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

Last week, we discussed JOY and what it means to have joy in the Lord, even amid trials and hard times. The song above is from Horatio G Spafford’s hymn It Is Well. Spafford was a lawyer in Chicago. In 1873, he, his wife, and their four daughters were going to go to Europe for Mrs. Spafford’s health. Due to business matters, Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead and planned to meet with them later. But the ship they were on collided with another boat and sank.

The only survivor in the family was Mrs. Spafford. When she and the other survivors were brought to Wales, she sent a message to her husband that simply read “Saved alone.”

Talk about trials.

Who can find peace in such a tragedy?

For a second, imagine you are Mr. Spafford. You heard of the shipwreck and recognized it to be the one who had sent your wife and four girls on. Then you received a letter from the wife with only the message that only she survived. So you boarded the ship to Wales to get to your wife and you passed over the spot where your daughters breathed their last.

As you looked over the waters, staring down below, what were you thinking?

For Mr. Spafford, he thought of the words we read at the beginning. It was there that he penned the lyrics of It Is Well. A hymn, a song, that has had countless adaptations and has been sung multiple times over in churches and funerals. Every time I sing it or hear it, there is a solemnity that falls over me but a solemnity that comforts me, a solemnity that gives me peace.

There’s a peace to God’s words. There’s a peace to resting in the folds of God. This peace can manifest in many different forms, such as through music (like with this hymn for instance) or art form or writing. It is different forms, but the message is the same. It is God reminding us of his promises and love. Later in the hymn, Spafford writes:

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

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!

What does that look like to you? The Gospel! In Spafford’s grief, as he stared at the waters that took his daughters’ lives, he was reminded that though Satan may take away, we serve a God that gives and One that gave his one and only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in his son may not die, but live eternally (John 3:16). There is no doubt that Spafford was grieving and was missing his daughters, but through this song we can infer that he had peace and joy (there’s that sneaky joy again!) that God took his daughters to Heaven and one day he’ll be reunited with his four daughters again. Which I think that is where he is right now – With his four daughters, with his three children born after, with his son he had adopted later, and with his wife, all together in Heaven for all of eternity.

Joy is having fearlessness for the future. Joy is having fearlessness in the present. Peace does not erase sadness or is not synonymous with joy, instead, it is a reminder that joy is still possible. Even in trials, even during the times that Satan takes away, peace is there to remind us of the deliverance of the Lord.

For that, wherever you are, whatever you are facing, that “peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be doubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27

Elizabeth