{"id":5593,"date":"2026-07-21T09:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5593"},"modified":"2026-07-21T09:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:09:15","slug":"when-sorrows-like-sea-billows-roll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/21\/when-sorrows-like-sea-billows-roll\/","title":{"rendered":"When Sorrows Like Sea Billows Roll"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>
\u00a0

In 1870, life for Horatio Spafford and his family seemed to be splendid.

Spafford was a senior partner in a large and thriving Chicago law firm. He poured his assets into Chicago real estate. He enjoyed a friendship with\u00a0the evangelist Dwight L. Moody.\u00a0

Within a few months, however, he and his wife Anna were shattered. Their four-year-old son died\u00a0of scarlet fever.

Then Chicago was engulfed by the Great Fire of 1871.\u00a0Spafford watched as most of his properties burned to the ground.

Seeing Anna\u2019s spirits falter over the next two years, Spafford suggested that the family sail to Europe\u00a0for some time away. A business concern delayed his own departure. But Spafford put Anna\u00a0and their four daughters \u2013 Annie (11), Margaret Lee (9), Bessie (5), and Tanetta (2) \u2013 aboard the\u00a0wooden sloop Ville Du Havre<\/em> and promised to join them in England.\u00a0\u00a0

Disaster struck on November 22, 1873.

As the Ville Du Havre<\/em> approached Europe, she was splintered\u00a0in a collision with an iron freighter. The ship sank in less than 12 minutes. Only 81 of its 307 passengers and crew survived.\u00a0The only surviving Spafford\u00a0family member was an unconscious Anna. Her four daughters were gone.

She telegraphed Horatio from Wales: \u201cSaved alone. What shall I do\u2026\u201d

A devastated Spafford raced to the coast and boarded a ship bound for England. During the voyage\u00a0the captain summoned him and indicated that \u201ca careful reckoning has been made, and I believe\u00a0we are now passing the place where the Ville Du Havre<\/em> was wrecked. The water is three miles deep.”\u00a0\u00a0

Spafford stood at the rail for a time. Then he retreated to his cabin where he wrote the words to one of the most cherished hymns in the English language:\u00a0\u00a0

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll;<\/em>
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.<\/em>

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole,<\/em>
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!<\/em>

And Lord haste the day, when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;<\/em>
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul.<\/em>

You can hear the gentle harmonies<\/a> of the original hymn in this version by Anthem Lights.

Just when it seemed things couldn\u2019t possibly get worse, they did.\u00a0

The church that the Spaffords attended and served in Chicago declared that they had surely suffered so much for a simple reason: God was punishing them for their sins.

This brings to mind a book that Dwight Carlson wrote some years ago. Its title says it all:\u00a0Why Do Christians Shoot Their Wounded?<\/em>

Here we should pause to note that sociologists recently polled Americans to assess their views concerning God.\u00a0The responses fell into four general categories:

A Non-Existent God.\u00a0<\/strong>About 10% of the respondents indicated they cannot buy the reality of a divine Being, especially in light of never-ending human suffering.

A Non-Involved God.\u00a0<\/strong>This is the God of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin:\u00a0powerful enough to launch the cosmos, but absent from any day-to-day connection with human affairs.\u00a0Around 15% of our neighbors appear to embrace this option.

A Punishing God.\u00a0<\/strong>Some 55% of the respondents opted for a God whose relationship with human beings is primarily based on obedience to rules and boundaries.\u00a0This God is ready and willing to deal firmly with those who don\u2019t comply.

An Accepting God.\u00a0<\/strong>About one in five Americans picture God as someone whose essential posture toward humanity is outstretched arms of grace.

It\u2019s not difficult to demonstrate that the words of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, strikingly endorse the notion of an Accepting God \u2013 a God who stands with us in our struggles and weeps with us in our suffering.\u00a0

But the majority of those who attend American congregations (of all denominational backgrounds) tend to see God through the lens of Law & Order. If something has gone wrong in your life, it\u2019s almost certainly because you brought it on yourself.

Horatio and Anna Spafford were ultimately blessed with more children.\u00a0But they were even more blessed to believe that God was a God of grace and new beginnings.

Eight years after the tragedy of the Ville Du Havre, <\/em>they boarded a boat for the Middle East.\u00a0From their new home in Jerusalem they launched a ministry to the poor \u2013 regardless of religious affiliation. Their soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages, and philanthropic ventures came to be mutually trusted by local Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities.\u00a0Horatio\u2019s grave can still be visited today in Mount Zion Cemetery in Jerusalem.

Spafford wrote of a day when \u201cthe faith shall be sight.\u201d That day has not yet come.\u00a0Today it may feel\u00a0as if your deepest hopes have been crushed beneath three miles of trackless ocean \u2013 and even some of your brothers and sisters in Christ are wondering if you\u2019re the one to blame. \u00a0

But God says, \u201cDo not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.\u00a0When you pass through the waters, I will be with you\u201d (Isaiah 43:1-2).

When sorrows like sea billows roll, it may seem as if everything has slipped through our fingers.

But we can never slip through the hands of the One who loves us. \u00a0
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0 In 1870, life for Horatio Spafford and his family seemed to be splendid. Spafford was a senior partner in a large and thriving Chicago law firm. He poured his assets into Chicago real estate. He enjoyed a friendship with\u00a0the evangelist Dwight L. Moody.\u00a0 Within a few months, however, he and his… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[101,744,112],"class_list":["post-5593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grace","tag-hymns","tag-suffering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5594,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593\/revisions\/5594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}