'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus

Putting our faith in Christ is not about trying harder. It means transferring our trust away from ourselves and resting in Him. Tim Keller. This is The Bright Forever.

The Bright Forever

Welcome to The Bright Forever. We made it through the storm. For those who may not know, this podcast is based out of Tampa, Florida, and we are on the other side of Hurricane Ian. My family and I are good. We were out of power for a couple of days, but we're doing good. Please continue to pray for those who are south of us, especially pray for those in the Fort Myers and surrounding areas who received the majority or the major effects of the storm surge and the devastating winds. If you have the ability to reach out and to give a helping hand, send supplies or to help in the relief efforts that are underway, please pray about how much you and your family can do to help those who have lost everything. On the blog, we have links to sites like Samaritan's Purse, the Red Cross, and others where you can donate to their disaster relief funds or even volunteer through trips to the area to help clean up and to help with reconstruction. And so there are a lot of people in need. There are a lot of people who lost everything. And so they need our help. And if you can give of your time or give of your money to help Put things back together for so many people. Please take an opportunity to do that and see where God may be leading you to give. This week's hymn couldn't come at a better time. I was wondering why our last hymn, Joyful, Joyful, I went back and forth on splitting it into two weeks. I was going, should I really split it into two weeks? Should I not? And it pushed this hymn back a week. And I was going, hmm, should I do it? Should I not do it? And I couldn't really understand, other than I just felt like I needed to push it back, and I don't know why. But God's timing is so perfect. Because this week we're talking about a hymn that fits, and fit for our family at least, so perfectly this past week into what was going on in our lives. This week we're looking at"'Tis So Sweet." to trust in Jesus. It is a hymn that has meant a lot to my girls. It's meant a lot to my whole family, especially through some really difficult times in our lives, specifically in times of waiting to see God move and sometimes painfully move, sometimes move us when we didn't want to move, and asking God, what's going on? Why is this happening to us? The questioning of why were we going through certain events? And it was my wife, really, who kept pointing our family to tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to take him at his word. Just to rest upon his promise. Just to know, thus saith the Lord. Those are words I needed to hear. Those are words I think maybe you need to hear right now. And some who may be struggling and I can't even begin to imagine what you may be going through. I was laying in bed the other night and in my head I was complaining about the fact that I didn't have air conditioning. And I was sweating and I couldn't sleep and And God just very gently reminded me that I could have lost everything. And he reminded me that there are those who are much worse off than I am. There are those who have lost loved ones, who have lost memories, who have lost the home that they've had for decades. And every single one of us needs to trust in Jesus. We don't know why we've lost. We don't know why we're in the situation we're in. We don't understand it at all. We only know And we have a God who loves us and cares for us. And we can trust him. So this week, you get a special treat with this podcast. It was probably not going to happen. And if this actually comes out on time, it will be amazing. I'm going to take the guess. It's probably not going to come out on time. But if it does, it's a miracle. But this is for all those who have been devastated by the effects of Hurricane Ian. For those who were left unsure, for those who spent sleepless nights, for those who heard the winds and the rains and were terrified, this week is for you. I pray that this podcast may be a salve on the wound of not knowing how to trust, not knowing who to trust, and maybe beginning to reorient our eyes and fixing our eyes on the author and the perfecter of our faith, Jesus. I got a chance to interview my wife and and my kids and we sat around and we talked about this hymn,"'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," and what that has meant to our family. And then at the end, you'll get to hear us sing the hymn itself and hopefully bring you some joy and some comfort knowing that we can trust Him even in the midst of loss. So let's begin. Good afternoon. I'm here with my wife, Dina.

Hello.

And this is kind of new for us. We've never done an interview, so this is totally new. You're the first one. Aren't you excited?

Yay! Super excited. Lowering the standards for everyone else to just leap and bound over.

