The familiar feeling of packing up a suit case and heading out on the open road has come again. This time seems different, there’s a stronger calling and an all the more too important mission backed with a more solid product to support the cause. The first three days were amazing, I was able to bring my wife Emily, who learned how to “road dawg” it. After a short break back in Michigan, we are headed out again to the great state of Indiana, this time to play one of my favorite venues of all time, The Gear in Franklin (engagethegear.com).
On a more serious note…this tour is a little more important to me this time. I just finished listening to A Plea For Purging and the lyric “The devil’s hands have been busy”. These words stuck in my soul and remind me why its imparative that I do what I do. You might be wondering who my friend here to the left is…this is Michael Poindexter. He was 33 years old and a servent of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Reports said that he was last seen riding a bike on October 12th. The search for him went on for weeks, and he was finally found, lifeless, in a wooded area earlier this week. The signifigance of this parallel is that Mike was battling a mental illness we know as depression, and it cost him his life. I knew Mike from serving with him as a leader in an organization called “Young Life”. The principal here is that the devil’s hands are busy, but we need to be busier doing Kingdom business.
The fields are white for harvest. (John 4:35)
There are more and more people now who are open to the real Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of love and compassion, of forsaking all for your brother. People like Mike, who are battling depression and insecurity. People who can be spared from the tragedy that struck Mike’s life just by hearing and seeing the REAL Gospel. Touring is fun, but its not all glamour. The bulk of touring means practicing for hours on end before you leave, preparing your merch set up, and leaving loved ones, for me mainly my wife, to answer the call of God. The salvation and renewal of the soul of one is worth all the toil and riding in a van and lifting equipment in and out of a trailer and giving all that I have in me to pour out the love that Jesus would unto those who come to see us play.
If you are a believer and you say “well how can I minister to people, I don’t play an instrument, I don’t have my name on the front of a best selling book at the Chrisitian book store, I don’t preach at my church, I’m not going to a different country to share the Gospel” then you’re not useless for God. The most powerful thing you have is your testimony. Tell a coworker, an unsaved friend, a reletive or someone in the grocery isle about what Jesus did and continues to do for you, know that people want the REAL Gospel, not the watered down version they hear on tv or while hitting their seek button on their radio. A REAL encounter with a REAL person with a REAL story is what people need. Think of those people like Mike that you know in your life.
You can also help by praying for sosaveme and for our families and wives that God will continue provisions as we set out to do the work (and yes it is work sometimes) that God has called us to do.
Thank you for reading, I hope this encouraged you, it has encouraged me as I have been writing it.
