Is it Well?
Apr 29, 2012
Intro:
Crisis has a distilling effect. In the midst of one, or many, all the routine, boring, petty things of life get hastily shoved to the side and the focus becomes intense. What do we have to do right now? What is important in this moment? What will happen in the next 4 hours, 8 hours, or 12 hours? In the midst of a crisis, things like sleep or getting groceries or watching a favorite TV show disappear off our agendas, and we just do what we must in this moment.
If it is medical, we drive the friend and her sick child to the hospital. And if we have to wait 8hrs in Emergency with them, we wait 8hrs in Emergency, and when we go to Tim Horton’s to grab a bit of food and come back and the friend says oh thanks, how much do I owe you? we respond with don’t be ridiculous.
If it is a friend or family member who calls with a genuine need, we drop what we are doing and rush to their side to be with them, sometimes even if they are halfway across the country. Years ago, my wife Joanne had to go to the hospital at about 1a.m. I made 3 phone calls: the ambulance, Lisa Thomson our regular babysitter to come and stay with Thomas who was about 3yrs old and was fast asleep, and Joanne’s mom and dad who drove through the night from Calgary so they could be there when Thomas woke up and could help us out in the next few days to come. None of them hesitated, complained, or griped. In fact I know they were glad they could come and help us.
What if your teenager is out for the evening and calls you because they are drunk and don’t want to drive your car home? We go pick them up, and deal with the rest of the issues later. Or what if your sister, who never does anything like this, phones collect from her holiday in Mexico where her purse was just stolen and asks if you could send $200 so she can get back to the city and deal with the proper authorities? We say, just tell me what the easiest way to get it to you is.
Crisis have a way of revealing what really matters most, of distilling our lives down to what really matters most. And those tell us some pretty important, sometimes pretty uncomfortable, things about what we love most.
2 Kings 4 (NLT):
8 One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat.
9 She said to her husband, I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.
11 One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to this upper room to rest. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, Tell the woman from Shunem I want to speak to her. When she appeared, 13 Elisha said to Gehazi, Tell her we appreciate the kind concern you have shown us. What can we do for you? Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’
No, she replied, my family takes good care of me.
Gehazi replied, She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.
15 Call her back again, Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway, 16 Next year at this time you will be holding a son in your arms!
No, my lord! she cried. O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.
17 But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.
18 One day when her child was older, he went out to help his father, who was working with the harvesters. 19 Suddenly he cried out, My head hurts! My head hurts!
His father said to one of the servants, Carry him home to his mother.
20 So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died. 21 She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there. 22 She sent a message to her husband: Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.
Obviously here is a crisis. She drops everything, and runs to the man of God; in essence, running to God. I can’t, I don’t want to, try and imagine how she feels, what she is experiencing, but I can learn from how she responds. She runs to God.
Not all do. Sometimes, people blame God and run away, they turn their anger at God and stay mad at God and reject the comfort and peace God wants to bring. I’ve seen it, and I bet you have seen it also. But there is a better way.
Horatio and Anna Spafford
Horatio G. Spafford and his wife, Anna, were pretty well-known in 1860’s Chicago. And this was not just because of Horatio's legal career and business endeavors. The Spaffords were also prominent supporters and close friends of D.L. Moody, the famous preacher.
In 1871, the prosperous lawyer and devout Christian, and his wife, Anna, were living comfortably with their four young daughters in Lake View, Chicago. Life was good. Horatio’s career was going well and he had invested heavily in real estate on the shores of Lake Michigan as Chicago was growing. He was an Elder in the Fullerton Presbyterian church, which he had helped to build. Family, career, church, all going well.
Then on Sunday Oct 8, 1871 the Chicago great fire broke out and burned till Tuesday Oct 10, and devastated the entire city. Destroyed were more than 73 miles (117 km) of roads, 120 miles (190 km) of sidewalk, 2,000 lampposts, 17,500 buildings, and $222 million in property, about a third of the city's valuation. Of the 300,000 inhabitants, 90,000 were left homeless. Horatio’s real estate investment was completely lost. For the next two years Horatio and Anna devoted their time to welfare work amongst the refugees of the fire.
It wore them out, and in 1873 they were tired and decided to join friends in Europe for a vacation. And so, the Spaffords traveled to New York in November, from where they were to catch the French steamer Ville de Havre across the Atlantic. Yet just before they set sail, a last-minute business development forced Horatio to delay. Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go as planned. He would follow on later.
On November 22nd 1873, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, the Ville de Havre collided with The Lochearn, an English vessel. It sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was one of only 73 saved, by a plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, Mrs. Spafford's first reaction was one of complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her, You were spared for a purpose. And she immediately recalled the words of a friend, It's easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God.
Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It read: Saved alone.
Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife. On the Atlantic crossing, the captain of his ship called Horatio to his cabin to tell him that they were passing over the spot where his four daughters had perished. He wrote to Rachel, his wife's half-sister, On Thursday last we passed over the spot where she went down, in mid-ocean, the waters three miles deep. But I do not think of our dear ones there. They are safe, folded, the dear lambs.
This man of God, facing a second great tragedy, had been searching Scripture. And he had read the story from 2 Kings, which I just read moments ago. Let me read a little further, from the King James translation which Horatio would have read:
2 Kings 4 (KJV):
22And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.
23And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him today? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.
24Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee.
25So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite.
26Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.
It Is Well:
As Horatio sat in his cabin crossing the Atlantic, grieving the loss of his 4 daughters, reading 2 Kings 4, he took a pen and wrote these words:
It Is Well With My Soul
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
How could they say It is well?
