It is very well

Sometimes you hit upon a real gem. And I think I just did. In fact, I was so pleased with my find that I was offering to write up a criminal record for the guilty party who dropped verses four and five of Spafford's song, “It is Well.” I didn’t even know the song was written with six verses until this morning and I've been singing this song all my life.

I suppose some of my passion came from being caught in a tender moment. It is Sunday and I was missing out on our church service back home. I was missing out on singing with a congregation in my native tongue. Plus, I’ve been seriously missing out on and hungering for music. We have no instruments here since my piano slightly exceeded the 50 pound weight limit of our suitcases coming over. And currently we have no MP3 player since the thieves ran off with that nearly two months ago. Music, then, has been limited to our own vocals which is fine but which isn’t quite like singing with a choir --especially when half of our family is Kindergarten age and younger.

But we recently purchased a Hymn Makers CD being sold along the streets of Accra. I put it on this morning and it immediately lured the two children over to stand beside me with shining eyes. “Is that church?” she asked softly, tugging on my sleeve. I couldn’t answer right away; I was crying.

Then I joined them and sang my way through the old hymns I love. One of them was “It is Well.” I was singing the last verse when suddenly I realized they were not. It was surprising to me because I know that song by heart. But when I listened to the words I had been missing out on, I felt gypped that I spent over 30 years of my life without getting to sing “But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait, The sky, not the grave, is our goal. . .” Thankfully, I found these verses now and can spend the next thirty years of my life singing them with the same passion the rest of the song inspires.

Here are the original words to the song:

It is Well

Horatio G. Spafford, 1873

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:

It is well, (it is well),

With my soul, (with my soul)

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:

If Jordan above me shall roll,

No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,

Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,

The sky, not the grave, is our goal;

Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!

Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

A song in the night, oh my soul!