Sunday Sermon 🙂

19 April 2020

One of the things that happens on our house regularly on a Sunday is the turning on of the television in time to watch Songs of Praise. This is enjoyable not only for familiar hymns that we both grew up with, but also enjoying seeing parts of Great Britain that may or may not get added to the bucket list.

This morning’s episode – which also featured an Australian Anglican minister in England walking alpacas to school to make contact with refugee neighbours, featured the hymn “It is well with my soul”.

Non-Christian friends please don’t leave straight away! I’m not a theologian – that should be very obvious to many, but I truly think we all acknowledge a soul of some sort – whether it’s your conscience, your personality, your psyche, or simply your heart.

The lyrics for IIWWMS were apparently written by a grieving parent, and recorded many times, including once to raise money following some previous Australian bushfires.

Now please be aware that I’m not a scholar who studies the full lyrics of these songs – the title caught my attention and the tune was quite catchy. My googling showed up a lot of ye olde English and even at one stage mentioned the words Trump and Angel in close proximity, so maybe it’s better to be oblivious.

But the reason it got stuck in my brain is because I have, for many years, taken as my personal motto the title of another song “I choose to be happy (so I am)”. And this one kinda syncs with that in my tiny little brain.

The message basically is that life can be unpredictable and challenging, but our attitude, our reactions to it will ultimately help us to overcome hardship and tragedy.

Here’s hoping that all is well with your souls.

And if not, there’s some alpacas in Birmingham you can go for a walk with. It might help.