Music Minute

Not much new in the way of Christian music this week, so I just want to point you to a story I think you should read, and I'll be back in a couple weeks with more new stuff.

Some years ago, I went to church one Sunday to find it included a dedication service for three little girls a couple in the church had adopted from China. They already had kids, but they had space in their lives for more, so they invested their time and their lives into bringing these girls to the U.S., and into their home. The dedication was sweet and adorable, and the youngest girl squawked a time or two the way babies do when everything is quiet.

Last spring, I turned on the TV news to learn that this little girl had died suddenly and unexpectedly in an accident. It was Stephen Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter Maria, the same baby I'd prayed for years ago in church.

To see such a tragedy strike a family who lives part of its lives in public means that the way they choose to respond to it is public also. (I am not sure this is a good thing.) I wondered at the time how the Chapmans would handle what happened to them. Would they keep everything private, or would it become a public testimony for them of God's goodness in spite of such a sad event?

Since we've been talking about failure this month. isn't it easy to imagine that this family felt like a collective failure? They'd loved their daughter and welcomed her into their family, but they hadn't been able to protect her from this. We know they weren't failures, but we humans have a way of responding to tragedy by wondering what we could have done differently.

Yet the Chapmans are the exact polar opposite of failure. Something terrible happened to them, and they did what we all should do—they offered their lives up to God. "What would you have me do, Lord?" is probably one of the hardest questions to honestly ask God. It's difficult whether you're 15 or 50. And instead of condemnation and failure, they found God's grace.

What I want you to read today is a testimony of how God used this tragedy and their response to heal them, and bless a tremendous amount of people. Please take a few minutes to read it. And remember, no matter where you are and how dark things seem, God can find you—and He makes it His business to lead you out into the light.

God loves you. Here's the link.