Great is Thy Faithfulness - A Hymnstory by Bill Dagle

Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Kentucky on July 29, 1866. At the age of 27, he was born-again at a revival meeting in his home town of Franklin. During the next 67 years he would hold the positions of minister, insurance salesman, and write. In 1960, he stepped into eternity from the Methodist Home for the Aged in Ocean Grove, New Jersey and has long since been forgotten....or was he?

For you see in a letter dated 1941, Mr. Chisholm wrote this, "My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness." Forgotten as a minister and insurance salesman, yes; but as a writer, most certainly not. From Lamentations 3:22 he would take "His compassions fail not", then from James 1:17 borrow "neither shadow of turning". Finalizing it with verse 23 of Lamentations 3, "new every morning, great is thy faithfulness".

In June of 1990 my wife, Linda, and I visited the Home for the Aged at Ocean Grove hoping to see some remembrance of Thomas Chisholm on display. But to our disappointment none was found, for moth and dust must have done their duty. Yet when I opened the hymnal that summer's afternoon, the memory of Thomas lived on for me and the heart of a humble servant beat once again.

I wonder what we will be remembered for? (or even if we'll be remembered at all). Why not purpose during this month of thankfulness to make a memory for God's sake. Then someday you too will say, with Thomas Chisholm: "All I have needed Thy hand hath provided, great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!"