“What mercy can there be for me, a wretch?”
Those words were uttered by an athiest onboard a sailing ship in 1748. The ship was being ripped to shreds by a north Atlantic storm. There was a hole in the hull and she was taking on water. After hours of bailing out water he cried “Lord have mercy on us.” The words surprised even him.
On the 8th of April 1748 the wind blew the ship to Ireland, to my town, to safety.
The man was a slave trader. He later went on to change his ways and write the song Amazing Grace. You can research the rest of his story if you are intersted.
The part I find amazing is that song sounds best when it is sung, not by white people, but by those whose ancestors were once the enslaved. Such forgiveness! Such inspiration!
I live in a town called Buncrana. I run on the beach were he would have kissed the ground. I can sometimes feel what he felt, Grace.
And sometimes I just feel exhausted.
Thank you for reading
Frankie
That’s just….beautiful. It is one if my favorite hymns. Thank you for sharing the story. I’m going to share on g+ if that is ok.
You caught me up late dweezer; I’m reading up on how to blog properly. 1am here.
Yes please. If you think it would be useful information to somebody be my guest.
I will have to read up on sharing tomorrow night.
Thank you so much. you’re a star!
Oh well you may be long asleep by now buy just wanted to say thanks and it is so easy to share as long as you have a g+ account. You can do it two ways, either in your settings by adding the links for automatic publicize or by going to the bottom of your post and touching the icon to pull up whatever social network you want to share with. Good luck!
Sometimes things are right under my nose and I don’t see them, Leonardette. Tsk-tsk! I have a facebook account and I have clicked share buttons on that before. I will get into the swing of it, i hope. Cheers.
Like my son always says, “When in doubt, click on something.” 😀
Hahaha Click on something. That’s just like a post I just put up for the daily prompt.
I feel the connection 🙂 You’re sending telepathic prompts.
A little help for a friend. 😉
This has been one of my favorite hymns since I was a child. I’ve known the story since then as well, and it adds new meaning every time I hear it. Thanks for calling attention to it.
Thanks Dan. It is one of those “Did you know?” things, which sometimes I assume everybody knows and then I think twice.
It’s always good to remind people about the story and to inform new people. I never get tired of the reminders 🙂
The beach sounds like an incredible place. Such history has passed there. Love your reflection of the forgiveness in the hearts of the people singing the song.
Thank you. You got it! The forgiveness. 🙂 I like the place.
I hope to blog more about the other places around here which inspire me.
Great news. Look forward to reading.
Did you see the film they made about the guy? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Cv5P9H9qU) I didn’t know the story behind the hymn (and honestly it’s not my favorite; I like hymns about nature) but this movie was spellbinding and yeah, I had no idea!!! And now you tell me he crashed on Ireland! 🙂
No i didn’t see it but i saw ’12 Years’ and ‘Roots’ when I was a kid. I must get around to seeing it.
Yes he crashed here. And it wasn’t even St Patrick’s day. 😉
Thank you Martha.
Thanks for sharing this story, Frankie. It is true that the beach connects us all.
Reblogged this on Rite 2 Run and commented:
Frankie, who blogs and runs the beach in Buncrana, Ireland, shared his post Amazing Forgiveness after reading Spirituality of Running on the Beach. You can read Frankie’s blog at https://truckerturningwrite.com/