Something tells me this is not going to lower any standards. It's going to be... This is going to become like, why don't you always have somebody else on instead of just you? So I don't think that's going to be a problem. We're talking about something that I'm actually kind of glad that the podcast got pushed back because this hymn, I think, fits really perfectly into what some people may be going through, what some people may have experienced during this, which is just fear. And this song, Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus, is all about fear. casting that fear aside or at least casting that fear onto Christ and trusting in him, trusting in who he is. And I've, I, I mentioned this kind of in the intro of this podcast that you're kind of the one that introduced this song into our family. Even though I had heard this song a whole lot and I've sung this song forever, but I really never thought about it until you started singing. using this song with our girls. And so you kind of introduced the song to our family. And the more we sing it, the more I hear you sing it to the girls as they're either going to sleep or when they're having problems or when they're afraid. It's kind of helped me and it's kind of reminded me of all of the things that God has done for us in our life. Would you just like to talk about that? Kind of how you started singing this hymn to our girls and what this hymn maybe kind of means to you and the words of it and how all of that got started.

So I grew up in a very small country church where... we only sang hymns out of the hymnal. Like there was no other songs. There was no contemporary Christian music. Like I didn't even realize that was a thing probably until much, much later in life. Um, I was like, there are other songs that you can sing in church besides what comes out of the red hymnal or the blue hymnal. Like that was like, that's all we had. Um, and so Tis So Sweet was one of the songs that we sang at a regular frequency. Um, and so that's kind of, and it's always been one of my favorites. And then, um, singing it to our children, it had actually been in my mind, um, about a year or two prior, just kind of, um, I had been, it had been in my head and I had kind of looked up some of the backstory of it as far as who wrote it and kind of the story of Louisa Steed or Stead?

Steed, I

think. Louisa Steed and just kind of reading about her story. And it just, it kind of related in some ways, not directly, but just kind of um, how her story, she, if you don't know a whole lot about the story, she really wanted to be a missionary, but her health prevented her. And so she had this vision of what God wanted for her life and she wasn't seeing it fulfilled. Um, and just kind of, you know, relating to that, you know, knowing where God wants you not being able to see yourself in that season, not really sure why he's keeping you from that, um, knowing he's placed that call on your life, but knowing that, um, There's just this uncertainty of, okay, God, why? I started to sing it to our girls on the most consistent basis through COVID. The world was just turned upside down for them. They were seven and nine at the time. That sounds right. Or no, they were six and eight at the time. They would have been turning seven. So they were still pretty small. They didn't know what was going on. We didn't know what was going on. And so just in all of that uncertainty, I kind of really wanted to instill that, almost like that tradition that I had grown up with of hymns and having those songs that you can really cling to that have a lot of biblical truth in them. And so Tis So Sweet was one of the ones that came to mind. And so we started singing it on a regular basis and they, they loved it. And so that's the one they always requested and just kind of continued from there.

The one thing about this hymn that I think hits home for me and for our family, um, is we've had a lot of struggles over the last,

whatever do you mean? The

last what? Like, eight nine years we have um from losing

nine of our 12 years together nine of our

12

years no just kidding no not even 12 yeah no 12 okay yeah it's sorry it has been 12.

hey we have been married 12 years um and yeah of of but of that 12 years nine of it has been really difficult um not Our relationship, like not us having difficulty all the time, but from losing jobs and not knowing maybe if we were going to be able to put food on the table, but every single time and thinking about checks in the mail that would just arrive, we would have no idea why this person would give, but... a check would come at just the right time or somebody at church would just walk up to me, shake my hand, and in the shaking of the hand, hand me$200. And I'm like, what? And it was just at the right time. It was just at the right moment because there was something that we needed to do. There was a bill that needed to be paid. There was food that needed to be bought. And One of the things that we did at the time was we started writing down every time we got a check at the right time or every time somebody gave us something or they provided us a meal or they did something that just made us go, oh my goodness, God taking care of God provided again. We started keeping a journal of all of that. Where have you seen God provide over these last 12 years of marriage? Where have you seen his hand of protection on us and being able to trust in him more and more?

