This weekend I heard the moving story of an English lady named Louisa Stead. As a teenager she came to the United States to be a missionary and eventually married and had a baby girl. One day this family was enjoying a picnic lunch in Long Island, New York when they heard the screams of a drowning boy. Mr. Stead attempted to rescue the boy, but he was so frantic in his struggle that he pulled them both down and to the horror of Louisa and their 4-year old daughter, neither came back up. In the difficult days following this tragedy, Louisa wrote these words in the old hymn, “‘Tis So Sweet.”

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.

I was so inspired by this woman, a young wife and mother, who after faced this great loss with trust. I don’t know how hard it was; maybe it was a terrible struggle for Louisa to come around to a place where she was able to write this song, but how awesome that she could say this to the Lord!

I notice that the deep moving lyrics of old hymns and the challenging encouragements of Christians of the past usually stem from dark trying times. This is so foreign to many Christians today. We can get comfortable, lazy and compromising. The result is weak faith and fear of speaking out for the Lord. Hearing Louisa’s story was a big reminder to me that God uses our trials to fashion and form us and make us complete in Him. We shouldn’t be avoiding controversy and nervous that the Lord might challenge us. Instead we should pray for opportunities to draw nearer to Him.