Apparently God is trying to teach me a lesson. Several podcasts and books that I have listened to lately have included the story of how this song was written.
Horatio Spafford wrote the song while crossing the Atlantic Ocean to meet up with his wife after his four daughters drowned in a ship wreck during the trip across the same ocean.
Imagine sitting in some dimly lit boat floating your way across the ocean for weeks. Your daughters have just died and your wife is too grief stricken to return on her own so you get on a ship to bring her home. You are left with some time to think during the voyage so you decide to sit down and do some writing.
And he writes:
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? He writes that in the midst of hard to imagine heart break. I have a hard time imagining that kind of peace when I get stuck in traffic for more than a couple of minutes.
Is it that he was just that much better of a person than me? Maybe a little.
Am I just that much of a big baby? Probably.
Does the Creator of the universe offer this kind of hard to imagine peace and serenity to all of us? Definitely.
Struggling to find peace? Looking for more joy?
It is there and available for you. You are not some special case that is especially incapable of these things.
Seek it. Knock and the door will be opened.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Here are the entire lyrics to the song:
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 hath shed His own blood for my soul
It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
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
It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
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