Her pastor saw real talent in her poetry. Robert Lowry, pastor of Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York urged Anne Hawks (1836-1918) to try her hand at writing hymns. When Anne sent Robert a copy of her simple five-stanza hymn, he recognized its potential. “It inspired me at its first reading,” he said later. He added the refrain and supplied the tune, and the song took off. It quickly became one of the most popular hymns in nineteenth century America. Anne described how “I Need Thee Every Hour” came into being, “One day as a young wife and mother of thirty-seven years of age, I was busy with my regular household tasks during a bright June morning [in 1872]. Suddenly, I became so filled with the sense of nearness to the Master that, wondering how one could live without him, either in joy or pain, these words were ushered into my head, the thought at once taking full possession of me. Sitting by the open window of the balmy air on a bright June day, I caught my pencil, and the words soon connected to paper, almost as they are being sung today.” “I need thee” repeats twenty times in a span of five verses. The phrase both recognizes our limits and expresses confidence in God’s ability to supply what we need. I need thee in temptation (stanza 2), in joy and pain (stanza 3), and in my quest to do God’s will (stanza 4).
After the death of Anne’s husband, she reflected on her hymn in a whole new light, “I did not understand at first why the hymn had touched the great throbbing heart of humanity. It was not long after, when the shadow fell over my way, the shadow of a great loss, that I understood something of the comforting power in the words which I had been permitted to give out to others.” Anne’s treasured hymn leads us into prayer today: