Though all, it is well with my soul

I am not always serious, but when I am, I turn inward. Today, today we go inward.

I've seen enough lately, suffered in new self-centered ways, but one thing I know, the waves and tdhe wind still know his name.

Have you ever heard the story of the grand hymn "It is Well With My Soul?"

It goes like this:


Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a wealthy Chicago lawyer with a thriving legal practice, a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son. He was also a devout Christian and faithful student of the Scriptures. His circle of friends included Dwight L. Moody, Ira Sankey and various other well-known Christians of the day.
At the very height of his financial and professional success, Horatio and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of their young son. Shortly thereafter on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed almost every real estate investment that Spafford had.
In 1873, Spafford scheduled a boat trip to Europe in order to give his wife and daughters a much needed vacation and time to recover from the tragedy. He also went to join Moody and Sankey on an evangelistic campaign in England. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him while he remained in Chicago to take care of some unexpected last minute business. Several days later he received notice that his family's ship had encountered a collision. All four of his daughters drowned; only his wife had survived.
With a heavy heart, the pain of which we can never truly know unless God forbid we go through something like that, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his grieving Anna in England. It was on this trip that he penned those now famous words, When sorrow like sea billows roll; it is well, it is well with my soul.. 
While I went yesterday through the closure of the last home we will ever own I suffered a bit. I thought we would go back to one day, I thought of times we spent in that house and shed tears over two lovely and wonderful pets who spent 15 years or more with us and are now buried in the back. I thought of when we were packing for Israel. I thought of another pet who died in a vet's office while we lived there. Mary, my wife, and I walked through the house and said goodbye, basically. Goodbye to where we were, where we landed after a little thing called Hurricane Katrina deposited us, changing our lives forever, still. Goodbye to the time it snowed and we frolicked just before Christmas, the little kid in us surfacing. Goodbye to the past, hello to the fearful future.
Let's be sure we understand each other. Think about times in your life when you struggled. See God in the movement. Think about the joys that overcome all things. See God in the movement. Think through tragedy. Think through pain. Think through all that, and see God in the movement. He is risen; He is alive. He has guided me and walked beside me and held me when things were at their worse. 
And He is my joy, my love, my salvation and my life. He is, and I am because of it.
This day we should be thankful that we have the one with the name above all names, the one with the power to form and mold and change and love.
Though towns burn with folks seeking justice this very day, He is. 
And it is well with my soul.