I have always loved stories, especially when they have something to do with God. I love to read them, listen to them, analyze them, absorb them , and share them. When God walked the earth He told stories, for He knew it was the quickest way to the human heart. I’m probably what you call a “late bloomer” in the Christian World. I’ve always loved God, but really didn’t know Him very well because I never knew Jesus. In my mind, God was the Creator, someone good, yet somewhat unreachable. I wasn’t sure he heard my prayers, and I never knew that there could be a two-way relationship with Him.

At a time in my life when I was wanting to know more about God, a small country church located near me invited a man by the name of Ron Pettey to come and speak about his near death experience and what happened to him in heaven. Somewhat intrigued and skeptical, I went and listened intently as Ron began to explain how he had died momentarily during a surgical procedure to his brain. After some time in heaven, he was sent back to earth because his purpose had not yet been fulfilled. After his recovery, he wrote a book called Heaven is Real and began traveling and sharing his experiences. It was one of those true stories that touched my heart and changed it forever. He was face to face with Jesus, and the first thing he was drawn to was the love in His eyes.

“I will never forget Jesus’ eyes! They were the focus of His entire being. His dark, crystal clear eyes overflowed with a love that was beyond my comprehension. To see Him was to see love! Although He knew my heart and my thoughts, He accepted me as I was. I felt transformed in His sight, without faults or blemishes. Love was in the form of a person! I was keenly aware of His majesty: He was King of Kings and Lord of Lords…  ….Those wondrous eyes revealed yet another dimension: one of sadness. I could see reflected in His eyes another flow of people and a look of deep hurt for their refusal to accept His free gift of life and love. The power of His look spoke volumes of supernatural compassion. ”

As Ron continued relating his experience with the Lord, I could no longer hear his words for they were drowned out by the noise and rush of my thoughts. Something happened to me at that moment. My past life flashed before me, and I was deeply aware that there had been a void, a void that I had tried to fill with accomplishments. I became aware that there was something missing, and it was then that a very real divine presence stirred within me a desire to know God. Somewhat in a zone of overwhelming emotion, I discreetly excused myself from the room and went home. I tucked the kids into bed and then went outside to sit on my front porch stairs. The moon was so bright it felt like daytime, and I could see every detail of the valley flooded with its soft, white light. I looked up to heaven and talked to Jesus for the first time. This time I knew He was listening. He was there. And is there. Always. I hope I never lose that sense of wonder, awe, adoration, and reverence that I felt in that moment. In some ways I felt like a child meeting someone famous for the first time. At first all I could do was utter His Name; then, a comfortable silence lingered. I wept and rambled. In the same breath I apologized for having spent so much of my life without Him, and I thanked Him over and over for drawing me near and calling my name. I experienced New Birth that night. The same New Birth Jesus explains to Nicodemus in the book of John. I became acquainted with Truth, not the deceiving truth of the world, but the real Truth. A Truth that He loves me, has a plan for me, and knew me before I was in my mother’s womb. It’s a Truth that washes over me like a soft summer rain falling on a field of corn. I depend on it; to bear fruit I cannot live without it, without Him. I told Him that night that I would love to tell people about Him through my music.

Over the past eight years I am amazed on how many songs the Lord and I have worked on together, how some things of the world that never bothered me before bother me now, how the closer I get to God the more I can’t stop talking about Him, and how that yearning to know and love God that I first felt on my front porch eight years ago has not done anything but increase in strength. I have a deep desire for all people to know God through his Son, Jesus Christ. It’s a yearning that grows louder and more intensely with every day that goes by, and I cannot make it calm down. His Word promises us a future and gives us hope. He did something for me that I could never do for myself — He made it possible for me to approach God at the end of this life on earth. So many times I ask why anyone would not want to know Him and follow Him. All that He is and promises is good and true. To think someone would rather put his life in the hands of the world’s deceiving and empty promises is beyond me. So temporal, so fleeting. I think of sinking sand.

If God Himself asked me what it is that I truly desire most in this lifetime, I would tell Him that I would like to glorify Him in all that I do, but especially through my music, so people’s hearts and minds would be drawn to Him. That maybe upon listening to these songs, they could forget momentarily about the less desirable things of this world and realize there is a God who loves us so much that He sent His only Son, that whoever should believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). The harvest is plentiful, the laborers few (Matt 9:37). I hope that he counts me as his laborer - one who serves in His name through the gift that he gave me - music.

I’m not sure in whose car, I-pod, or home God will place this CD. My only wish is that whoever it is, that person will be drawn closer to God. And if they don’t already know Him, that they will realize what took me too long to realize – He is real and so is Heaven. Thy Kingdom come…Thy Kingdom come.