I would say that I've kind of seen his hand of provision and guidance even kind of going back before the 12 years that we've been married and really, um, kind of his hand in, um, bringing me to Florida. So I grew up in Illinois. I didn't really have any ties to the Tampa area when I set out to move here. Um, I was going to school and there were multiple schools around the country that had a program, um, that I was transferring into. Um, and, um, I came to visit USF with my mom and my stepdad and it was kind of one of those things where we it made no sense that we would be like, okay, this is, this is where God wants me. This is where I'm supposed to go. Because the week that I came down to visit, there was a huge storm. I don't think it was a, I don't think it was a tropical storm or anything, but there was just a really bad thunderstorm that kind of came through while I was on campus. And my mom and my stepdad were at the hotel and my mom was really crying. kind of freaking out because you know it was very different than you know typical thunderstorms and things that we're used to and I remember after the orientation and the meet and greet thing was over she came to pick me up and she just looked at me and she said I have no idea why I am at peace with this decision she goes but but this is where God wants you and um my mom and I are incredibly close um we've always been incredibly close so the fact that she was telling me that yes she's fine with me moving almost a thousand miles away from her was kind of like okay God like you when you speak you speak big sometimes okay And just kind of just seeing where his hand has kind of just gently nudged my life as far as getting here to Florida to, you know, meeting you, getting in. And just kind of seeing like those. It's not always easy to see when you're in those changes and you're in those seasons, right? where God's gently nudging you. But it's something that when you look backwards, you know, a year later, two years later, three years later, you can kind of see where God's hand was leading you. And so in thinking about just the story of the author of the hymn, and just from a young age, she was dedicated to she was dedicated to wanting to be a missionary and serving and her health prevented her. And so there were these other small steps that kind of took her to other places on the way to where she would end up eventually. And she did eventually end up serving in missions. But she just kind of had to take the scenic route in order to get

there. It just reminded me of something. uh, that we were just talking about with our pastor's wife the other day. Um, cause, um, pastor Tim was talking about, um, when you face those trials, when you face those, those times where you just have to do the next right thing. Uh, and it, it, it reminded me of the song from, uh,

from frozen to yes, from,

from frozen to the, the next right thing, you know, that you, you, when you face tragedy, when you face times when, and, and I know that their story and how they came to Florida and our story and how we have had some really trying times over the last few years. Um, and people that you thought were on your side and they weren't and, and, and just, um, sorrow and loss, even if it's the loss of a job or the loss of, of friends that you thought you had or, and you didn't, and just feeling the pain of that, that sometimes the best thing you can do is just take that next step. Um, and you just say, okay, God, what's next? Um, What's next? What's next? And that reminds me now of

the

West wing, the West wing, all the pop culture, just all these pop culture references in here. And in the trying times, what is it like to have to trust God? Like the, because there were, there were a lot of times when you and I really, we just, all we had was trust in God. Cause we didn't have a dime, right? And we just had to say, okay, Lord, if we're going to eat dinner, if our girls are going to eat dinner, we got to trust you because we can't go to the store. We can't buy anything. We have not, we don't have anything. And all of a sudden something shows up and it's just, and those times where we trust more and more and more. Can, can you speak to that?

I mean, I feel like we've, we've been through so much together, um, because right around the time that, um, we found out we were expecting lovely, you had lost your job. And so, um, there was a period of transition there where it was, um, you didn't even have a job and I was working and, um, we had a two year old and I

was about to say, I'm like, I, I, I didn't have a job, like a full-time job for almost a year. And a half almost, right?

Yeah,

that

sounds about right. Yeah. you're pregnant. They just, they think you're an invalid. Um, I can't do anything, but you know, I was doing my best to, to, um, try and make up in the, in the, in the lack. Um, and then just, you know, transitioning from one kid to two kids is always a challenge. And in that, and then with those challenges, just the challenge of, you know, you're trying to find a job and the stresses that can bring, um, And then when you finally did get a job, it was retail. And then we were both working retail. So if you've ever been in a double retail household, that usually means that there is never two adults in the house at the same time. So it was a lot of passing ships in the night, which was hard on our marriage because we didn't have the time to spend with one another. Your days off would be different than my days off. If we did get a day off together, we were both just so exhausted from everything that... We really were just like, thankfully we live near Andy's family, so they were able to help kind of pitch in with childcare and things like that. And so we always felt guilty um, asking them to watch the kids an additional amount of time so that we could go on a date and we just, you know, um, but there were times that it made it very hard on our marriage and just trying to make sure that we were still communicating and, um, we're definitely not perfect. There were times that we were not communicating well and, you know, it showed in how we treated each other and, you know, and just, um, having to learn to work through that. And, um,

And I think having to learn to trust God in that.

