Sign up for our free newsletters:    Ignite Your Faith Connection Christian College Guide

Ginny Owens hates it when people yell at her. "Just because I'm blind," she says, "doesn't mean I can't hear."

And just because she's blind doesn't mean she can't "see" what's going on around her. Ginny is incredibly perceptive. She can actually tell when somebody's staring at her.

"Maybe not from across the room," she says. "But I can usually tell when people are just watching me."

That's how it's always been for Ginny, who recently released her second CD, Something More (Rocketown), the long-awaited follow-up to her smashing 1999 debut, Without Condition, which led to a Dove Award as New Artist of the Year.

Success came swiftly for Ginny. And she accepts it somewhat reluctantly.

"It's been a little bit crazy and weird sometimes," says Ginny. "It can be a struggle not to let pride and affirmation be on the same level as God. In the Christian music industry, we somehow think God and fame can fit together nicely, but they really don't. We're either serving God, or we're serving ourselves. I struggle with that.

"Some days, I think success has made me meaner, or more jaded anyway. But other days, it makes me stronger, because I realize God is indeed in control. I hear stories about how my music has affected people, and I am amazed by that. I've heard from students who've been into drugs, who have questions about faith, whose parents have been divorced, and they say my music has helped them. Just hearing their stories has made me sit and contemplate what's really important."

Which is why she titled her new CD Something More.

Lonely times
Though success is still relatively new for Ginny, the spotlight is not.

People have been staring at her since a rare eye disease left her blind by the time she was 2 years old.

"It was always hard for me to fit in," she says. "At school, everyone seemed to want someone to pick on, and I was often that someone. My parents got divorced when I was 9 or 10, and that already singled me out. But the fact that I had an obvious disability made it easier for people to single me out. There were definitely times when I was picked on, or the odd man out."

Much of the taunting stopped after elementary school, but some of it continued even into high school.

"There were times I'd walk down the hallway and accidentally tap somebody with my cane," she says. "And some of those kids would say the meanest things, things I can't repeat. I remember one time somebody actually said, 'Do you have a sight problem or something?' And they were dead serious."

The problems weren't limited to school. They showed up at church, too, though in a more subtle way.

"We had this huge youth group," she says, "and it was just very hard to make friends with people who didn't really see me as one of them. They saw me as some strange bird. They kind of talked to me in a sweet, very condescending voice. It was easy for them to say Jesus loves me, but they didn't really know how to love as well. That was always the tough thing."

As a result, Ginny was often lonely.

"I remember sometimes thinking that Jesus was my only friend," she says. "I realized he was going to be the only constant in my life—the only one who wouldn't let me down, the only one who really knew and really cared about everything I went through."

Ginny says if she didn't believe that, she hates to think how she might have turned out.

"I had to believe God had something better in store for me, and that these things were going to teach me something," she says. "It was like, either believe that, or just completely hate life."

Ginny's faith, combined with her experiences, helped her to better understand her Savior.

"With Jesus," she says, "even his best buddies didn't really get what he was all about. He was often misunderstood and alone. I know that feeling. Of course, I can't compare my suffering to Christ's. But he had very real human sufferings and he knew what it was like to be different and not be accepted."

"God isn't stupid"
Ginny says she's never been mad at God for her blindness.

And though she says she'd love to be able to see, she doesn't think God will heal her.

"I'm not saying God can't do a miracle," she says. "I'm just not sure that he'd choose to. And that's all right. Miracles are wonderful, but they don't happen every day. And looking for one to happen for me might make me waste my time.

"Besides, God does small miracles every day through each of us, through his work in us. Those are much more important than whether or not I ever get to see again."

Ginny cites a favorite Old Testament passage that convinces her that God can do great things through us despite our limitations—even blindness.

In the story, Moses stands before the burning bush, and God speaks directly to him. God tells Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, promising he'll be with Moses all the way. But Moses actually has the nerve to argue with God, giving a ton of excuses why he's not the man for the job—including the fact that he doesn't speak very well.

God tells Moses, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say" (Exodus 4:11-12).

"That's really cool," Ginny says. "I believe God gives and he takes away. God isn't stupid. He has a perfect plan in everything he does, including my blindness."

That plan came into its clearest focus when Ginny graduated from college with a degree in music education. She wanted to be a high school choral director. But nobody would hire her, because of her blindness.

"I ended up applying for jobs that didn't even require a college education," she says. "That's when I went, 'OK, Lord, did I do the wrong thing? Are you mad at me? What exactly is going on here?'

"It was very discouraging. I had no confidence. I didn't know if I could really do anything well.

"But that's when God started to teach me a lot about trust, that he promises to provide for us each moment. It was a really good lesson in learning to rely on what he says in the Bible. And if he makes these promises, then they have to be true—or he can't be God."

Once Ginny realized she wasn't going to be a music teacher after all, she wondered what she would be—and "professional musician" wasn't at the top of the list.

"I didn't hold out any hope that that would happen," she says, laughing.

But when the folks at Rocketown Records—including chairman Michael W. Smith—heard a three-song demo, they were hooked, and signed Ginny to a deal.

"And the rest," Ginny says, "is history."

Nobody's yelling at her now—well, not as much, anyway. And the stares? Not as many of those either.

But people do stand up and take notice. When God has a better idea—and wonderful music is the result—that's just what tends to happen.

Read more from 'Bands & Artists'

				Try an Issue of Ignite Your Faith Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Ignite Your Faith coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive eight more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Ignite Your Faith as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

FREE Newsletters Subscribe to the Ignite Your Faith Connection Newsletter: Subscribe to the Christian College Guide Newsletter:    RSS Feed   RSS Help