The Telegram That Became a Hymn

In 1873, Horatio Spafford stood at the railing of a ship crossing the Atlantic and stared down at cold, dark water. Somewhere beneath those waves, his four daughters had drowned just days earlier when the SS Ville du Havre collided with another vessel and sank in twelve minutes. His wife Anna survived and sent him a two-word telegram from Wales: "Saved alone."

Spafford had already buried a son to scarlet fever. He had already watched the Great Chicago Fire consume his real estate investments. Now this. The captain called him to the deck when they reached the approximate spot where his daughters had perished, and there, in the geography of his deepest grief, Spafford picked up a pen and wrote words that Christians have been singing for over 150 years: "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."

He did not write those words because the pain had passed. He wrote them while the pain was at its sharpest. That is the nature of perseverance. It is not the absence of suffering but the refusal to let suffering have the final word.

The Apostle Paul knew this when he wrote, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair" (2 Corinthians 4:8). Perseverance does not mean the sea is calm. It means the Almighty holds you steady while the billows roll.