Yes.

Especially when you don't handle a conversation well. And for my own– I'll speak from my own– from knowing you're right about something. I'm starting to fight right now. But no, when– I'll say– Knowing you may not be right, but absolutely wanting to be right. And coming at it from anger and going... like that's the last time that, that, that is the last moment that you're going, you know what, I need to stop and trust God right now. You know, no, you want to be right. I'm

going to trust God's going to convict him.

I trust, I trust that God is going to teach my wife that I was right about this, you know, but trusting in God in those times can be so difficult, especially when you are, are trying to make ends meet. You're maybe living paycheck to paycheck. You're not able to communicate because you never see each other. And it's just hard.

It's hard. It is incredibly hard. And so I think one of the lessons that we really had to learn in that was just kind of taking a step back and just saying, you know what, God, I'm going to trust that I can keep my mouth closed and listen to as opposed to listening to respond, which is usually what happens in those times when you're not fully trusting God with everything you have. And I think it really kind of started to show once we realized what we were doing wasn't working. And so we just, we really had to work hard at making sure that we were, you know, being receptive to each other and listening and, not always considering that you know what i'm doing is right or you know well i'm i'm just going to trust that god's going to convict him to show him he was wrong because that you know that doesn't always doesn't always happen that way

yeah um and so i'm stubborn even when god tells me sometimes even when i know i'm wrong sometimes

um but i really i really think that you know especially after last summer when we went through you know um well kind of over COVID when we were all home together and it was essential that we learned how to communicate well with one another. That actually kind of helped us in ways because then when I went back to work and I was still working retail at the time. Andy was, um, teaching, um, the, the, the landscape of retail completely changed, um, as far as interactions with, um, customers and things like that. But it was just, it was, it was very mentally taxing in a way that, you know, that just continued and really went on for the next year. Um, I would, I was still in retail and then, um, But I think during that time, we were able to learn how to communicate well with one another. You were really great at holding the space for me to just let me decompress, which was usually just sobbing uncontrollably for an hour just to let it all out. And I think in those seasons, it really helped kind of prepare us for– The next season, which we went through a pretty surprising and traumatic pregnancy loss that was just kind of blindsided us both. I was already in a spot of feeling uncertainty about my job because so many retail locations were closing that I was just constantly on edge of when is the day that I'm going to hear that my job's gone. And so... to go through that and then also a season of loss where we weren't expecting it um i was definitely not prepared for the news that came out of the the doctor of the doctor's mouth of that poor girl i scared her with my mask on so um with my facial expressions so that if that tells you how well i took the news when um when i found out i was pregnant and then basically almost immediately found out that I was losing it. And then it was just kind of a scary health situation after. And then just trying to recover from that was, there were, there were moments in that season where I just, I really was confused and just was like, why God, why would we, why would we walk through this? We already have enough uncertainty that we're dealing with. We're already struggling. Like what, what do you want me to learn from this and so um i just that was one of those times where the where the words of the hymn came back to me and it was just you know um just making sure that you know we keep our trust in jesus and just kind of thinking about how louisa lost um her husband um and she's left with her child and she's you know she's just wondering okay god like why have you brought me to this season? And just like the last, one of the last verses of the, of the hymn, she says, um, uh, to so sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease, just from Jesus, simply taking life and rest and joy and peace. And I was really in a season where I was not resting. Um, I just, I, there was so much unease in what was happening. There was so much, um, I felt like I had to do. I was, you know, I knew my job was probably hanging in the balance. So I felt like I had to go out and I had to, you know, do all of these things and try to make sure that, you know, I was looking for jobs and I was taking care of everybody. And I was, you know, making sure my kids weren't, you know, completely traumatized from the last 18 months of, you of craziness and you know, um, that, um, what I went through really forced me to just, um, it forced me to rest. Um, it, it plunged me into rest, um, quiet, I mean, just full dunk, um, and hold me down, but you know, don't drown me please. Um, but there was a lot of, you know, just thinking on those truths that, you know, you need those seasons of rest. You need to take those, you need to build in the habit of Sabbath rest. And that was something that I had definitely neglected. And, um, going through that, God really kind of gave me an opportunity to sit and do nothing because I, I couldn't do anything. I, I literally like I, they, I had to be, you know, at home resting, taking care of myself and, Um, and so I would say that, you know, that was one of those times when that him really kind of came back to me and just forced me to trust in him.

