I have always been drawn to the stories behind music.
I am fascinated by the paths our favorite songs took to reach the public forum. Let’s say that passion is born out of pain.
God has turned our trash into treasures. Many beautiful melodies were produced from being battered. Creation proves that not everything done in the dark has to remain there.
When I felt my heart was shattered into pieces, God gave me a song. How many of us are surviving because we have learned how to sing when we felt like sinking into oblivion? One such horror story became a hymn of great inspiration.
It happened to a man named Joseph Scriven. In 1842, just before my time, this Irishman graduated from Trinity College, in Dublin, and like so many other young men before him, he fell head over heels in love with a girl from his neighborhood.
They got engaged, planned their wedding, and began dreaming about the future that they would experience together, as husband and wife, but tragedy invaded their tomorrows.
During the night before their wedding, Joseph’s fiancée saddled a horse to visit him. It would turn out to be one of the last things she would do.
Joseph saw his wife-to-be riding toward him, and he couldn’t wait to kiss her, but suddenly, as she was crossing a bridge, her horse bucked and threw her like a ragdoll into the river below.
Joseph ran with everything he had, jumping wildly into the river and calling her name. He soared deep into its icy waters, but his efforts would not help.
By the time he got to her, the woman he loved was dead. He thought that he would be going to a wedding but ended up at a funeral.
If that wasn’t enough to steal the breath from his faith, Joseph moved to Canada. While there, he fell in love again.
In 1854, Joseph and Eliza Roche planned to become husband and wife. The wedding had to continually be put off because Eliza was ill, and even with all the hope and prayers on her behalf, she became worse and eventually died, too.
Joseph Scriven was never married. His mother was deeply concerned for her heartbroken son, but his faith was established and unsinkable. It wasn’t his mother that exalted him.
Joseph composed a poem to strengthen her, knowing little that it would become one of the most-loved songs. Several years later, a friend found it in a drawer at Joseph’s house and was touched.
“The Lord and I wrote it together,” Joseph explained. That poem, forged from so much disappointment and pain, continues to make believers look up when they probably feel like giving up.
“What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear,” the song says. “What a privilege to carry – everything to God in prayer. O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry – everything to God in prayer.
“Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged – Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful, Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness – Take it to the Lord in prayer.”
As I write this, I want to pray for all of us. I believe this is no time for us to continue to be held hostage by the fear of what might be.
God has shown up to equip us for what is. When Scripture uses the word comfort, it doesn’t mean what we think it does in English.
It is not so much about how a mother holds a crying baby to her chest as it is God properly preparing us for the ride of our lives. When Christians are begging for a pillow and blanket, perhaps we should be looking for a crash helmet and a new pair of Nikes.
The problem with America’s church today is we waste too much time thinking God is going to fix what is unpleasant when we should be planning for our next adventure. The Lord wants to work in us more than He wants to change the stuff around us.
Jesus is looking to get us ready for the challenges still to come. We can’t settle for anything less than following our Savior the entire way that He leads, even if it means a bumpy ride.
Are we pretending that the kiddie rides are the safe option when we might need to fasten our seatbelts for the roller coaster with the twists and turns that make our stomach queasy? Can we escape so great a calling by playing it safe when we know that to live means to risk great pain and heartaches?
If we don’t need Jesus, we won’t trust Him. If we are fooling ourselves by thinking that the little boat ride in a safe circle is the journey Jesus has invited us to, we will be sadly mistaken and spiritually off track.
Getting our heart crushed is nobody’s idea of a picnic, but the reality is that without a willingness to surrender our way to God’s will, we might never learn to sing the sweet song of salvation. If our walk contradicts our words, we lose our testimony. Our “walk” and our “talk” must agree.
A yielded heart is necessary for this sinner to be made into a saint. Too many Christians today emphasize guarding the truth, but they sadly downplay living the truth.
One of the best ways to guard the truth is to live by what we believe. It is important the faith’s defenders, but we must not forget to be its demonstrators.
Joseph articulated his union with Jesus because it stood the test of how living on this planet can wreak havoc in your heart.
Stop only singing praise tunes. Jesus’ followers should be writing new verses to expound upon how being connected to God is life and doesn’t simply fix it.
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.
