sometimes-by-step

Remembering a Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band

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I still remember my one and only Rich Mullins concert experience. It must have been around 1995 or so and I think the venue was First Evangelical Church in Memphis. In some ways, that feels like a lifetime ago, but it also seems like yesterday in some ways.

I think Rich Mullins played the concert in bare feet. He was the most unassuming Christian artist I’ve ever known and was the polar opposite of a diva in every possible way. I have a picture in my mind of Rich Mullins just in front of me, getting a drink out of the water fountain during the intermission instead of having premier bottled water backstage. I was too starstruck to say anything but stood there, looking dumbfounded as he drank out of the fountain.

I’ll never forget how beautifully he played the hammered dulcimer and all those amazing songs of his. The very last song he played was the worshipful I See You, and as he walked off stage the audience was still singing “Everywhere I go I see You, everywhere I go I see You.”

I remember about learning how he had tragically died and how it felt like a gut punch. He was only 41. And his death seemed like such a tragic waste from not wearing a seat belt in a car accident. It seemed like he had so many songs left unsung and music left to write.

Yesterday marked 29 years since his passing on September 19, 1997, yet so many churches are still singing his songs, especially “Awesome God” and “Sometimes by Step.” His musical legacy will continue to live on as new generations discover the power of his music.

I’m thankful that out of all the history in the world, I got to live in the time when Rich Mullins was alive. I got to experience his music when it was new and hear it on the radio when it was being played for the first time. For that I am eternally thankful.

Thank you, Rich, for your musical legacy that you left behind. Thank you for your artistic integrity and your honest lyrics that spoke my feelings and fears better than I ever could. You’ll never know how much of a difference for the Kingdom of God you made, especially in me.

Wise Words from Rich Mullins

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Rich Mullins would have turned 70 today. Instead, we remember him and celebrate his legacy 28 years after his untimely passing in 1997. I sometimes wonder how much more great music he could have produced had he lived longer, but I’m thankful for the catalog of great albums and songs he left behind. Songs like Awesome God and Sometimes by Step are still sung in churches and youth groups and retreats all over the world.

I ran across something Rich wrote that was an interesting take on happiness. He definitely marched to the beat of his own drummer and didn’t conform to anyone else’s idea of normal, but I suppose that is what makes his music so memorable and lasting. Here’s what he wrote:

“1. Forget about finding happiness. Happiness is not worthy of your search.

2. Bake a cake – a really rich cake, preferably from scratch and especially if you are an inexperienced baker or a tested, tried, & notoriously awful cook. The value is in the baking more than in the cake.

3. Call up some enemy of yours and invite that enemy to eat the cake with you. If the cake is good you may lose an enemy and gain a friend. If the cake is bad, at least vengeance is sweet.

4. If you can’t think of a single enemy, then call up a friend. Invite your friend over to eat the cake with you. If the cake is good the favor may be returned. If the cake is awful your friend may go buy one from a bakery for you. If you are without any enemies or friends, take your cake to an old folks’ home. Eat it with them! If the cake is good you will no longer be without friends. If the cake is terrible you will no longer be without enemies.

Finding a friend, making an enemy – now those are things worth pursuing. Happiness may come tagged on – but even if it doesn’t, at least you will have done something and established some relationships.

5. Memorize Isaiah 40 or the first Psalm or Psalm 91. Read the closing chapters of the Book of Job. Meditate on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). Write out one of the Prison Epistles (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Collosians) and send them to some other unhappy person.

All of this may not make you happy but it will tell you how to be holy. Once you tie that knot you may find yourself in a position to be made happy.

6. Work hard. Clean something. Find new and more space-efficient ways of folding your clothes. Rake someone else’s yard for them. If you are unhappy maybe you can help someone else be less so.

7. Go back to the third chapter of Lamentations and then repeat after me:

“It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear
The yoke while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence
For the Lord has laid it on him.”

8. Reread the 23rd Psalm and remember that if the Lord is your shepherd, then you are in a lush pasture. You are by a still stream. If it seems otherwise to you, it may be because you would rather be happy than be God’s. If this is so, then you have more reason to be happy than anyone. God has chosen you – ungrateful, decadent you – and being His is a joy and a happiness that goes beyond anything else you may seek, and in your folly settle for. God will (in His mercy) make you discontent with anything less than Him.

So we have only one step left…

9. Rejoice.”