That's yeah. Uh, and, uh, those were times that were hard though. Uh, like every, um, just these last, these last, you know, uh, nine years of marriage just over and over again. Going from one thing to the next, going, okay, God, we're trusting you for the next thing. We're trusting you for the next thing. And yeah, it's been harder, but it's been good, I think. Yes.

And I love you. I love you too. And now we're having our other surprise. And now we have another

surprise coming in about a month. Yes. Yeah. I wish the listeners could have seen that face that just happened. And we're going to bring our kids on. How's that sound? We're going to talk to them about it as well. So they're going to come and join us in just a second. So we are here with two amazingly lovely people, my wife and I. And, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And two beautiful little girls. What are your names again? I forget.

Zoe. My name's Lily.

And how old are each of you? I forgot that too.

Eleven. And I'm nine.

Wow. And you both just had birthdays, right?

Yes. Yeah. Hurricane birthday for me.

Yes, you did have a hurricane birthday. Yours was last Friday. That's true. So this week... we are talking about the hymn,"'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." And I know specifically for Lily, but I think for both of you, that hymn has meant a whole lot to you. And so can y'all talk about that for just a little bit?

So whenever I didn't feel okay to sleep alone in my bed, because the first time I got my full-size bed, I was sleeping alone, and... I didn't really, like, feel comfortable because, like, I've always been, like, sleeping closer to Zoe and not diagonal from her. And before that, I was sleeping in the same bed as her, so I kind of felt, like, a little bit lonely. So that was the end. That was, like, the first time. That was, like, not the first time. That was the time that, um... That was that our mom sang it whenever I didn't feel like as secure. And whenever I didn't feel okay, she always sang it to me.

So Zoe, are there any times in your life where the words of this song have been helpful about learning how to trust in Jesus?

Well, basically during this hurricane so far, I knew that he was going to protect me. And one time I had a tooth growing through my gum. I still do. It doesn't hurt as much now or at all now. But I knew that I had to trust in Jesus that he was going to heal to me. He was going to heal my tooth pains.

What's your favorite part of the song?

It's sort of hard to explain because, well, like, I, like, it's sort of hard because pretty much all of it helps me. Okay, that's good. So,

yeah. But what is your favorite part of the song when you sing it with Mommy?

Probably... And in simple faith to plunge me, meet the healing, cleansing flood.

And why is that your favorite? I really don't know why, but... Is it because you pretend to plunge my face with a plunger?

Do you like the word plunge?

That's

one of the things I love about hymns is sometimes you come across words that you usually don't like. Like, yeah, plunge. You don't ever think of plunge unless you're going to get a plunger for the toilet. So you don't think about plunging like that. And so, yeah. So when mommy sings it to you. you act like you're plunging her face. That's that.

And like, like the healing cleansing flood is like, it's like, it helps me because it's like Jesus is love. It's spreading all to us.

Cool. I like that.

And Jesus' love also can help you feel more confident and get through stuff that can challenge you.

That's good. I like that. And it's true. It does. I mean, that's one of the reasons why we're talking about this song is because of that. Has there been a time in your life where you have felt like, man, I really need to trust God?

