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I Can Only Imagine 2 is less about success than about suffering, faith, and learning to trust God when life unravels. This review explains why the sequel offers a compelling and emotionally honest Christian vision of hope.

Please note: This review contains spoilers.

Sometimes you need a film or a great song to help bring some perspective. I Can Only Imagine 2 offers both.

It’s not so much that the film — and the two songs it is about, Even If and It Is Well— teaches you something new; it’s that it convicts you deeply and reminds you of something you already knew.

This sequel to the 2018 film I Can Only Imagine powerfully and courageously explores themes of grief and gratitude, suffering and hope, family and faith.

Fame, Fatherhood, and Fragility

Building on the compelling story of Bart Millard told in the first film, the sequel weaves together two major journeys.

The first is that of Bart following the spectacular success of his hit single I Can Only Imagine. 

It engages the question of what comes after huge success and acclaim. Imagine is the best-selling Christian single of all time, selling over 5 million copies and receiving double-platinum digital certification.

But it raises the question for Millard: what now?

I Can Only Imagine 2 follows Millard as he grapples with his role as a father after his young son, Sam, is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He continues to deal with the trauma and grief of his own fractured relationship with his father — a fact that colours his relationship with his own son.

Themes of fatherhood, marriage, and family are central to the film’s storyline. And it handles those themes with sensitivity and emotional gravity.

For this reason alone, it is well worth the watch.

Tragedy and Testimony

The second journey that the film traces is that of singer-songwriter Tim Timmons.

When Millard’s band MercyMe find themselves headlining a tour, they are joined by the rambunctious and good-natured Timmons, who is their new opening act following an unexpected lineup change.

For Tim, this is a dream come true.

During a concert, Timmons recounts the heartbreaking story of American lawyer Horatio Gates Spafford, who famously wrote the words to It Is Well With My Soul — one of the most beloved hymns of all time. Tim has been reading about Spafford’s testimony in Robert J. Morgan’s The Origins of Hymns: It is Well with My Soul.

If nothing else comes from I Can Only Imagine 2, it will have been worth the effort to get this classic book back in print.

Over the course of his life, Horatio Spafford is struck by repeated tragedies, including the loss of his only son at age four to scarlet fever and the death of all four of his daughters when their ship to England sinks in a collision. Horatio himself later sails to England, and it is when the captain of the ship tells him that they are passing over the very place that his daughters lost their lives that he writes the words to It Is Well:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

The hymn is a powerful anthem of God’s peace in the face of adversity and tragedy.

As Bart Millard’s life continues to unravel, he discovers that Timmons has been diagnosed with a serious form of cancer, which explains why Spafford’s story resonates so deeply with him.

It is an extremely compelling scene. 

A frustrated and emotional Millard insists that Timmons could not possibly understand what he is going through — only to find out that Tim is actually dying from cancer and has only just found out that his wife is pregnant.

He tells Bart that the tour has been a dream come true, but that he may never get to enjoy life with his wife and son.

We are all prone to think that we have it tough — to get frustrated by the daily struggles and failures, the ever-present reality of human frailty. But while these struggles are real, and shouldn’t be minimised, we are often surrounded by people whose lives are truly heartbreaking. 

We can easily be blind to others’ struggles.

The scene is a reminder to be slow to judge those around us, or assume things about their lives and situations. It illustrates just how important a disposition of empathetic care and compassion is, especially as Christians.

God in the Fire and the Storm

Another powerful scene takes place in hospital, after Timmons collapses while on tour. He tells Bart that he has realised how God is in both the fire and the storm — and muses “maybe God’s in everything”.

This realisation recalls the powerful scene in C. S. Lewis’s classic The Horse and His Boy — my favourite of the six Chronicles of Narnia books. After a long, painful, and arduous journey to Narnia, Shasta finds himself lost at night in the mountains of Archenland, just short of his destination and surrounded by fog.

Entirely understandably, the young boy is at the end of himself: frustrated, angry, and wallowing in self-pity. All of a sudden, he hears a mysterious Voice speaking to him from the darkness.

After recovering from his initial fear, Shasta begins speaking with the Voice — venting his frustration at just how difficult his life has been, recounting all of his misfortunes and insisting that he is the most unfortunate of people.

The Voice listens patiently, but when Shasta is finished, it reveals itself as the great Lion and Christ-figure Aslan. Aslan proceeds to explain how each of Shasta’s troubles were designed for his good — He has been protecting the boy and working through his suffering and sorrow all along.

This is my central takeaway from I Can Only Imagine 2: that God is working through our sorrow, heartbreak, and suffering. He does not promise that the sorrows, moments of heartbreak, and suffering will be taken away from us, but He does promise to remain faithful through them.

The film ends with the performance of Tim Timmons’s song, Even If, which explores this very theme. Its lyrics, co-written by Millard, are worth quoting at length:

They say sometimes you win some
Sometimes you lose some
And right now, right now I’m losing bad
I’ve stood on this stage night after night
Reminding the broken it’ll be alright
But right now, oh right now I just can’t

It’s easy to sing
When there’s nothing to bring me down
But what will I say
When I’m held to the flame
Like I am right now

I know You’re able and I know You can
Save through the fire with Your mighty hand
But even if You don’t
My hope is You alone

They say it only takes a little faith
To move a mountain
Well good thing
A little faith is all I have, right now
But God, when You choose
To leave mountains unmovable
Oh give me the strength to be able to sing
It is well with my soul

I know the sorrow, and I know the hurt
Would all go away if You’d just say the word
But even if You don’t
My hope is You alone

The song finishes with the well-known refrain of Horatio Spafford’s hymn:

It is well with my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul

The Gospel provides the hope that God is helping, teaching, and growing us despite — and even through — tribulation. I Can Only Imagine 2 is a compelling reminder to be grateful in the fire and the storm.

It is one thing to explain the film’s powerful story; it is another to experience it. And there is only one way to do the latter.

Go watch it for yourself!

Photos courtesy of I Can Only Imagine 2.