If you know our family at all you know that “Great is Thy Faithfulness” is the sound track of our life together. We have sung it at every marking moment – at our wedding, at the dedication of our kids, when we have moved, and recently at the 25th anniversary of our time serving at the church in Minneapolis. We were tempted to go a tad overboard and sing it when the Bears won the Super Bowl in ’86. Clearly it’s a thing.
We have sung this hymn with tears of joy during good times and we have sung it through tears of desperation, declaring it as a reality when it was hard to feel the truth of the words. But it expresses the truths of Scripture and that’s where we’ve chosen to stand.
This week we’ve been down in the suburbs of Chicago, celebrating Thanksgiving with family (a delightful, large extended family!). Wednesday night we went to a worship service and again we sang the words we love so much – Great is Thy Faithfulness.
After we sat down, a remarkable father of 5 shared about his faith journey with his wife who was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago. It was both authentic and God-honoring. He shared the good – she is currently cancer-free; the bad – their house is built on the rock of faith in Jesus, but right now the windows are broken, the paint is chipping and the shutters hang from the emotional and physical toll of the past two years; and the certain – through it all they have sung the soundtrack of their life together – It is Well With My Soul. Continue reading