I can't remember a time, so to say. Is

there any time you've been scared and had to trust God?

Probably doctor or dentist appointments.

Okay.

How about when you're about to get a shot, like the other day when you had to get a shot?

Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. That's why I said doctor's appointments. She didn't want to get the shot first, but she did. You cried. So, my arm felt numb.

You know what my favorite part of the song is?

What?

My favorite part is verse number three. It says, 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. What do you think it means to say that we take from Jesus life and rest and joy and peace?

I think it means from, like, that verse from Romans where it says, like, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord. Like, after that and after you get baptized or something, you should live like him, I guess. Like, live through him, basically. Kind of like I said

earlier. Yeah, that's exactly it, to live through him. Yeah, I was right. Because we get our life from him. We get our rest from him. We get our joy from him and we get our peace. So no matter what happens, we get all of those things. We simply take those things. He gives us life and he gives us rest and he gives us joy and he gives us peace. Dina, would you like to say anything as we close out this?

I just, I have another question for the girls. Yes. So in the chorus, it talks about Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him o'er and o'er. When is a time that you have maybe prayed for something and maybe that prayer didn't come true right away, but then you saw it Come, you know, you saw it happen. You saw God answer that prayer later. Can you can you talk about a time in your life when maybe that happened to you?

So one night me and Zoe were talking about pros and cons about having a baby sister or baby brother. So in January, we prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed for our little sister. And then later in March, we got her. We found out at least. Yeah, because our mom put a congratulations card. For us. For us. And Zoe said, congratulations, Zoe PV House. You're a big sister 2X because I'm her younger sister. And a known tater tot, too.

It's tater tot because we haven't come up with a name yet. So we just call her tater tot.

We wanted to have it so bad because... I never felt like, because I wanted to do it more than Zoe.

Do what?

To have a younger sister, because I wanted to feel like how it's like to be an older sister. And I think it would be fun to be an older sister. And I would be the only middle child. And then... Because I don't want Zoe to be the odd one out with being the oldest. The only oldest in all their childhood and media families.

Well, girls, it was awesome having you on. Thank you. We're going to hear a little bit more from you in just a little bit. Because at the end of this podcast, we're all going to sing together. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus together. So, yay. All right. Thank you very much. And thank you all for coming. Thank you.

Thank you. I mean, you're welcome. Why'd you say thank you? You're welcome. I said thank you by accident.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Well, awesome. See y'all later. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

