I was thinking tonight…what if all isn’t “well with my soul”? This hymn which has meant so much to so many just doesn’t seem to do full justice to the need for self-expression in grief. It can at times function more to repress genuine feelings of grief, anger, and despair. It can at times serve only to attempt to ignore the pain of sorrow. Is there still a place in our hymnody for raw expressions of pain and sorrow as the ancient Israelites held to in their psalms? Can we sing songs of despair or anger over injustice? I love this hymn, but wonder if we have too quickly dashed from the valley of the shadow of death into a pleasant meadow of our own self-making? Am I less than Christian if at any time all is not well?
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