Tuesday's reading from "My Utmost for His Highest" emphasizes that God often uses the ordinary or unqualified to accomplish his biggest tasks. "It is not a matter of our equipment, but a matter of our poverty; not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us." Such was the case for the author of "Great is Thy Faithfulness," one of my favorite hymns.

re: grace, history, horizons of the possible, hymns, music

Christy:

Thomas Chisholm, who sometimes described himself as “just an old shoe,”  was born in a Kentucky log cabin in 1866. He was converted when he was 27, became a pastor at 36, but had to retire one year later due to poor health. He spent the majority of the rest of his life as a life insurance agent in New Jersey. He died in 1960 at the age of 93. During his life he wrote over 1200 poems, most of which no one will ever hear.

But back in 1923, at the “beyond his prime” age of 57, Thomas Chisholm sent a few of his poems to William Runyan at the Hope Publishing Company. One of them was “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” based on Lamentations 3:22-23.