Getting To a Place Where It is Well With My Soul

Recently, while doing a bible study, I came across the story of how Horatio Spafford came to write the powerful hymn, It is Well With My Soul. His story was horrific and I couldn’t believe I had never heard the story behind this hymn. If you’re not familiar with the story, you can read it here.

During the month of August, I read Timothy Keller’s book, Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering.

I’ll just tell you, this book was powerful and made me contemplate very deep things. It was not an easy book to read and in all honesty, it took me to places I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to go. Rest assured I’ll be thinking about this book for a very LONG time to come. It’s hard to explain, but after I finished the book, I was left feeling that Timothy Keller had picked me up and shook me hard…. shook me to my core and left me all rattled to where I’m not quite sure I’ll ever be the same. Yet, at the same time, the book has helped me in tremendous ways with the losses I’ve experienced in my life.

In one of the final chapters of the book, Tim Keller talks in-depth about the biblical figure, Job, and his trials and suffering. Horatio Spafford’s story was mentioned in this book too.  When I heard Horatio Spafford’s story, I immediately thought of Job. The tragedies both these men suffered are just to me unimaginable.

This beautiful video tells the story of how Horatio Spafford came to write this well-known hymn and then you hear the hymn performed by Jeremy Riddle. I only hope my faith will one day be as strong as Horatio Spafford’s faith was when he wrote this hymn.

With that, I wanted to let you know that I’ll be taking a break from blogging. It seems lately I have absolutely nothing to say and when I try to write, the words just don’t want to come. There’s an uneasiness I feel in writing right now, like something is pulling me away from it. I started blogging in August of 2010 and have enjoyed it immensely but I’ve decided it’s time to take a break.

So I’ll be silent here in this little corner. For how long I just don’t know. I will be back IF and WHEN it feels right to do so. I have some profound soul-searching to do and in all honesty, that requires stillness and silence, a reaching deep within myself and a turning inward for some serious introspection.

I still plan to write, but this fall I’m going to try my hand at journaling again. I’ve got a stack of books lined up to read (and a lot of them just happen to be books about writing). I tend to read more non-fiction than fiction, but I think I want to delve into some fiction this fall and winter.

Photo by Alex Blăjan on Unsplash

I plan to spend this fall (my favorite time of the year) taking long hikes in the woods with my husband, making all things pumpkin, going to a few high school football games and plan a trip to our beautiful Smoky Mountains. I need to work on coming to terms with my empty nest that came WAY too soon to suit me (is it really possible to fail at being an empty nester)? Because I feel like I have. Regardless, it’s here whether I like it or not and so there’s work to do there (I  have a couple of books lined up to read on that topic too)! But most of all I want to continue on with Bible reading and studying. I feel a strong passion (desire?) for that.

There are projects to complete around the house too – two more bedrooms that need carpet torn out and hardwood flooring put down. And oh man, that’s a job. There’s much-needed painting to do and house repairs to schedule and a giant hole in the backyard that still needs “fixing.” And there’s a basement that’s in bad need of decluttering and cleaning and I’ve ignored its calling out to me for too many years now. So, dear friends, all of these things I feel are calling me away for a while.

I wanted to thank you for coming here to read in my tiny, tiny corner of the blogosphere. This has always been a place where I come to think out loud – a place where I try to figure out what this thing called life is all about. Thank you for allowing me to do that and for the kindness you’ve always shown to me. I’ve always been truly grateful for the friends I’ve met through blogging. It’s funny, I started blogging over 7 years ago with a hope to learn a little about writing but I think what I ended up learning more about is people. And maybe that’s just how God wanted it.

Always, I pray for your life to be enriched with blessings and peace.