Is It Well With My Soul?

Post 307

Is it well with my soul? Not really. Not yet, although someday I think I will get there. Some days I think I’m completely used to this new normal. For most hours and minutes, I feel quite a bit like I used to prior to December 23, 2022, and for the minutes that I don’t, grief doesn’t grip me as hard as it used to. While I am going about my day, I will have the thought that Morgan is gone, my heart will hurt, but then I get on with whatever else I think of next. The deeper pain is transitory now, although the new normal means that not a day goes by where sadness doesn’t creep in. I had plenty of days in my life prior, where I felt no sadness whatsoever.

When I read news stories of sudden death to young people, such as the young ice-skaters and their families and coaches who lost their lives in last night’s airplane/copter crash near Reagan Airport, and the pilots in the helicopter who were likely fairly young, it tends to bring the sad feelings on for longer and stronger. My brain remembers hearing such unbelievable news, although my heart now refuses to go anywhere near those depths again, but I have indeed felt sad most of today.

The fact these were athletes, parents, and coaches is probably a piece of why it lingers. Although our trips were mostly long road trips for court, and then beach volleyball, we took many, and I know the rush and camaraderie. That whole skating community must be in mourning.

What else can I do but pray for those families and hope they see the same love of God in the the people who surround them in their grief, that I did. I mean that. I was truly fortunate to see God’s pain for what I was experiencing in their human eyes, and hear it in their human voices. I pray that nobody tries to tell them this is God’s will. God does not will for early death. Yes, he knows it will happen, but He looks forward to all of us living eternally and never dying at all.

I don’t remember now if it was before or after Mo passed, but I once watched a documentary on where some long lasting hymns got their start. One of them was “It Is Well With My Soul,” written by Horatio Spafford.

Taken from https://www.umcdiscipleship.org is this passage:

The author, Horatio G. Spafford (1828-1888), was a Presbyterian layman from Chicago. He had established a very successful legal practice as a young businessman and was also a devout Christian. Among his close friends were several evangelists including the famous Dwight L. Moody, also from Chicago.

Spafford’s fortune evaporated in the wake of the great Chicago Fire of 1871. Having invested heavily in real estate along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, he lost everything overnight. In a saga reminiscent of Job, his son died a short time before his financial disaster. But the worst was yet to come.

Hymnologist Kenneth Osbeck tells the story: “Desiring a rest for his wife and four daughters as well as wishing to join and assist Moody and [his musician Ira] Sankey in one of their campaigns in Great Britain, Spafford planned a European trip for his family in 1873. In November of that year, due to unexpected last-minute business developments, he had to remain in Chicago, but sent his wife and four daughters on ahead as scheduled on the S.S. Ville du Havre. He expected to follow in a few days.

“On November 22 the ship was struck by the Lochearn, an English vessel, and sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors were finally landed at Cardiff, Wales, and Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband, ‘Saved alone.’”

Spafford left immediately to join his wife. This hymn is said to have been penned as he approached the area of the ocean thought to be where the ship carrying his daughters had sunk.

I am in awe that he could write those words after his tragedies. God must have been very near to him, indeed. He is with all of his children now, and I look forward to the same.