I wrote most of this piece five years ago. We had recently gotten back to Toledo after 4 months in Cleveland following Allana’s bone marrow transplant and after weathering what was easily the greatest test of our lives. I can remember hearing this song that morning and feeling the impact of the words more than I had ever.
“Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,Just to take Him at His word, Just to rest upon His promise and to know ‘Thus saith the Lord’
Wonderful words penned by Louisa Stead over 200 years ago ring true today. She lived in a world that served up tragedy on a regular basis just the same as we do today. Even as we struggle with the trial of Leukemia the trials of this world impact so many others all around us. A young bride is bereft of her husband on the way to her honeymoon. A mother and grandmother passes away. A child is desperately ill. Families are losing their homes. All these things rock the carefully manicured lives that we try to prepare for ourselves and those closest to us. It is in the midst of grief and turmoil that the words of this great hymn begin to make sense “Jesus, Jesus how I trust him. How I’ve proved him o’er and o’er. Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus oh for grace to trust him more.” It really makes sense because it is grace that makes our trust possible. I have in my life attempted to trust by study, by effort and by ostrich (sticking my head into the sand). I can attest to the fact that these paths to trusting our Savior do not work. In the end they magnify the turmoil and most often leave one sensing an ever increasing gap between God and oneself. We end up feeling unloved and that God has somehow failed to keep up his end of the bargain. Thoughts like, “But God I have done everything you asked…”; “Lord I don’t know what you want from me I can’t do anymore…” tear at our faith and bring in a spirit of defeat that can be more devastating than the tragic events themselves.
It is when by grace we detach our faith from circumstance and effort, relying on the Holy Spirit, simply fanning the flame of the gift that God has given each of us through whatever circumstances occur because we are convinced that He will guard us and the Gospel He has entrusted with us through the Holy Spirit (1 Timothy 1:6-14). Paul follows up this impassioned guidance to Timothy with the difficult circumstances that Paul found himself in and the sustenance that God provided to Paul. I think that even in his chains Paul would have sung Louisa Stead’s lyrics with an honest heart.