul.

    My sin--- O 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!

    It is well with my soul; it is well, it is well with my soul.

    O Lord, haste the day when our 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.

    It is well with my soul; it is well, it is well with my soul.

    Horatio G. Spafford, 1873

Comments (16)

  • )One of the wonderful things about learning the circumstances under which our favourite humns were written is the realization that all through the years, believers have gone through the same trials and tribulations.  The same griefs and sorrows. And that when they turned to our God they found in Him all the comfort and strength they needed. More even than they could have anticipated.  That gives us hope and courage to do the same and found God to be faithful to us in the same way.

    I'm sure this is just one of many hymns that is bringng you comfort these days. One of mine at such times is Be Still My Soul.

  • That's such a wonderful hymn. One of my favorite as well.
    Thanks for sharing that, Mom.

  • That story is incredibly moving.  Thank you for sharing it with us.  It adds such meaning to the words of our favourite hymns to know their history.

  • This is one of the hymns I can't sing without bursting into tears. It is so beautiful.

  • What an edifying post, Laura. What a marvel that such worship springs from such a book of Job catastrophe. The whole of my sin, nailed to the cross, and it is well. I agree with Claire, I never get past that with dry eyes.

    Another great hymn the Lord has used in our family's life, too, when worship and surrender are the only proportionate responses to great loss, is "Be Still My Soul."

    We were at a Christian conference once when word came that the 21-year-old son of one of the beloved ministers, a fine, godly young man, had been in a swimming accident while they vacationed at the ocean. His life was miraculously spared but he lost the use of his limbs. I can't begin to imagine the blow. In the charged atmosphere the response of worship included singing the hymn "I Bow Me to Thy Will, O God."

    I bow me to Thy will, O God, and all Thy ways adore,

    And every day I live I'd seek to please Thee more and more.

    Why should I care, O blessed Lord, since all my cares are Thine?

    Why not in triumph live, since Thou has made Thy triumphs mine?

    Lead on, lead on triumphantly, O blessed Lord! lead on;
    Faith's pilgrim sons behind Thee seek the road that Thou has gone.

    He always wins who sides with God, to him no chance is lost;
    God's will is sweetest to him when it triumphs at his loss.

    Ill that God blesses is our good, and unblest good is ill; 
    And all is right that seems most wrong if it be His sweet will.

  • Add me to the blubbering list.  And I love "Be Still My Soul"  too, it's hanging where I can see it daily.

  • I dunno Laura, you and Patricia, Kayleen and Sandy and Claire all post these great insights on spiritual matters and I post about doodle bugs.

  • Here is the stanza that touches me most of "Be Still My Soul":

    Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake

    To guide the future, as He has the past.

    Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

    All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

    Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know

    His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

    May He continue to be with y'all in a very real and tangible way even today, and all the tomorrows to come.

  • This song was a great comfort to me when my father passed away.  Thank you for sharing it  

  • The one that touches me this way, and for similar reasons, is "In the Garden".  It was my Paternal Grandfather's favorite, and the one specifically chosen for his and my Grandmother's and my Dad's funerals.  I love it, but I can't sing it, if you catch my drift.

    I will post soon - been meaning to since at least Memorial Day, but just haven't had a "quiet" moment in which to do so; that's the only way that I can do much more than "fluff" (not that I've got anything against fluff, but...).  Even "good" commenting (as opposed to quick one-liners & smart remarks) takes a fair bit of concentration, for me, and I feel like I've been letting folks down in that area lately.  I'm not sure why.

  • Enjoy your peonies!  I'm so glad I got pictures of the blossoms.  Several days later we got hail and they all fell apart.  I'll look forward to next year though.  The rest of my flowers are doing well.  I don't have the greenest thumb so I can only hope for the best.  I do, however, have blossoms on my tomatoes!! 

  • Yes, that is the flooded basement.  I should have taken a pic of that corner!

  • Thanks for the whimbrels comment, Laura. Stephen just got Mike and me "Planet Earth" for combined Mothers' Day/Fathers' Day, wheee! Right up my "science chimp" alley (that's what a birding blogger I read calls herself; when she observes something new in nature, her reaction is to jump up and down saying, "Eee!Eee!"). My awe at how He designs things was the hook into interest in nature and eventually majoring in biology. Can't wait to view "Planet Earth" as a family affair. We loved David Attenborough's "Life of Birds." He embodies the eccentric science chimp glee!

  • Hmmm, I wonder if I could find a picture like that?  I like to tell him he peaked at four and then it was all downhill.  8)

  • Isn't Lee a terrible tease to tell Paden that? 

    What kind of progress have you been making on the house lately anyway?

    If I remember the conversation last night correctly Vic and Fraser love Reese's peanut butter cups. Claire likes the pieces and I don't like any of them.

  • We're getting into 90s weather here.

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