When Peace Like a River Ran Through Grief

In 1873, Horatio Spafford put his wife and four daughters on the SS Ville du Havre, bound for England. He planned to follow in a few days. He never saw his daughters again. The ship collided with another vessel in the Atlantic and sank in twelve minutes. All four girls perished. Anna Spafford survived and cabled her husband two words that still ache across the centuries: "Saved alone."

Spafford boarded the next available ship. When the captain notified him they were passing over the spot where his daughters had drowned, Spafford went to his cabin and wrote the words that millions have sung since: "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."

That is not denial. That is courage. The courage to open your mouth and declare the faithfulness of the Almighty while standing over the deepest water of your life.

We often think courage means feeling no fear. But the bravest thing a human being can do is sing in the dark. Spafford did not sing because his pain was small. He sang because his God was big.

Whatever ocean you are crossing today, the same God who held Spafford holds you. And sometimes faith sounds like a hymn sung through tears.