A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
At a gathering of enthusiastic young people at our church one night, one dear girl seemed to isolate herself from the group. Her face was remote, aloof, as if she dared anyone to speak to her. She didn’t sing with the kids. She didn’t look at the speaker. You might have thought she was a rebel, resisting the spiritual impact of the message.
But, looking at her face, I thought I knew better. I remembered a youth rally I had attended years ago, when my face would have reflected exactly that same remote distancing. It wasn’t rebellion; it was pain, deep pain, that nobody seemed to understand.
The year was 1942. I was fifteen. Young men who were supposed to graduate with me from high school, were, instead, fighting for their lives in the south Pacific or in the East. Food was rationed. Stores had empty shelves. The local air warden patrolled our neighborhood carefully, to see that no house lights shone in the black-out, so enemy planes could not find us in an air raid. We searched attic, basement, and vacant lots for scrap iron to take to school to help the war effort. You now know that eventually the Allies won that war, but in 1942 we didn’t know that, and the prospect was bleak. So it is not surprising that our youth group loved the chorus,
I’ve a longing in my heart for Jesus, I’ve a longing in my heart for Him.
I am weary, oh so weary, of traveling below; I’ve a longing in my heart for Him. Dorothy Martin Green ©1941
One Saturday night I attended a youth rally at another church in our town. We sang that chorus with deep feeling and were comforted. But the visiting youth evangelist leaped to his feet and grabbed the song leader’s mike. “No, no, no!” he protested. “That’s no song for teenagers to sing. Come on! Sing a cheerful song like young people ought to sing!” So he began “the happy song” he thought we ought to sing:
Cheer up ye saints of God, There’s nothing to worry about,
Nothing to make you feel afraid, nothing to make you doubt.
Remember Jesus never fails you, so why not trust Him and shout!
You’ll be sorry you worried at all tomorrow morning. Alex Burns ©1940
The words of that song are certainly biblical, but that night they seemed a mockery to my burdened fifteen-year-old heart. I felt affronted that the evangelist had trivialized our troubles!
Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart
is like taking someone’s coat in cold weather
or pouring vinegar in a wound. Proverbs 25:20 (nlt)
Young people today surely face frightening prospects in their world as great as those I faced in my youth. In truth, any human being alive today must often feel overwhelmed by the anxieties of living. Soured life choices. Inflation. Conflict at home and abroad. Global warming or volcanic winters. Famine. Disease. Crime. Nuclear threats. Simply singing a cheerful song does not mitigate any of these real dangers.
But—and here’s the real surprise—God has promised His steadfast, wise, constant love, and because He is our protector, we can sing songs of joy in the night. King David, in Psalm 32: 7-11 (nlt) says it this way:
For You [Lord] are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble.
You surround me with songs of victory.
The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you. . . .”
Unfailing love surrounds those who trust the LORD.
So rejoice in the LORD and be glad, all you who obey Him!