A woman came to my office years ago. Like the woman in the Bible, she had spent much on many physicians, but they had not cured her. She had all interest in life. I told her, “Begin to learn some scriptures, and when you’re in times of frustration and doubt and difficulty, cry out to God.” She said that she could not memorize. I said, “Do you like music, do you sing?”
“Oh”, she said, “I drive a great deal in my work, and I sing sometimes to keep me occupied.”
I asked, “What do you sing?”
“Popular songs.”
“Any one in particular?”
“Oh yes,” she said, “there’s one song I sing all the time.” And she named it.
I said, “How old is that song?”
“Oh,” she said, “it’s about eight years old.”
And suddenly, I asked, “What happened to you eight years ago?” She began to cry and told me that eight years earlier, she had fallen in love. And for six months, it was an idyllic romance. When suddenly, he wrote her a curt little note and moved to another city. It was the complete brush-off. She had never been able to forget him. And the sorrow had darkened her whole life. I told her about a young man in Edinburgh, Scotland named George Matheson who was engaged to be married to a very beautiful girl. Suddenly, he became ill and he lost his eyesight. The girl said, “I will not marry a blind man,” and broke off the engagement and broke his heart with it. Although alone in his blindness, he wrote,
O Love, that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
I said to her, “You’ll never find on earth the ideal of love that you imagined in that man. But in Jesus Christ, you will find all that you need.” I copied the hymn for her. I said, “You know the tune?”
“Yes.” She knew the tune.
I said, “Sing this when you drive.” She did, and truly rested her weary soul in Christ. And her life was transformed.
Donald Grey Barnhouse
