From Bad Boy to Pastor

With all my heart I strive to find thee; let me not stray from thy commandments. I treasure thy promise in my heart, for fear that I might sin against thee. Psalm 110:10-11

I have a fondness for gospel music and old hymns. They touch my soul, they lift me up and make me happy that I am a Christian.   

I have always liked the hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” but I’ve loved it even more since it became the theme song for a series of Hallmark movies based on novels written by a favorite Christian author of mine, Janette Oke. The series is called “Love Comes Softly,” and the stories follow several generations of a family during the settling of the Canadian west. 

However, it’s the backstory to this hymn that is so interesting to me. The lyricist’s name is Robert Robinson. Robert grew up in a small town in England in the 1700s. His father died when he was a very young boy and Robert became a “street boy” always looking to skip school and make mischief with his gang of friends. 

When he was a teenager, his mother sent him to London to apprentice as a barber, but Robert wasn’t interested in becoming a barber. He joined up with a notorious gang of troublemakers and participated in drinking, stealing and many other unsavory activities. One night his gang decided to attend an open-air evangelistic meeting to disrupt the meeting and heckle the speaker who was a dynamic Methodist preacher named George Whitefield. Robert had no idea that he would hear something that night that would change his whole life. Before he left that meeting Robert had given his life to Jesus and began his journey to becoming a Methodist pastor, but after a few years of preaching, he decided that his personal theology was more in line with Baptist traditions, and he became a Baptist pastor.

He wrote inspiring sermons, theological papers, religious poetry and hymns. When he was only 23, he wrote the words that became the lyrics for “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The words focus on God’s never-ceasing mercy and grace. Robert was confessing that his heart is prone to wander away from God. The “old Robert” was never far from his memory. When he died at the age of fifty-four, he had no idea that his words would ring out centuries later in churches around the world giving Christians comfort and reassurance of God’s steadfast love.    

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we praise You and we thank You for always waiting for us to repent when our wandering hearts cause us to stray from your commandments. Your grace and mercy give us reassurance that You are truly the God of second chances. Amen  

Judy Welch