SALVATIONIST

HOW ARE YOU? CONVERSATIONS ABOUT WELLBEING

WITH Mental Health Awareness

Week running from 15 May to 21 May, this week’s issue focuses on wellbeing. In 1873, Horatio Gates Spafford wrote the words to the now much-loved song ‘It Is Well with My Soul’ (SASB 741). The song speaks of a sense of peace among the troubles and challenges of life and that, in whatever situation, we have cause to say ‘it is well with my soul’.

The sad situation for Spafford was that, much like Job, the preceding years had seen him going from great wealth – as a Chicago lawyer and property owner with a happy family – to losing almost everything of his real estate portfolio in the Great Chicago Fire, and losing his four daughters, who were accompanying their mother on a trip to Europe when their ship sank.

It was as he sailed to be reunited with his grieving wife across the very same sea that he penned the song.

Life can be harsh and give us much to deal with. How we deal with it very much depends on the foundations upon which we build. May we, like Spafford, be able to say: ‘Whatever my lot … it is well with my soul.’

MAJOR JULIAN WATCHORN EDITOR