It was awesome getting to sit down and talk with them. And trust me, they loved it too. Maybe my wife, not as much as my girls did, but absolutely, they all loved being a part of it. And I loved getting to introduce them all to you. My girls specifically, they want to be back every single week. And you'll get to hear them again at the end as we sing the hymn together for you. But before we close things out, you may have heard us talking a little bit about the story behind the hymn as we kind of talk through this. But I can't close out without looking at this tremendous story that led to this powerful hymn. And if you are currently dealing with tragedy and loss in your life, know that you are not alone. And that there is a God who loves you more than you could ever possibly know. Louisa M.R. Steed is probably not a household name to you. Born in 1850, little Louisa felt a spiritual calling as a missionary from an early age. At the age of 25, she married. And a year later, she and her husband had a beautiful baby girl. Her name was Lily. When Lily was around four or five years old, Louisa and her husband decided to take their family on a picnic by the seaside on Long Island Sound. While they were eating and enjoying their time together, they heard a cry for help from a young boy who was drowning. Louisa's husband sprang up from his seat and ran towards the waters to rescue this little boy. He was unable to save the young boy. And in fact, as they stood there on the beach, Louisa and Lily watched their beloved husband and father drown while attempting to rescue this boy from the water. The joy of that day turned quickly into utter despair and sadness. with no financial means of support after her husband's death, Louisa and Lily were left in poverty. It's hard to trust God in times like these, but God was working. You see, somehow, whenever Louisa was down to her last dime and had nothing for her daughter to eat, she would find a baked pie or a basket of food or bottles of milk left outside her door. Even in the bleakest moments of her life, Louisa saw the grace of God shine even more brightly. God met their needs. He didn't make them rich. He didn't shower them with money. God provided. And through these trials, her faith and trust in God only grew. God turns our ashes into beauty. It was through this personal tragedy that the words of tis so sweet to trust in Jesus were pinned. As Louisa and her daughter walked through this unimaginable loss, her faith persevered. And to paraphrase her, to plunge her beneath the healing, cleansing flood. The flood of God's infinite mercy. Jesus proves himself to us over and over again. What a savior. What a friend. Jesus is our hope. And the assurance of God's continued presence, even when times are at their most difficult. He promises to be with us to the end. In an article I came across, it said this, perhaps the hymn might be best described as a mantra on the name of Jesus. For if you sing all four stanzas with the refrain, you will sing the name of Jesus 25 times in this song. Reminds me of Proverbs chapter three, verses five and six that say, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path or he will make your path straight. This is a very easy verse to say, but much harder to live out. especially in the midst of sorrow, when life deals you painful blow after painful blow, it can be difficult to believe he is there. Yet he is. Soon after this tragedy, Louisa and Lily left for Cape Colony, South Africa, where Louisa became a missionary for 15 years. She remarried a man named Robert Wodehouse, a native South African, but because of her health, the family found it necessary to return to the United States in 1895. Wodehouse pastored a Methodist congregation during these years until 1900 when they returned to the mission field, this time to the Methodist mission station at Umtali. in Southern Rhodesia, present-day Zimbabwe. Louisa retired because of her health in 1911, but Lily continued to serve for many years in South Rhodesia. What a story. What a legacy of faith and trusting in God. These words were written in 1882. They appeared in Steed's Songs of Triumph. A famed musician of the time, William J. Kirkpatrick, put the words of Steed's poem to music. And it was published in several hymnals. Today, This song has blessed so many. Even in their times of devastation and utter tragedy in life, these words have brought comfort. 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. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus Just to take him Him at His word Just to rest upon His promise Just to know, thus saith the Lord Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him How

I've proved Him o'er and o'er jesus

jesus precious jesus oh for grace to trust

him more oh how sweet To trust in Jesus, just to trust his cleansing blood. Just in simple

faith to plunge me beneath the healing,

cleansing flood. Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust him more. Just is sweet to trust in Jesus Just from sin and self to cease Just from Jesus Jesus, simply taking life and rest and joy and peace. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust him more. And now so glad I learned to trust thee precious Jesus save your friend and I know that thou art with me and wilt be with me to the end Jesus Jesus How I trust him. How I proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust him more. Oh, for grace to trust. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. Thank you for continuing this journey. As I always say, ah, thank you. It means so much to me that there's anybody listening to this. Sorry that it was late. If it is late, if it's on time, then hey, this was awesome. Thank you. If this came a little late, then I'm sorry that it came a little late this week. But continue, please, to be in prayer for those who really have seen immense tragedy and immense loss over this past week as Hurricane Ian hit the coast of Florida. Take a moment and to subscribe to this podcast, either through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, any of the major podcast platforms. You can also find us at www.thebrightforever.com. Also, again, I always say this, but please let us know what you're thinking, what's going on in your head, how this is affecting you. Give me your hymn story. Give me a hymn that has meant the world to you and why. I would love to share those stories on this podcast. So if you have a chance, send us something at podcastatthebrightforever.com. Again, that's podcastatthebrightforever.com. Again, thank you for joining me. Thank you for listening. Let me leave you with this prayer. Father, I just pray right now for those who are listening and those who may know people who are just currently standing in the midst of sorrow, in the midst of loss, in the midst of tragedy in their life. Let us be your hands and your feet. Let us be the salve on the wound. God, we lift up those who have been devastated by Hurricane Ian. God, move in this place. God, move in our hearts and remind us Trusting in you is the sweetest thing in our lives. God, we love you. God, we praise you. We give you all the honor and all the glory in Jesus name. Amen. Have a great week and we'll see you back here next week. We're out.