A woman in Scripture, barren until Elisha prophecies over her, loses the son she had dreamed of, despaired of ever having, then rejoiced at a miracle, then grieved at his loss, says It is well. A wealthy American lawyer loses his real estate empire, then his four daughters, and later on even loses a son and then his church family (more on that part of the story in our Adult Ed time, where we will see how even today the fruitfulness of this faith continues today), and he writes a hymn entitled It is well.
How could they say that? In the midst of sorrow, trial, and crisis, how can they say it is well? It is not well! Life is a mess, grief is everywhere, loss is extreme. How can they say, it is well? Maybe more to the point, how can we?
I’ve been thinking and praying about this all week, and I think maybe I have a part of an answer. Crisis has a distilling effect, it ends up revealing what matters most. If our health matters most, when it fails and we face a physical crisis we will be consumed, lost, angry, and we will struggle to cope. We won’t be able to say It is well, because it won’t be true. If our family matters most, then if (Lord forbid) like Horatio and Anna we lose our family we will be consumed, lost, angry, and we will struggle to cope. We won’t be able to say It is well, because it won’t be true.
Now please hear me clearly. I am in no way suggesting any of those things would be easy or simplistic or that we would coast through them without feeling angry and without struggles and without doubting and questioning or any of those very natural, very healthy things. Please hear me clearly.
But if crisis has a distilling effect, and down deep the most important thing to us is our Lord Jesus, then what happens? What if our faith in Jesus matters more than physical health, more than material wealth, more than comfort, even more than family? Then, when the crisis comes, as they will, we will be able to say with conviction and truth. It is hard, hard, hard; but it is well.
Now I understand a little more why some of the things that Jesus said, that sound harsh, are really true: from Matthew 10 35 I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 Your enemies will be right in your own household! 37 If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. 39 If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it. These are harsh words from Jesus, but they make a little more sense to me because I am seeing how if we love something, anything, more than we love Jesus, we will be lost if or when we lose that.
But if we love Jesus most, with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, if our relationship with Jesus is most important, if we give up our life for (Jesus), we will find it. We will be able to say, it is well. We will survive the crisis, and emerge out the other side of it into a far better place. Instead of turning away from Jesus during the crisis, we will turn to Jesus and experience the peace and comfort and strength and power that we so desperately need. Again I repeat, this is no promise that it will be easy, and it is in no way a diminishing of the severity of any crisis, and it is in no way saying oh if you just have more faith or more love for Jesus you wouldn’t feel that experience that blah blah blah. I have words for people who say such things but they aren’t appropriate to speak from the front of the church.
Instead, if we love Jesus most, in the time of crisis we can say, with integrity:
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
Conclusion:
What is your first love? It needs to be Jesus. For all of us, whether we are facing crisis or not. We need to love Jesus first. Love first for Jesus. That has to matter most to us. That has to be nurtured most by us. That’s the message of the entire Bible. God loves us, we must love God back more than anything else.
And then, when crisis come, we make it through.
This past Wednesday night our Elders board gathered, after a really encouraging evening where I watched more than 40 hours of man-power get done unpacking boxes downstairs and taking another huge step in our restoration after our facility crisis of the past 9 months, and as Elders we talked a bit but then Gail our Elders chair led us to pray. There is lots going on in the lives of people in our church, and as leaders we wanted to take those things to the throne of God in prayer, and intercede. And right as we did, my phone rang with one crisis. Then I got a text message with another. More came throughout the week. I don’t believe in those kinds of coincidences; there is more going on than that. Prayer, especially during crisis, is a battlefield. And I choose to fight. I choose to stand. Our Elders board did the same. And so have each of the people in each of the individual situations we faced. We choose to stand. We choose to fight. We choose to love Jesus first. We choose to take all of life, all of our lives, and lose them that we might gain Christ, we choose to say with Paul in Phil 2:17 I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God.
And as we prayed, the Spirit led me to a verse of Scripture from Eph 6: 13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. The emphasis was on the last line, after the battle you will still be standing firm. That is what victory looks like – we are still standing firm. Our first love for our Lord Jesus has held our feet firmly planted.
Then we will say, It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Adult Ed time: the rest of the story
son; who dies age 3
church, who rumors and gossips
13 break away
the move to Jerusalem
social service, ministry to all
Horatio dies in 1888
Anna and children continue the American Colony
overcome all kinds of opposition
ministry to all during WWI
over time becomes The Spafford Children’s Center
Bertha Spafford Vester
On Christmas Eve 1925, Horatio and Anna’s daughter, Bertha Spafford Vester was hurrying home to join her husband and children to go to Bethlehem to sing carols, when she encountered a Bedouin who had travelled for six hours with his sick wife and their new born baby on a donkey. They had found the hospital closed to outpatients because of the Christmas feast. Bertha was greatly moved by their need and later said, Here before me stood a rustic Madonna and babe, and, similar to Mary’s plight, there was no place for them to stay.
She immediately took action and the woman was admitted to the hospital, but by morning, she had died. The next day, the husband came with his baby and begged Bertha to keep the child. He said, If I take my baby boy to my cave home, he will surely die. Bertha took the baby, named him Noel, hired a nurse, and established them in the house on the wall where the American Colony had first settled when they arrived in Jerusalem. Within a week Bertha had been asked to take in two more orphaned babies.
Thus the Spafford Baby Home was born.
Several years later the Baby Home developed into a Children’s Hospital with 60 beds and a surgical wing. For many years it was the only children’s hospital in the Old City of Jerusalem and from 1948 it played a vital role in serving families of all faiths from eastern Jerusalem and its surrounding villages and towns.
Spafford Children’s Center: Physical and mental health for disadvantaged children of East Jerusalem and the West Bank
(extra verses)
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
But Lord, 'is for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
Horatio Gates Spafford
1828-1888
Born: October 20, 1828, North Troy, New York.
Died: October 16, 1888, Jerusalem, Israel, of malaria.
