Jennie Evelyn Hussey was born into a Quaker family and grew up on the family farm in New Hampshire, USA. Jennie was a poet, and at an early age, she began to write. Her first hymn was published when she was 24 and during her life, she would write over 150 of them.

What makes Jennie’s story unusual is that she belonged to a part of the church where singing congregational hymns was not the usual practice. As a rule, Quakers regarded hymns with suspicion, describing them “as forms without power.”

Where did the inspiration come for Jennie to write her hymns?

A closer look at her story suggests a possible answer. She spent most of her life caring for her invalid sister, and in later years, Jennie was struck down with crippling and deforming arthritis. She was once described as “a self-sacrificing woman, never complaining, who accepted her life with quiet grace.”

Her best-known hymn was written in 1921 and is sung widely around the world today, especially during services focusing on the final week of the life of Jesus. The hymn is called, “King of my life”:

“King of my life I crown Thee now—
Thine shall my glory be;
Lest I forget Thy thorn-crowned brow,
Lead me to Calvary.
Refrain:
Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget Thine agony,
Lest I forget Thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary.”

As Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, all the horror and suffering He was about to endure hung over Him. But rather than shrink back from it, He wrestles with His Father in prayer until He comes to the place of rest and submission: “Not My will, but Yours be done.”

A prayer that will lead Him to Calvary.

When a trial or temptation is hanging over you, turn your thoughts and prayers to our Lord Who prayed in the Garden. The problem won’t necessarily go away, but you will find strength to go on.

“King of our life, we crown Thee now – lead us to Calvary.”

Today’s Bible reading: Mark 14:32-42