Jesuni Oba Issara Wela Lyrics by Bro. Charles Thomas

Jesus, you went on ahead
carrying a cross as you walked
and looking back at me, following behind,
you smiled and made me strong

Do not stay trapped inside your pain
do not grieve, blinded by tears
amid your sighs, show a gentle smile
be comforted, take comfort

Do not fill your heart with pain
do not smear complaints across your lips
in the whispering of the heart, show a gentle smile
be comforted, take comfort

This is a gentle hymn of comfort, and it draws its strength from a beautiful picture of Jesus as the one who walks ahead of us on the hard road. He “went on ahead, carrying a cross,” and then, in the tender turn that opens the song, “looking back at me, following behind, you smiled and made me strong.” The image is of Christ who has already carried his own suffering, glancing back with encouragement at the disciple struggling along the same path.

From that picture flows the whole message: the comfort Jesus gives us, we are to receive. The verses become his gentle instructions to a hurting heart, “do not stay trapped inside your pain, do not grieve, blinded by tears.” Suffering is real here, there are sighs and tears, but the singer is urged not to be imprisoned by them.

The repeated counsel is disarmingly simple, “amid your sighs, show a gentle smile,” and “do not smear complaints across your lips.” It is not a denial of pain but a choice of trust in the middle of it, a small smile “in the whispering of the heart.” The refrain, sanasenna sanasanna, “be comforted, take comfort,” lands like a hand on the shoulder. What the listener is left with is the quiet reassurance of a Saviour who has gone ahead through his own cross, and who turns back with a smile to tell the weary follower: you are not alone, so take heart.