When the Music Rises from the Wreckage

In 1873, Horatio Spafford put his wife and four daughters on the SS Ville du Havre, bound for Europe. He planned to follow shortly after. Nine days later, the ship collided with another vessel in the Atlantic and sank in twelve minutes. All four of his daughters perished. His wife Anna survived and sent him a two-word telegram from Wales: "Saved alone."

Spafford boarded the next available ship to join her. As the vessel passed near the spot where his children had drowned, he sat down and wrote the words that would become one of the most enduring hymns in Christian history: "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."

Notice what Spafford did not write. He did not write, "I understand why this happened." He did not write, "This makes sense to me now." He wrote that God had taught him to say it is well. Trust is not the absence of grief. Trust is the decision to declare that the Almighty remains good even when the sea has taken everything you held dear.

Some of you are passing over your own dark waters this morning. You cannot explain what has happened. You may never be able to. But you can still open your mouth and let the hymn rise. Trust does not require understanding. It only requires the One who holds you above the waves.