My Only Hope Is You -- John Paul Trimble

 

Who is he? That’s a question we cannot directly answer at the moment, but we do know something by inference about John Paul Trimble. You see, John was making himself a mirror for the One he wanted to highlight when he wrote something addressing Jesus: “My Only Hope Is You”, John said. He also included some other ideas that he associated with the Christ, telling just a little about himself in the process and how he related to this God-man. The Spirit of God (shown as a dove in this 17^th Century Bartolome Murillo masterpiece) might have been in contact with the song’s author, if you pay attention to what words he uses in the poetry. Trimble had much he wanted to bring to Jesus’ attention, issues that he could not attribute to other sources. Who else has the ability to convey so much, just by being himself? That’s John Trimble’s God.

 

John Trimble’s encounter with God was an episode that apparently left him feeling unreserved about what the Holy One meant to him. What was it John said that indicates this? ‘Only’ and ‘all’ are the modifiers he employs to stress just how much he had gained from his contact with the Holy God. Trimble says ‘only’ hope, ‘only’ joy, ‘only’ peace, and ‘all’ that I need… when he lays out his devotion’s depth to this Divine Being. Two of the acquisitions he relished – Joy and Peace – are outgrowths of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22) that he sang about specifically, lending further credence to John’s connection with the Spirit-God. And, John’s encounters with Jesus were not short-lived affairs, but lasted all day, every day ‘from…morning ‘til…night’. What were Trimble’s circumstances when he felt the composing urge? We know not at this point, but by not knowing any details, does that tell us something about this author-composer? If he had wanted, one might guess that some biographic details would have been made available about John Paul Trimble. Since there are none, perhaps he was just a bit shy, or maybe engaged in other activities that he considered most significant. His unpretentious poetry is particularly engaging when paired with the music he chose, so he was pretty effective as a songwriter on this occasion. Was this Trimble’s only song, perhaps? Even if John Trimble was a ‘one-hit wonder’, one suspects that that situation was okay with him; after all, he had the God who provided the ‘only’ and ‘all’ on a 24/7 schedule. Does it get any better than that?

 

John wanted to focus the spotlight on Jesus. So, doing that is no problem for us believers, and we can hopefully meet John someday to ask him to tell us more about what exactly he was thinking as he composed. The name ‘Jesus’ appears over 1,300 times in scripture (1,310 times in the New International Version of the Bible; some others include 1,477 times in the New Living Translation; 1,058 times in the English Standard Version; and 942 times in the King James Version, to name just a few). Would it be enough to give Jesus credit 1,300 times in a lifetime for what He’s done? One could guess that John Trimble might have said ‘that’s not nearly enough!’ So, maybe you and I would need to mix in a lot of non-verbal activity to make up for the deficit. Would that be sufficient? Making it up to Jesus for the hope, joy, peace, and all that I will have in eternity is just too much to fathom. The great thing is that He doesn’t want payment. He just wants me. And you. And everybody else who will come. He’s truly the Only God.