IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

“It Is Well With My Soul” is my favorite hymn. I’ve always loved it, but it also seems to describe my walk with the Lord in some ways. I’m in my mid-60s now, and I’ve had the gift of knowing the Lord for over 50 years. It’s a journey unlike any other—one that I’d never want to travel without Him. I left home at 17 to be closer to my wife-to-be. I finished high school in a new town and bought a little trailer where I made my home. Shortly thereafter, a tornado hit my trailer and destroyed it. We married when I was 19. We met during Sunday School. I knew I’d marry her the moment I saw her. We had two children. Then I lost my oldest brother when he was 47. Fourteen months later, I lost my wife of 24 years after a 10-year battle with cancer. God was the Great Physician and had healed her from incurable cancer, but she became ill afterward and passed away. I was devastated. How would I live without her? I truly didn’t think I could. But I felt God’s presence all around me. Over the next 15 years, I became “Granpa” to eight grandchildren. But then I lost my mother, and in 2015, I lost my daddy. I sure am blessed to have had so many wonderful people in my life, and God’s gentle voice reminds me of this as He has always been my comforter and my healer. I remarried, and the same year I lost my father, we discovered my second wife had cancer. I was in shock. I might have even asked God, “Why?” The Lord would go on to prove Himself once again when He miraculously healed my wife from a cancer we were told had few happy endings. I’ve been through some very difficult things in this life, but there’s not a single time when I look back when I didn’t see God walking right there with me. And I can see a part of the tapestry He’s weaving—not all of it, mind you, but a part. And He remains my strength and my comfort to this day. It is well with my soul, indeed.