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.        

Break My Heart -- Clint Rhodes

 

He was just a kid. Or was he? That’s two statements that someone might have said about Clint Rhodes in quick succession when discovering what he did as a teenager. He was perhaps as normal and well-adjusted as any other young person, and yet sensitive enough to say “Break My Heart” when he thought about himself and his peers in relation to the God he’d been raised to honor. Perhaps Clint was near Midlothian in northeast Texas (see map here), or perhaps at least somewhere in that state in 1997, but for sure one can say he was near the heart of the One to whom he prayed the day he penned his poem. You think he also might have been in touch with or reading about the king who authored Psalm 51 in the wake of a very great sin? Meet Clint Rhodes, and see what he has to say.

 

I’ll let Clint say it in his own words, regarding what was going on when he took up his pen as a youth:

I wrote it 24 years ago now when I was a Junior in High School. I was preparing to give a message to my youth group about having a soft and contrite heart in relation to our sin rather than a hard heart. I think sometimes God needs to love us with tough love to help us see our sin for what it is so asking him to break our hearts is asking for this love.

 

What teenager have you known who asked for what Clint did in 1997? I certainly didn’t when I was 17 years old! Instead, what often comes from the mouth of a teenager sounds more like ‘why are you so mean?’, ‘my friends get to do this!’, and ‘stop treating me like a baby!’. And, does it really stop when the teenager grows up, or does the rebel just mature physically? You could ask the now-40-something Clint about it if you contacted him today in his role as a minister at the Creekside Church in Midlothian. And, as a father, he could probably tell you about the responses his own children provide to the discipline he undoubtedly has to dispense on occasion. Do you think it would be unusual if Clint said that his kids or any of the church’s members asked, as a matter of course, for their hearts to be broken? So, agreed that it would be somewhat rare for any of us, young or old, to ask to be broken. But Clint knew that repentance is important, and that that begins with submission to a God who loves those He’s made.

 

That ‘tough love’ Clint mentions must have been something he saw was needed in his youth group. What was going on that spurred Clint is probably not that much different than what you might imagine goes on among youth almost anywhere. Perhaps seeing the consequences of bad choices made by those he knew was what helped Clint underscore his message to his friends. And, bible stories add a lot of punch too, particularly those about King David and perhaps the biggest mistake he ever made (2 Sam. 12), and the tough love God had to use on him to soften his heart. Clint’s method was not that different than David’s --write a song, and save it to remind yourself and others that humility is the posture we need before Him.     

 

 

 

 

The song story was acquired via electronic communication with the author on 10/7/2020, and is the only source for the story.

 

Read a few facts about the song’s author at the church where he ministers here: https://creekside-church.com/team/

His Yoke Is Easy -- Daniel S. Warner

 

This ‘Floating Bethel’ (shown here) was a barge on the Ohio River that was apparently what a certain evangelist had ridden in his travels, perhaps even during the time in which he wrote some poetry in 1893. Daniel Sydney Warner (more often called D.S. Warner) told those who would listen that “His Yoke Is Easy”, a message he must have related countless times in his trips to preach and convert people to Christ. This poem was one that he penned near the end of his life, after decades of sermons. So what was D.S wanting to communicate, and what spurred him to write the words? Let’s see what we do know, and what we might have to leave for later.

 

The short answer about D.S. Warner’s “His Yoke Is Easy” is that we don’t really know what or if a specific episode stimulated his creation. Nevertheless, he travelled widely, and must have needed plenty of compelling resources to help convey his messages, so perhaps ‘His Yoke…’ was created in that spirit. Much of his experience as an evangelist was in the Ohio River valley, including the episode on the Ohio River barge in the year following his 1893 penmanship of the song. He also travelled as far as California and to several states in the Midwest and South, and to Ontario, Canada. At 51 years old, when he wrote the poem that would subsequently be put to music (by Barney E. Warren), Warner had undoubtedly encountered so many people who needed God, but needed coaxing. A song might help advance Warner’s point; could that have been the impetus for the scores of song poems that he crafted, that they would be readily available tools in his journeys? If so, ‘His Yoke…’ is written as if it’s a personal endorsement of God by the author, an appeal from himself to an audience listening to his pitch. ’I’, ‘me’, ‘my’, and ‘mine’ are the personal pronouns that D.S. employs 16 times in his verses and three more times in his refrain to emphasize the intimate nature of his experience with the One he came to recommend. If we can surmise from his poetry what kind of preaching message he usually delivered, we might conclude that Warner didn’t use the hellfire and brimstone approach, as other evangelists might have. Instead, D.S. persuaded his hearers with God’s love (vv. 1-2), His rescue of the sinner (vv. 3 and 5), and his own response of devotion to this God. These are messages that still work today. Everyone wants a loving God, and we’re all mistake-makers.

 

D.S. Warner also realized that God’s opponent (Satan) is often near, trying to steer me away from the Savior (v. 4). Don’t be fooled, Warner admonished. It was a warning that he needed to heed himself two years later, when death came knocking and took him in Michigan, probably before he expected to go. The same year that Warner wrote ‘His Yoke…’, he co-authored with his musical collaborator, Barney Warren, a collection called Echoes of Glory. One might guess that ‘His Yoke…’ is among the Echoes collection. Someday, when we all arrive home, we might think of all the songs we’ve sung here as echoes. But, they won’t be faint ones. They’re strong foretastes now, pulling me like magnets toward the destination I should choose. The other way is the one our adversary has waiting for the unfortunate fool. D.S. might have said it many times as an evangelist: Listen to the message He’s singing to your heart.     

 

See this link for information about the author: https://hymnary.org/person/Warner_Daniel

See extensive biographic on author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Sidney_Warner

Also see this link for author’s very brief biography: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/a/r/n/warner_ds.htm