Our Daily Bread: Finding Comfort in Times of Loss Sample

Is It Well?

As the high school corale pre pared to sing Horatio G. Spafford’s classic hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul,” a teen stepped forward to tell the song’s familiar history. Spafford wrote the song while on a ship that was near the spot at sea where his four daughters perished.

As I listened to that introduction and then the words sung by the teenagers, a flood of emotions washed over me. “Where his four daughters perished” were hard words to grasp as I listened again to Spafford’s words of faith. Having lost one daughter suddenly, I find the idea of losing four unfathomable.

How could it be “well” for Spafford in his grief? I hear the words “When peace like a river attendeth my way” and remember where peace can be found. Paul says in Philippians 4 that it can be found as our heart-prayers are voiced to God (4:6). By trustful praying, we unburden our hearts, divest our anxieties, and release the grip on our grief. And we can gain “the peace of God”(4:7)—an inexplicable, divine calmness of spirit. This peace supersedes our ability to understand our circumstances (4:7), and it is a guard on our heart, through Jesus, that protects us enough to allow us to whisper, even in the pain, “It is well with my soul.” —Dave Branon

Jesus never makes a mistake.