Context makes everything better.
Most of us have heard of the story of Horatio Spafford, author of "It is Well with My Soul" [his four daughters drowned after their ship, which was crossing the Atlantic, sunk...his wife alone survived and telegramed to her husband, "Saved alone"]. Knowing this background, makes the words, "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 much more powerful! Spafford didn't just pen these words, he LIVED them!
An equally beautiful, though lesser known story surrounds the hymn, "O Love that Will not Let Me Go," written by George Matheson. The hymn happens to be my personal favorite, so I was amazed and humbled when I came across the following story:
George Matheson began going blind, while studying for the ministry. Engaged at the time, his fiance broke off the engagement upon discovering this. She told him that she could not go through life with a blind man. This devastating circumstance fueled him to write some of the most [heartfelt, worshipful, and painfully transparent] lyrics of all times:
"O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be."
Through this trial, Matheson's eyes might have grown dim to the world around Him, but he developed a keener focus on the world to come.
After going blind, he had a vital ministry as a pastor: he regularly preached to over 1500 people each week, and centuries after his death, his hymn, "O Love that Will not Let me Go" continues to minister to the hearts and minds of thousands of others.
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints."
-Ephesians 1:18
[Story taken from: http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/hymns/o08.html].
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