Margaret Clarkson (1915-2008), prolific hymn writer, teacher and author was born with chronic headaches and juvenile arthritis which caused her much pain. A second arthritic attack when she was twelve settled in one arm, leaving her wrist and hand swollen and partly crippled for several years. She also had a slight malformation in the lower spine which required surgery at age fifty. Arthritis occurred again in mid-life spreading rapidly, attacking almost all her joints and forcing her into an early retirement.

For thirty-eight years she taught elementary school, loving her work but struggling with pain and illness every inch of the way. She became a Christian at the age of ten when she encountered John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress. Life was hard. No part of her personality escaped the devastation of her pain-filled body. Helplessness, hopelessness, rage, frustration, despair, the compulsion to give up and seek cessation of pain in the darkness of death was her experience. Despite the reality of a Christian commitment from which she never wavered, she spent years struggling to find meaning in life.

She found her answers in the Word of God in her forties, but not without much pain. Slowly but surely the Holy Spirit began to make real to her the teaching of the Scriptures concerning the sovereignty of God and its meaning for her life. Slowly she began to learn to look beyond her immediate situation to God’s ultimate purpose for her life, and in doing so gradually found peace.

Her general health remained unchanged. Despite their best efforts, her doctors were never been able to do much for her beyond offering palliative measures for her illnesses and giving her much-appreciated moral support. Though she prayed for healing she did not experience a miracle. God’s working in her was more intimate, more eternal . He touched her spirit and worked his miracle of healing there. She wrote of her experience and understanding in Destined for Glory: The Meaning of Suffering, to help other Christians to understand what the Scriptures really teach about suffering so that when trouble comes to them they may be prepared and be able to work together with God to allow him to fulfill his purposes in their sorrow. In the next few weeks I will share her insights.

Here is her hymn SOVEREIGN LORD!

O Father, you are sovereign

In all the worlds you made;

Your mighty Word was spoken,

And light and life obeyed.

Your voice commands the seasons

And bounds the ocean’s shore,

Sets stars within their courses

And stills the tempests roar.

 

O Father, you are sovereign

In all the affairs of man;

No powers of death or darkness

Can thwart your perfect plan.

All chance and change transcending,

Supreme in time and space,

You hold your trusting children

Secure in your embrace.

 

O Father, you are sovereign

The Lord of human pain,

Transmuting earthly sorrows

To gold of heavenly gain,

All evil overruling,

As none but Conqueror could,

Your love pursues its purpose –

Our souls’ eternal good.

 

O Father, you are sovereign!

We see you darkly now,

But soon before your triumph

Earth’s every knee shall bow.

With this glad hope before us

Our faith springs forth anew;

Our Sovereign Lord and Savior,

We trust and worship you!