Three Rights Make a Left

MUSIC IS THE LANGUAGE OF GREAT LOSS (Part 1)

Sometimes mere words are not enough to express how we feel after we experience the loss of loved ones. When our heart is breaking our heart is laser-focused on expressing how it feels. Time and again people turn to music to express the deep sense of loss and also optimism and reliance on God. A couple of weeks ago Forney saw the passing of the pastor of First Baptist Church, the largest congregation in Forney. As I talked to members who were close to him and his family and saw posts on the internet, I couldn’t help but feel empathy even though I didn’t know him like they did. There has been a song that ran through my mind because of the loss of this spiritual giant out of our community, not just from his congregation. The song I have played mentally over again is one I usually think about in times of great tragedy even in other communities far away from ours. That song is “It is well with my soul” by Horatio G. Spafford.

The story behind the writing of that song is one of the most beloved tales in all of modern Christendom. If you don’t know it please look up the story behind the song. I will give a short version of it because there is another incredible story related to the song that I just learned.

The story goes that Horatio G. Spafford was scheduled to join his friend, renowned evangelist, DL Moody in Europe but the after the Great Chicago Fire he had to change his plans and stay in Chicago to sort out his business holdings. He sent his wife Anna and four daughters on to England, but on the voyage their French ship, the SS Ville du Havre with 212 passengers collided with the Scottish ship Loch Earn. Anna brought her four daughters onto the deck and where they knelt and prayed together until the ship sank twelve minutes after the collision. Anna alone was found alive but the Spafford’s four daughters perished. Anna sent her husband a simple telegram: “Saved alone, what shall I do?”

Horatio got on the first ship he could to join his grieving wife in England. When they got to place in the Atlantic where the Ville du Havre sank, Spafford went to the railing of the ship and wrote the words to the song “It is well with my soul.”

That background behind the song has been an inspiration to me for years, but I recently learned it is only half of the story.

After spending over a week with that song in my head after the passing of Jimmy Pritchard, on Sunday our song leader led that song at morning worship. I was inspired to sing my tenor part of the song with a little extra zeal. When it is sung in Acapella and sung well the song is simply angelic and on Sunday it sounded very good. The thought occurred to me that while Horatio G. Spafford wrote one of the most beautiful poems of all time, the man who was inspired to breath life into the words deserves equal credit for making it one of the most loved songs of all time.

The song was on the big screen above the Pulpit, but I opened the song book to make note of the name of the man who put Spafford’s poem to music. I found the name of Phillip Bliss and that he put the poem to music in 1876, three years after the poem was written. After a quick search of his name I saw that he died that same year on December 29, 1876 at only 38 years of age. I thought, “There has got to be a story there,” and boy were my instincts right. Next week I will tell the story of Phillip Bliss, the man who wrote the music to “It is well with my soul.” If you love Spafford’s story, you won’t be disappointed.