What a friend did--suicide?!

Once New Year's Day puts an official end to the season’s hoopla people get depressed at the prospect of returning to work and starting another year of everyday life with all its hardships and uncertainty.

It is amazing how many great hymns from history were born of sad things and accompanying intense emotions—the death of a loved one, personal tragedy, ailments and impairments, tremendous physical and/or mental hardships, on and on.

I was quite surprised to learn that the author of a very favorite hymn of mine since childhood, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” is speculated to have actually committed suicide!

“There are conflicting reports about the death of Joseph Scriven,” writes Helen Salem Rizk in her 1964 book, “Stories of the Christian Hymns.” “Some authorities say he died of natural causes; others that he took his life in a fit of melancholia. However, they all agree as to the humility and kindness that ruled his days from the great tragedy on the eve of his marriage, when his bride-to-be accidentally drowned, to the day of his death in 1886.”

Considered one of the ten most popular Christian hymns ever published, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” was discovered “in a very dramatic manner,” says Rizk. “When Scriven, who lived an extremely tragic life, was in his last days, a friend who was sitting with him during a time of severe illness came upon the manuscript.

"The friend was very impressed and wondered why it never had been published. Scriven replied, ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus has been written by God and me to comfort my mother during a time of great sorrow.’

“He explained that he never intended that it be used by anyone else. Strange are the ways of fate; a song written only for the life and need of one person became the inspiration of millions!”

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The classic hymns, “O For a Closer Walk with God,” and “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood,” were written by the son of a clergyman, William Cowper (born in England in 1731), who four times in his life was committed to insane asylums and many times attempted suicide, says Rizk.

“His sixty-nine years of life were physical torture and mental anguish,” she writes. “The burden of his mental affliction and at times partial insanity was lightened by his desire and ability to write . . . This suffering man was loved by many and known to be a true Christian. He was able to produce some of our sweetest and most spiritual hymns.

Of “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood,” she noted, “People have sung this grand old favorite through the years. Probably unaware of the struggle Cowper had in his life, they see only the beauty and feeling reflected in this hymn.”

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For George Matheson’s “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go,” Rizk summarizes, “This great hymn of courage and faith was written, strangely enough, under circumstances of tragic inner conflict and severe mental suffering as a release from personal tragedy . . .

"The courage and fortitude of Dr. Matheson (1842-1906) was evidenced by the dramatic fact that from this deep sorrow and heartache he could write: ‘O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee.’ ”

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The classic of classics, “Sweet By and By,” is written by Sanford Filmore Bennett (1836-1898).  “It is said that this entire hymn, including words by S.F. Bennett and music by J.P. Webster, was written and composed in less than 30 minutes,” Rizk’s book confirms. “Webster, who was subject to moods of melancholy and depression, once visited his friend Bennett who was writing at his desk.

“Walking to the fire, Webster turned his back to his friend without a word. When Bennett asked him what the matter was, he received the curt reply that ‘it would be alright, by and by.’ Seizing upon the last three words, Bennett exclaimed, ‘The sweet by and by! That would make a good title for a hymn!’

“Whereupon, he wrote without stopping, covering the paper as fast as his pen could go. When he finished he handed the manuscript to Webster, who immediately sat down and composed a melody to fit the stirring words. From this union in the village of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, the gospel hymn was born: ‘There’s a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar, For the Father waits, over the way, To prepare us a dwelling-place there.’ ”

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“We instinctively withdraw our hand if it’s getting burned, right? But when it comes to tribulation, God’s attitude and perspective is, ‘No, I don’t want you to behave like that,’ ” explains my pastor Alex Kurz.

“There’s a direct correlation with the activity of godliness and the sanctifying effect that tribulations now have in life.

"It isn’t something that we dread. It isn’t something we run away from. It’s something we cannot only welcome but recognize in it that we’re 'more than conquerors.'

"God says there is a specific provision He gives to us so we can triumph in life. Instead of looking at tribulation as something to avoid, we’re to see its value. It’s no longer an enemy. I don’t have to fear or dread. I now can welcome those tribulations.

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“Hebrews 5:7 is a powerful, powerful verse of our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.’

“He was a man of sorrows. Jesus was acquainted with grief. You don’t think He was touched by the effects of living in a sin-cursed world, or the emotional and psychological trauma; the rejection and alienation? He knows--He feels hurt. He feels pain.

“Verse 5:8 says, ‘Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.’

“He didn’t succumb. While He’s in pain, while He’s in anguish, while He’s experiencing the trauma, you know what He chooses to do? ‘I’m going to learn.’ It’s a learning experience! When tribulations come our way, what a learning experience!

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“The theme of II Corinthians actually has to do with sufferings, tribulations and infirmities. It’s probably the darkest epistle the Apostle Paul wrote.

“He starts chapter 1 with, ‘Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.’

