by By Oloo Laurine
“Life happened!” We say this statement more often than we care to admit. This is because in our
daily lives, we tend to deal with 10,000 things, and these cause lots of anxiety and heaviness of heart. We encounter job loss, grief, chronic illnesses, divorces, relationship break ups and many more. We feel like we have a lot going on and can’t take in more blows. All these cause us to wonder whether life is worth living because it has already taken its course, a detour we
didn’t see coming.
But pain is almost inevitable in a broken world marred with sin. Is there any hope for us? Does anyone see our pain? Does
anyone understand the frown behind the beautiful smiles we put up?
Lately, I have repeatedly sung the song, “What a friend we have in Jesus”. It is one of the most familiar
hymns we sing in our churches, but do we understand the depth of the lyrics? Let me give you
a brief story behind this hymn.
Joseph Scriven penned this hymn for his ill mother. He tried to comfort and encourage her,
initially writing a poem before turning it into a song years later.
Joseph was born in Ireland in 1819. He was educated and received a degree from Trinity College in Dublin, where he became a teacher. With plans to settle down and soon to marry, life was good. Unfortunately, the day before his wedding, his future wife drowned. Overwhelmed with grief beyond what he could bear, Joseph moved to Canada to start over. There, he met another beautiful lady, Eliza Rice, and fell in love again. But weeks before they were wed, Eliza became sick and died from her illness. Joseph was only 25 at this point.
It is unthinkable that you could lose so much in one young lifetime. A mission was born from this heartache and through faith in his God. Joseph took a vow of poverty and began to help people experiencing poverty and those with disabilities. For ten years,
he made himself available to come alongside those in need and found comfort and purpose in serving.
Then, unbelievably, heartache struck again! His mother, still in Ireland, became very ill. Scriven did not have the funds to help her or to go be with her. He penned the words of this poem for her, and it has since comforted, encouraged and uplifted generations!
What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer!
Many times and in many ways, we are faced with situations like that of Joseph or even worse. Sometimes, the pain we experience is undoubtedly beyond what we can bear, but what a privilege it is that believers do not have to bear the pain alone. What a privilege it is to know that we have a friend who understands our weaknesses and sympathizes with us. Jesus Christ, our saviour and Lord in human flesh, experienced pain, humiliation, persecution, grief, hunger, tiredness and temptations. Still, in all
these, He was victorious. Because He walked the road, we walk each day; He can sympathize with us in weakness.
“Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God; let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us the, with confidence, draw near the throne of grace so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.” Heb 4:15-16
Jesus, our high priest, has invited us to draw near in prayer that we may receive mercy and find grace in our times of need.
The challenge, however, is that most times, we feel we have it all figured out, or we look at some things and see them as little or too big to bring to the Lord, and in the process, we are caught up with the heaviness of the heart and anxiety. We bear needless pain simply because we do not carry everything to God in Prayer.
Sometimes we feel we have prayed long enough for things, but we don’t see the results; that can indeed be discouraging, but when we understand that our High Priest is sovereign over all, we can ask Him to give us peace in our hearts as we continue to wait and trust Him to deliver us. He does not tire of listening to our laments. We can always be raw with Him, speak our hurting hearts out and ask that His will be done. He bore all our sins on the cross. He paid the highest price for our sake and will not forsake us now. He bids us to come to Him so that we would obtain mercy.
When we fail to pray, we are forsaking this amazing grace and the mercy he offers. Jesus is our faithful friend who shares in all our sorrows because He is familiar with our weaknesses as human beings, making Him the best person to turn to. In times of grief, most of the time, one wants to hear words of comfort from someone who has been there, who has walked down that road, because they believe they would relate to their pain. Jesus is that friend. He has walked down that road. You can turn
to Him when you are tempted or heavy laden because He offers rest to every weary soul.
Indeed, what a friend we have in Jesus, who all our sins and griefs gladly bears!
Oloo Laurine is an enthusiastic reader who is currently a staff member with I-Serve Africa, a Kenyan organization that promotes faithful Bible teaching and servant leadership.
