It Is Well with My Soul

     Music has always served to strengthen my connections: the connection to my emotions, the ties to friends and family, and my experience of God and faith. Each of these pull at my heart in different ways but lately God has been calling me to allow His connections to bleed over into the others, covering them with the blood of Christ. The emotional connection is particularly vulnerable at this time; as I write this the world is dealing with a once-in-a-century pandemic and voters are going to the polls in force for one of the most tense elections in decades.

     The worldly nature in me frets over what will happen if certain candidates or policies win the day, while God calls for His desires to take over my heart. At times I feel strained as if I'm listening for a whisper in a crowded room but whenever a hymn comes on I can literally feel the redeeming love of Christ covering my fears. The theology of these songs lines up with what I have been reading in Scripture and even parallels my current analysis of such theological "heavy hitters" as C.S. Lewis and Oswald Chambers. Today, as I see the tension on social media and in my community, a certain hymn has guided me on my way: It Is Well with My Soul by Horatio Spafford.

     Written in a time of greater tragedy than I am likely to experience, this hymn declares obedience to God above all in the opening verse: "Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to know, it is well, it is well with my soul." Spafford was grieving the loss of his son, his four daughters, and his business prospects over the course of a few years. Yet when his ship passed by the location of his daughters' deaths the Lord inspired him to pen those words. My mind fails to imagine a greater tragedy and yet God's peace had saturated Spafford's heart to such a degree that he could say "it is well."

     It does no good to compare my own struggles with Spafford's. That only serves to cause guilt and self-pity at my failure to trust God in what I may perceive to be lesser circumstances or to puff myself up with pride if I believe that I have gone through worse and yet still stand. I can, however, see an example of what God is asking of me: peace in every circumstance. This is more than the leading of the Holy Spirit, it is also written in Scripture. During Paul's imprisonment he writes to the Philippians "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

     I always interpreted this to mean "God will always give you an easy peace, which people can't understand because they're evil." But the more I learn of God the less I see anything as easy, at least in terms of the demands placed on my earthly nature. God's peace transcends understanding because it goes against impulses and desires that are ingrained into the human condition; if my employer treats me unfairly I long for the vindictive catharsis that comes from feeling betrayed, when a loved one passes my world is shaken and I want to sink into my sorrows, upon seeing the evils of worldly powers and principalities I struggle to stay the course of righteousness. Yet God calls me to feel peace in all of these situations. To say, "it is well with my soul."

     This command does not require me to put on rose-colored lenses and see everything as well with the world, only to say that despite all the evils, horrors, and sorrows in the world it is well with my soul. I should not ignore the novel coronavirus that has killed over a million people and increased the morbidity of millions more, nor should I tell myself that the families in cages are only there because of their audacity to break human law and enter our country illegally. Rather, upon viewing these human conditions my response should be "the world contains great evil, but it is well with my soul because I am in God's hand. His hand will place me exactly where I need to be in order to build His kingdom, and His kingdom brings about an end to these evils."

     C.S. Lewis echoes this sentiment in his essay On Living In an Atomic Age:

     "If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us

     doing sensible and human things--praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, 

     bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts--

     not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our 

     bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."

It would be easy to mistake Lewis's message as encouraging us to eat, drink, and be merry, but his plea is much more than that. The evils of this world may certainly triumph over our bodies any day--and will for all of us at some point--but until then let us be found faithfully, peacefully building the Kingdom of Heaven during these dire times. It Is well with my soul.

It Is Well with My Soul

Written by Horatio Spafford

Composed by Philip Bliss

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain
It is well, (it is well),
With my soul, (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.

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!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.

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,
A song in the night, oh my soul!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Is_Well_with_My_Soul

The C.S. Lewis Bible, NRSV

https://factsandtrends.net/2020/03/19/no-c-s-lewis-would-not-tell-you-to-ignore-the-coronavirus/