Beyond the Hymnal: Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

“In God, whose word I praise, In the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can mankind do to me? Your vows are binding upon me, God; I will render thanksgiving offerings to You. For You have saved my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, so that I may walk before God in the light of the living.” (Psalm 56:10-13, NASB)

Isn’t it funny how following Jesus keeps you on your toes? In my years of knowing Him and walking with Him, my personal testimony is that He has never brought me to places I expected Him to. When I look back at my whole life– born and raised on Long Island, sent to the mission field in South Africa, moving as a newlywed to coastal North Carolina, and most recently, transplanted clear across the country to the mountains of Oregon– there are twists and turns God has set in motion that I could never have anticipated or foresaw myself going in His name.

But, praise the Lord, I’ve never gone to a place that was outside of God’s reach. I’ve never stepped into a position that He did not first carve out for me. And though in the moments those changing tides were intimidating and unsure, they have taught me more and more to trust that where He leads is meant to draw me nearer to Him and to strengthen my faith in Him.

Louisa M.R. Stead, the composer of the hymn “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus,” has a story that felt familiar to me in funny ways when I read it.She  was born at around 1850 in Dover, England and was saved at around the age of nine. From a very early age, Louisa felt the Lord drawing her to the mission field. When she was in her young 20s, she immigrated to America, where she attended a revival meeting in Ohio where the Lord seemed to confirm that desire within her to go evangelize in China.

Disappointingly, yet sovereignly, it would turn out that Louisa’s health was too fragile to hold up in the climate where she planned to go. Remaining in the States, Louisa ended up meeting her husband and marrying him not long after her unrealized plans in China. Tragically, sometime between 1879 and 1880, her husband drowned off the coast of Long Island. There is no clear account of how it occurred– some stories say he was trying to rescue a little boy who was also drowning while other accounts say he was actually trying to save his four year old daughter, Lily.

However it might have happened, Louisa found herself unexpectedly the single mother of a toddler and an uncertain future. While in mourning, she decided to pack up her daughter, Lily, and become missionaries in South Africa. During the 15 years she spent fulfilling her dream of being a missionary and taking the gospel to people who needed to know Jesus, she penned those famous words, “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.”

In the years that followed, Louisa would remarry a man named Robert Wodehouse and they, along with Lily,  would continue to evangelize together in Africa. In 1901, while serving in Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), Louisa wrote, “In connection with this whole mission, there are glorious possibilities. One cannot in the face of such peculiar difficulties help saying, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ But with simple confidence and trust we may and do say, ‘Our sufficiency is of God.’ “

While I don’t know what it’s like to be a widow or a single mother, I do know what it’s like to feel called to the mission field, be derailed in my hopes to go and make disciples, and find myself on a completely different path. I do know what it feels like to be called to a place I never imagined I’d call home, and perhaps most blessedly, I know what it is to serve the Lord with my husband and children in that unexpected place. I know what it is like to have to put your trust in the Lord wholly and completely, leaning on His sufficiency to provide and sustain my family as we walk in His will and help to build His kingdom while we are here on earth.

Life has twists in store for everyone, friends. If we commit our lives to the Lord, we will find ourselves being called out into uncharted waters, whether it’s to a physical place or whether it’s an emotional state or a new chapter of life. 

I never expected to be in a remote town in the mountains of Oregon, but that’s my testimony and story. Your Oregon might be that you find yourself unexpectedly a widow, like Louisa, suddenly left with the tatters of a future you thought you would have with someone at your side. Your Oregon might be a career change you never counted on, industries away from what you planned on doing years ago. Your Oregon might be parenthood you didn’t account for, or kids that have moved farther away then you wanted, or any number of things.

The question is, when God throws you those curveballs, will you really step out in faith and trust His calling? Will you hold that vow you made to Him to follow where He leads? Will you thank Him for that uncertainty and that unexpected twist? Will you go fearlessly into that unknown chapter, trusting that God is with you and will draw you nearer to Himself?

Trusting is hard. It’s difficult to place yourself into someone else’s hands, even the Creator and Lord of lords. It’s difficult to abandon your plans, expectations, and maybe even dreams in favor of where God is leading. But I know from personal experience, that I have never regretted it. So when I come to those forks in the road where God is asking me to go down a path I never, ever saw coming, I follow– though admittedly,  in my flesh, I may be tentative. 

It’s hard to trust Him. It’s even more difficult to praise Him when you are so unsure of the outcome of trusting Him, but He is faithful and takes care of those He calls.

The final stanza of Louisa’s hymn says, “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!” 

That truly says it all. The more we learn to trust Him, the more we praise Him for leading us so lovingly and sufficiently. The more we thank Him that He has supplied our faith and carried us through our uncertainties, working in our weakness to display His own glory and strength. The more we can be assured that God is with us, and will be with us to the end of our days here on earth.