The Hymn That Was Born When a Pastor Couldn't Leave

In 1772, John Fawcett was a young Baptist pastor in Wainsgate, a small village in the hills of Yorkshire, England. His congregation was poor. They could barely pay him. So when the prestigious Carter Lane Baptist Church in London invited him to succeed the famous John Gill, the decision seemed obvious. More money, a larger pulpit, a bigger name.

Fawcett accepted. The wagons were loaded. The day of departure arrived.

But then his congregation gathered around the carts, weeping. Men and women who had prayed with him through illness, who had buried children together, who had shared what little bread they had — they stood in the road with tears streaming down their faces. His wife turned to him and said, "O John, I cannot bear this. I know not how to go."

Fawcett looked at the wagons, then at the people, and said, "Nor I either. Nor will we go. Unload the wagons."

He never left. He served that tiny church for over fifty years. And from that moment, he wrote the hymn we still sing: "Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love."

The world will always offer us something bigger, shinier, more impressive. But the Body of Christ was never meant to be impressive. It was meant to be bound together — heart to heart, need to need, tear to tear. The ties that hold us are not ambition or advantage. They are love. And love, it turns out, is reason enough to unload the wagons.