“Drop down to verse 9: ‘But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

[10] Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.’

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“We’re going to learn to trust what God has to say about tribulations. Our flesh and our emotions, which are committed to avoiding all that . . . we now can tackle it with this renewed understanding; this renewed knowledge about it. Don’t fear it; don’t dread it.

“Paul says, ‘I’m now going to trust what God says.’ If He says tribulation is ordained to be a spiritual benefit and blessing, are we going to believe what He says about it? We have to readjust the way we think about the problems of life.

“God will not remove your affliction. That’s why when Paul said three times, ‘Lord Jesus, please,’ He responded, ‘Paul, you aren’t thinking about what’s happening in your life,’ and Christ reminds Paul about the available inner man capacity that he already had.

"Jesus didn’t say ‘no’ and He didn’t say ‘yes,’ He just said, ‘Paul, you’ve already got something. I don’t need to do any more.’

“God will not miraculously reach down into your life and remove your problem or shield you from the problem. He doesn’t give us immunity or a hedge of protection. God said, ‘It’s a blessing.’

“What do we KNOW? ‘Hey, it’s going to work something!’ When bad things happen in your life, it has absolutely nothing to do with God’s displeasure. It has everything to do with God’s delight in producing something in the core of your inner man.

“ ‘If I’m going to glory,’ Paul says, ‘I’m going to glory in the things concerning my infirmities. God’s not angry with me; He’s not angry with you.’

‘So wait a minute, Paul, why do you look like a physical mess?!’ Paul’s going to say, ‘You know what, that’s my certificate!’

“Acts 14:22 says, ‘Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.’

“It says, ‘We must.’ Is that optional? It’s a reality. The sooner we accept the fact that tribulation is part and parcel of our experience and edification, the sooner we can employ the very doctrines God says we need in order to glory in and see the value, worth, profit and advantage in it.”

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Proverbs 23 says, ‘For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.’

“Your heart has a mind to it. It has a capacity to think. Paul says in Romans 10:10: ‘For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,’ " explains Richard Jordan/

“So a part of your heart is the fact you have a will. You’re able to choose. You can will. Believing is to choose to accept and trust something. Your heart is where your will is, but your heart also has emotions. You can be 'exceedingly sorrowful.' Those three components make up your soul.

“Your constitution when God made you—the way He designed you, you have a spirit, soul and body. Your will takes the things in your mind and believes it, trusts it and depends on it.

"Your will, making a choice to depend on something, gives that thing you’re trusting control of your life. When your will makes the choice, your emotions can respond to your will and the action comes out of there.

“Take the 'E' off of emotion and what do you have? Motion. The connecting point between your soul, your mind, your inner man and your body, it’s sort of like the connection is involved in your emotions.

"What happens is your emotions are a function of your soul that can reach into your physical frame and stimulate it. It can shoot the adrenalin. You know, all the different emotions.

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“Love and fear are the two ultimate emotions. Every other emotion you have is a gradation of those two, and for some, a combination of them.

"Your emotions are designed to make you move, get you acting, because there’s something inside of you that’s working OUT of you.

“Your emotions are absolutely dumb. They have no intellect at all. The facts of life, of a situation, do not determine your experience. It’s how you THINK about those facts that determine your experience.

“If you were to get news that your family had been in a horrific accident and killed, how would you feel? You’d feel devastated because you believed a report.

"You have no factual evidence; all you’re doing is believing what someone told you. The facts may be entirely different. Somebody might be lying to you.

“When your mind is programmed by truth, then your will can take an action based on faith and truth. And when you trust God’s Word, what does it do? It works effectually in you that believe; having truth be what programs your mind …

“When your mind is programmed by error, what happens is it produces some predictable emotional responses because error always does that. And those predictable emotional responses and desires that error produce result in erroneous behavior.

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“Take Romans 7. We talk about addicts. They want that feeling so they depend on that pill (or whatever it is) to give it to them. The dependence on that pill is controlling them. You see, anything you depend on will control your life, so if you depend on truth, truth will control your life.

“When you sin, you’re going to respond to that sin in one of two ways. Your response to it is going to be based upon your flesh, your own resources. And that’s what you find in Romans—a law response. The law is simply a performance-based acceptance mentality: ‘I’ll be accepted based on my performance.’

“The law, the standard you’re performing by, might be God’s law, might be your wife’s law, might be your law, might be your company’s . . . It’s just, ‘I can live up to whatever it is.’

“The other way to respond is to respond in your identity in Christ. Respond in your spirit and on the basis of grace. Grace is all that God is free to do through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Grace is who I am in Christ, who He is and who God’s made me in Him.

“So when I sin I have a choice. I look at what’s happened and I say, ‘I can go into 'Operation Cover-up' or I can go into 'Operation Let’s- fix-this-thing.’ Every time sin is in your life, that’s the choice.”