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Saturday Reflections

On Saturdays during our Lenten Devotional time we sill simply sit with an instrumental version of a well-known hymn or worship song. Our weeks are so full, so busy, so noisy…use these Saturdays to prepare your hearts for gathered worship by reflecting on lyrics and Scripture in a space of stillness and simplicity.

Today’s instrumental hymn was born of personal tragedy. How often the deepest depths of despair give birth to the most powerful poetry of faith.

Louisa Stead was born in Dover, England, in 1850. As a teenager she sensed that God was calling her to be a missionary. At twenty-one she moved to the United States, living for a time in Cincinnati, Ohio. While attending a camp meeting in Urbana, her sense of calling deepened, and she longed to serve in China. But fragile health closed that door.

In 1875 she married Mr. Stead, and the couple settled in New York. Soon their daughter, Lily, was born.

One sunny day, when Lily was four years old, the family went for a picnic at the beach along Long Island Sound. As they ate their lunch, cries for help suddenly rang out. A young boy was drowning in the water. Without hesitation, Mr. Stead rushed into the sea to rescue him. But in the struggle, the panicked boy pulled his rescuer under. Both drowned before the helpless eyes of Louisa and her little daughter.

In the dark days that followed, Louisa wrestled deeply with God—asking the painful question, Why? Yet out of that season of grief came a quiet testimony of faith. From her wounded heart flowed the words of the hymn:

“’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus…”

Not long afterward, Louisa and Lily sailed to South Africa, where she served as a missionary for fifteen years. While there she married Robert Wodehouse, a South African. Because of her health the family returned to the United States in 1895, where Wodehouse pastored a Methodist church. But the call to missions had never left them, and in 1900 they returned to Africa, serving at the Methodist mission station in Umtali in Southern Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe).

When Louisa passed away Louisa in 1917 at her home near the Mutambara Mission, it was recorded by the Christians in Rhodesia that: “We miss her very much but her influence goes on as our 5,000 converts continually sing this hymn in their native language”.

And it continues today.

Scripture for Meditation:

“Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace,
    in peace because they trust in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
    for in the Lord God
    you have an everlasting rock.”
—Isaiah 26:34 (NRSV)

Song: ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” (lyrics after video)

Lyrics for Reflection

Read through the lyrics of this hymn slowly and prayerfully. Read them more than once, and pay attention to the movement of your soul as you pray. What words or phrases grab your attention? Why? As you finish, sit in prayerful silence before God and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you something of your need and God’s provision that emerges from these words.

'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
CHORUS
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
Just in simple faith to plunge me
'Neath the healing cleansing flood
CHORUS
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
CHORUS
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