It Is Well With My Soul

I love that old hymn. Over the years it has become my favorite. I love the spiritual depth of each verse. I love the story behind the song written by Horatio Spafford. He wrote the song while sailing over the very spot where his daughters died.

His faith was real and unwavering. That is the kind of faith that draws me. People who trust God in the most overwhelming of circumstances inspire the rest of us to keep trusting and to keep pressing on. I am talking about men like David Brainerd, John Bunyan, and Charles Simeon. Women like Amy Carmichael, Sarah Edwards, and Elizabeth Elliott.

O how these men and women inspire, because like Horatio Spafford, they each said with their lives, "It is well with my soul." Each of these men and women suffered. Some suffered physically. Some suffered the death of visions and dreams. Some suffered the loss of spouses and personal freedom. Each endured the hardships of life and ended their lives with all being well with their souls.

I think of Spafford sitting on that deck learning that he was passing over the very location where he had lost his beloved girls. I also think of his faith as he penned these words, "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." Each verse seems to build until the last verse he crescendos with these wonderful sentiments, "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."

Powerful! Deeply moving and inspiring. Today, I too can say, "It is well with my soul." I love many songs but none anymore than this one. I want it sung at my funeral. This song speaks to my soul. Yes, Lord, we long for you to hasten the day when our faith will become sight. We yearn for the day when we will join you and all the things we could not see and understand will become perfectly clear as we see from your perspective. Until that day and in all the days in between, may we say over and over again like the saints of old, "It is well with my soul."