Hymns for A Time Like This part 1:”It Is Well with My Soul.”

We’ve been in quarantine for a while now. Here in Indiana It’s been since March 23rd. But I know we started staying home the week of the 17th because my daughter’s birthday was March 17 and that was the last day we went out as a family. So friends its been over a month. Many of my loved ones have mentioned to me that they are sad or depressed right now. Our lifestyles have changed for a while and friends we are all silently grieving our past routines.

And were the blessed ones. Already on Facebook I’ve had friends post that their loved ones are gone, taken by the disease. I’ve had friends post they are sick with the disease. I’ve had loved ones make it though the disease. Going out is scary. Two weeks ago I fell and broke my right knee cap and bent my back out of shape. I now have mandatory doctor appointments and physical therapy appointments that I have to keep. I enter the office with a mask on and my temperature is taken before I can proceed. It’s a different world and this change is saddening, hard and painful for many of us.

For the past four weeks the Lord has been talking to me though hymns. I love hymns. There what I grew up with listening to in church as a child. I had a piano teacher in my youth who insisted on teaching hymns so we would learn our chord progressions. They bring me peace. Calm me down. Give me a moment to breathe. Playing them in this time has given me space and lifted my spirits.

Four weeks ago the Holy Spirit laid the hymn “It is Well with my a Soul” on my heart. I had a hard time with this because life well, wasn’t well with me. I was busy praying that the virus would just go away and things could go back to normal. But He reminded me about how I felt in 2017, after I ruptured the S5 disc in my back. I just wanted to be well. I wanted things to go back the way it was. I wanted to wake up one morning, miraculously healed and go back to life but He reminded me that life isn’t like that. Things change and it will take time to get back to a state of normal. He talked to me about surrendering to His process. That God can work good through all the bad.

I hadn’t broken my knee at that point. I didn’t realize God was getting me ready for my next battle. For things to be well with our souls we have to learn to submit and surrender to God’s will. Sometimes when our priorities are not his we feel a little broken, depressed and humbled when we submit.

This hymn was written by Horacio Spafford in 1873. Spafford lost his 4 year old son in the Great Chicago Fire as well as a great financial loss from the fire. Afterward He planned to travel to Europe with his family. He sent his family ahead of him on the boat SS Ville du Havre. Which sank and all four of his daughters died. His wife alone survived.

Spafford’s world had changed. He had a Job-like experience and lost everything. He had every reason to be depressed and broken. His response to everything was to write this hymn. Spafford was still able and willing to find joy and surrender in his faith. His hymn encourages me to do the same. I’ve put the words of the hymn below. I encourage you to just read it. I hope it lifts your spirits today.