MercyMe: Make It Well, Wonder and Awe

~ New music, new movie, new tour from MarcyMe ~

Have you ever been in a moment where you’re supposed to say the “right” thing, but it feels like a lie? Maybe at a funeral. Maybe in a church service. Maybe when someone asks how you’re doing and you say “fine” even though you’re not.

That’s where Mercy Me’s song “Make It Well” came from. Bart found himself at yet another funeral, singing the classic hymn “It Is Well with My Soul.” And he couldn’t do it anymore. Not honestly, anyway.

The hymn is beautiful. It was written by Horatio Spafford in the late 1800s after he lost his four daughters in a shipwreck. Standing in the place where the tragedy occurred, he penned those famous words: “Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. It’s one of the most powerful declarations of faith ever written.

But Bart realized something: “During those difficult moments, I’m kind of lying when I say ‘it is well with my soul’ because normally it is not well with my soul. The harder things got, the harder it was to sing that song.”

So he started thinking: What if instead of declaring “It is well,” we asked God to make it well?

What if we had a song for people who are still in the middle of the struggle? For people who aren’t at the declaration part yet, but are just trying to get by? That’s how “Make It Well” was born.

Faith doesn’t always sound like confidence. Sometimes it sounds like a cry. And that’s okay.

God is close to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). He invites us to bring it all to Him — the questions, the pain, the loneliness — and trust that He’s still good even when we can’t see it yet.

Whatever your lot today, He’s still your God. And until you can sing “It is well,” it’s okay to pray “Make it well.”

You can hear MercyMe ‘s song “Make It Well” in our new movie, I Can Only Imagine 2. It debuts in theaters February 20th — but you can be among the first to see it at the Early Access Worship Screenings on February 14th. Click here to get early access tickets.