“Would you give us a mic check please?” If you’ve ever done public speaking, any kind of video work or something using a microphone, it’s likely that you’ve had someone ask you for a mic check to make sure that all of the audio stuff is working. And what do you say for a mic check? That’s always the quandary, unless you have done this a lot and anticipate this request. But lots of times, people reply with, “Testing 1, 2, 3, testing 1, 2, 3.”
You “test” the microphone and audio system to make sure they’re functioning properly. Sometimes we might go through “testing seasons” to check our faith, to observe our devotion, to evaluate our strength and/or reveal weak spots in our connection to Jesus and the authenticity of our love.
Testing seasons are uncomfortable, and we don’t usually like them. On the other hand, they are helpful to expose gaps in our faith, holes in our love and weak spots in our relationship with Jesus. Being aware of such deficiencies can help us to address these challenges in order to grow stronger and deepen our faith.
Consider the backstory to the famous hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul,” written by Horatio Spafford around 1875. Mr. Spafford wrote this hymn on the heels of personal tragedy. He lost his son to scarlet fever in 1871, and that same year he lost much of his wealth in the Great Chicago Fire. Only a few years later, his wife and four daughters were sailing to Europe when their ship hit another ship resulting in the death of more than two hundred people. While Mr. Spafford’s wife survived the accident, his four daughters drowned.
Clearly, Mr. Spafford went through a very difficult and even overwhelming season of testing and grief. Upon hearing the news of his daughters’ deaths, he hopped on a ship to join his grieving wife in England. When his ship came to the place where his daughters drowned, the captain let him see the location. At that time, Spafford wrote out a poem that was later set to music and became the great hymn that we know, “It Is Well With My Soul.”
Consider the powerful words that Spafford wrote in the throes of immense loss and grief:
1. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.
Refrain: It is well with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul.
2. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
3. 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!
4. 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.
5. 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!
6. And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul.
In thinking about these powerful lyrics and various seasons and experiences of testing that we go through, let’s keep our eyes on Jesus—our anchor during very stormy times. In letting Jesus be our anchor, perhaps we can say with the author of this amazing hymn, “It is well with my soul.”
