Annie Johnson Flint’s promising career as a schoolteacher was cut short by crippling chronic pain.
But had that not happened, she never would have penned the great hymns she is remembered for.
He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.
This is her story.
Annie Johnson was born on Christmas Eve in 1866 to Eldon and Jean Johnson in Vineland, New Jersey.
Her mother died in 1869 when Annie was just three years old and soon her father’s health began to fail as well.
“Aunt Susie,” a kindly young schoolteacher who had befriended Annie and her sister, rented a room from Mr. and Mrs. Flint, a couple who had no children of their own.
Eldon Johnson was glad when the Flints asked to adopt his daughters since he was declining quickly and struggling to take care of them on his own. Mr. Johnson knew the Flints were dedicated Christians as well as good-hearted people who would look after his girls as their own.
Annie came to the Lord at a tent revival as a child. When she was fourteen, her adoptive family moved to Camden, New Jersey where she continued her education. After high school and a year at normal school, she accepted a teaching position near her adoptive parents because Mrs. Flint was very ill.
In Annie’s second year of teaching, crippling arthritis began to afflict her. With difficulty, she finished the third year in her contract (hardly able to walk) and stayed a long while at a hospital.
There, doctors told her she would be crippled and dependent for the rest of her life.
This was hard news since Annie’s adoptive parents had just died within a few months of each other. The only family she had was her younger sister, also frail and struggling with burdens.
So Annie started writing verses, not for finances or even to minister to others, but to express her own struggles. Eventually she began sending poetry to others.
She made hand-lettered cards and gift books to bring comfort and cheer to others. The “Christmas carols” became popular and she became published in some magazines such as Sunday School Times and Christian Endeavor World.
Annie also started a ministry with a series of booklets. The first was By the Way, Travelogues of Cheer. Twisted and painful as her hands were, she carried on a tremendous correspondence. (Occasionally she dictated to her caretakers.)
The Lord supplied Annie’s needs, though not always the way she preferred. One day a woman felt led to slip some money in her hand. As her pride rebelled, Annie realized that while “it’s more blessed to give than receive,” she was depriving the woman of a blessing.
Annie had been writing poetry since her early teens. A lifelong friend of hers described how they would meet every Saturday afternoon as kids to read their favorite poets and then attempt writing verse themselves.
But it took God shutting the door of school teaching for Annie to fully pursue the vocation of a poet.
The thriftiness her adoptive parents had taught her kept her in good stead. God met all her needs, but extreme frugality was still required. And her outdoorsy life as a youngster inspired many of her descriptions of nature when housebound.
Virtues such as cheerfulness, gratitude, and generosity had always come easily to Annie, but she also had a number of faults which the years of suffering had refined away.
Faults such as a hot temper she battled for years. Annie was also stubborn about having her own way.
Her worst vice though, was impatience, both with herself and others. But years as an invalid taught her the value of long suffering.
Like the Apostle Paul’s thorn in his flesh, God chose to display His strength through her weakness.
Annie Flint wrote about it in poems like “He Giveth More Grace.”
He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.
This and other poems such as God Hath Not Promised us Skies Always Blue were set to music and turned into hymns.
As her story became better known, people came forward who challenged her faith. They told her earthly healing was included in Christ’s atonement. All she needed was to pray with the proper amount of faith and obedience.
Annie humbly listened to them. After painstaking prayer and Bible study, she concluded that God does not always heal His children of their infirmities. Annie surrendered her weakness and suffering to God to use as He saw fit.
And on September 8, 1932, God did heal her for all eternity. Annie Johnson Flint’s final words were, “I have nothing to say. It’s all right.”
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