Grace Noll Crowell (1877-1969) fell gravely ill in 1906. She remained an invalid for the next 11 years. Her long confinement in hospitals and suffering from her illness motivated her to write words that might offer hope, patience, and faith to people who suffered as she did. Her poem, “The Shared Loaf,” set to music as “Because I Have Been Given Much” was written in 1936 as she had recovered from her debilitating illness.

 

In 1940 she wrote: “I wrote the poem [originally titled ‘The Shared Loaf’] after a long and serious illness. I was convalescing, and in a sudden, glad up-rush of gratitude for my release from pain, recalling the many mercies and blessings that had been mine those long hard days, and through all my past life, remembering the love that had been around and about me ever, I wrote the words of this hymn. Surely I have been given much; surely love has been showered upon me. God grant I may never forget to ‘divide my gifts with every brother that I see who has the need of help from me,’ and I trust I shall not hoard the love that has been so abundantly showered upon me.”

 

The Book of Mormon prophet, Jacob, teaches his people:

 “But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.

 And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.”

 

Should we not share the grace that is so willingly shared with us? If we care to be true disciples of Christ, then we must care for each other.

 

Minister of Music, Professor Phillip Landgrave (b. 1935) wrote the music to this hymn. The tune name, SEMINARY, honors the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, where he was both a student and professor.