06/07/2026
You need to know this hymn! It's called "What a friend we have in Jesus"
And you're not going to believe the story behind this hymn…
I think we forget that hymn writers were real people—just like us. Brothers and sisters in Christ who lived, suffered, and clung to Jesus through it all. Their stories matter—and this one especially matters.
Joseph M. Scriven was born in Ireland, educated, engaged, and headed for a military career. But illness stole his future plans. Then, the night before his wedding, his fiancée tragically drowned. Hoping for a new beginning, he moved to Canada… only to lose his second fiancée to sudden illness.
He then chose to live in poverty, doing odd jobs and serving the poor and disabled, trying to live out Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount—literally. People called him strange. He was often alone.
Eventually, Scriven was found drowned in a lake. Some say it was an accident. Others aren’t sure.
But out of all that heartbreak came this simple poem, that he wrote to comfort his grieving mother across the ocean:
“What a Friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear…”
He never meant for anyone else to see it. But the Lord did.
And now millions find comfort in that same Friend, through the words of a man who knew suffering intimately.
This hymn isn’t just a song.
It’s a lifeline.
