By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
From my boyhood, for some reason, I remember a poem my mother kept in her prayerbook. It was called “What God Hath Promised,” and was about hope and resilience in the midst of suffering. I think it comforted Mom during her own difficult times dealing with divorce, single parenthood, and economic woes.
I did not know who wrote the poem until just recently, when I looked it up. Her name was Annie Johnson Flint. She actually is well known as a Christian poet and hymn writer. She knew something, personally, about the challenges of maintaining hope, resilience, and courage too, in the face of suffering and uncertainty.
She was twice orphaned, losing her mother as a young girl, and then both adoptive parents as a young woman. She was stricken with debilitating and paralyzing arthritis just after high school. which left her unable to work in her chosen profession of teaching. Doctors declared she would spend her life as an invalid. After the death of her adoptive parents, she and her sister struggled alone to survive with few economic resources available.
And yet, rather than cursing her fate or giving up, Annie tried to maintain a sense of perspective, optimism, and even good humor. She started to write hymns and poetry. She made hand-lettered cards, and books with her verses, and published some of her works. Eventually, her tenacity provided her with some means to live, as well as an opportunity to share the message of her own life—keep faith and keep trying.
One of the most beloved vehicles for her message was the poem that so encouraged my own mother, that I read as a boy, and that I never forgot. To me, it seems proof that poetry is more powerful than paralysis. Here it is…
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What God Hath Promised (By Annie Johnson Flint)
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
many a burden, many a care.
God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep,
Never a river turbid and deep
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
