By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
Stout Irish Catholics that we always were in the family of my boyhood, you may be surprised to learn about my mother’s great interest in watching the Protestant evangelist Billy Graham’s television crusades in the 1970s. The broadcasts usually originated from some large open air forum like Anaheim Stadium in Southern California. I think Mom liked Graham’s message of faith, hope, and love, all concepts she thought transcended any denominational boundaries.
We had only one old black and white television back then, so left with no other option, I watched the crusades too from time to time. I don’t remember the great preacher’s exact words, but they seemed to comfort my mother, who was struggling with the fallout from her recent and unexpected divorce after almost twenty years of marriage. I do remember the crusade’s music, especially the song the choir sang at the end of each devotional, when the good Rev. Billy invited people to come forward and, as he described it, “accept Jesus Christ into your life.”
The song was the soft and gentle hymn “Just As I Am,” written in 1835 by Charlotte Elliott, and described by some as a quiet simple message of sin, forgiveness, and salvation. You can hear the melody and read all the lyrics here: https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/1048. The third verse is especially remarkable: “Just as I am, though tossed about, with many a conflict, many a doubt; fightings within, and fears without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!”
This verse captures what I think is our common human condition. We all are wracked with pain, stress, turmoil, troubles, doubt, sin, and confusion. None of us escape from this life unscathed. Yet, the silver lining is we all are that way and, in the words of a more contemporary song from a Disney musical my kids watched, “we’re all in this together.”
The best news, found right in the words of Elliott’s hymn, is that the one before whom we all can seek respite is not the God of anger or judgment, but rather the “Lamb of God,” a calm, gentle, and understanding place of comfort and forgiveness, as well as the source of a soothing balm meant to be both received by us and then given by us, in turn, to others.
I feel a surge of tremendous hope when I recall the words of this two hundred year old hymn. I know I need to strive to be a better person, but it also is a great comfort to know that God loves me, just as I am.
