Happy Tuesday, my friends. It’s been a while since I blogged, and
a lot has happened in the last few weeks.
The biggest news is that I was married on August 8th to an
amazing gal named Becca. After the
wedding, we honeymooned in California, and then moved all of her stuff from
Tulsa to Nashville, where we are now settling in and getting back into a normal
routine.
Becca has been traveling with me to
concerts for the last couple of weekends, and we had the most amazing
experience last Sunday. It
reminded me that there is no such thing as a coincidence.
I played at Dallas Baptist University
on Saturday, and shortly before I went on that night, I received a text from my
older sister, Rachel. She told me
that she and her husband (Steven) and their daughter (Ellie) were driving by
our favorite restaurant in Texas.
This restaurant happens to be a few minutes from where I was playing.
They had been gone for the weekend and were driving back to their home in
Athens, Texas. She had no idea I
was in the state, and I had no idea they were so close.
Rachel, Steven, and Ellie stopped in
to say hello after I played, and they invited Becca and I to drive to Athens
that night and stay with them. We
had to change a few plans (find a car, change a flight) but we were able to
make it happen.
Sunday morning, Steven asked if I
wanted to play a song or two at their church, and I told him I’d love to. Without thinking too hard about it, I
decided to play “Amazing Grace” and “Savior, Please.” I arrived early and sound checked, just like I always do,
and then we sat down and the service started.
What I didn’t know when I chose my
songs is that there were about 40 people at the church that morning from an
organization called “Prison Entrepreneurship Program” (or PEP for short). During the service, they shared
testimonies of how God had transformed their lives while they were in
prison. PEP is an amazing ministry
that helps with the redemption and restoration of those forgotten and shunned
by our society. Their goal is “to
be on the front line, diving into the source of the problem and reclaiming the
human spirit” (www.pep.org).
I sat in my seat, humbled as I
listened to these men speak of how God had rescued them from past lives of
assault, theft, money laundering, and murder. Each one spoke of how God had used PEP to teach them to use
their talents and knowledge for building others up instead of tearing them
down. Some of them have been out
of prison for over a year, and some for only a few weeks, but they all share
one thing in common: they have been forever changed by the grace of our Lord.
When they finished speaking, I walked
up to the stage and played my two songs.
It took everything in me not to cry as I looked at these men who were a
perfect picture of myself: a great sinner, saved by God’s greater grace.
There is no such thing as a
coincidence. I needed to hear the
words of those men of God, just as much as they needed to hear two songs about
life-changing grace.
From our perspective, it looks totally
random that we ended up in a church in Athens, Texas last Sunday. From God’s perspective, it’s no
surprise at all. He’s known about
that special day since before the world was created.
-JW