Praise

Research reveals that Gen Z employees aren't fooled by the "compliment sandwich" approach to feedback. While this technique aims to soften criticism with praise, it can often backfire. Young people are more concerned with whether they're perceived as competent than with receiving positive reinforcement. They crave genuine validation and respect, not patronizing compliments.

The compliment sandwich is meant to create an atmosphere of safety and security. But if the praise is for something seemingly unimportant, it won’t address a young person’s fears of unworthiness. Rather, it may be seen as condescending, which can confirm anxieties about being seen as a rube. Studies show that young people are especially hungry for signs of social status and respect, so they are especially insulted when they sense they are being talked down to.

There is, in fact, a simple but effective solution. Instead of the baloney sandwich, consider "wise feedback." This approach involves delivering honest, constructive criticism with an underlying belief in the individual's potential. By framing feedback as a tool for growth, you can help young people overcome their fears of inadequacy and strive for excellence.

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The Apostle Paul is a great example of putting this principle into practice in the church. He was honest about both the strengths and weaknesses of the people he addressed without flattery. His criticism is always motivated by love for people. He always offered hope for the future, encouraging them to change and grow.

In CT magazine, Brad East reflects on Olympic athletes sharing their Christian testimony:

The opening ceremonies of the Olympics are extravagant celebrations of national glories and global unity. But if you watch past the opener to the 2024 Games themselves, you’ll notice an unusual pattern: Athletes are always talking about God. Athletes of every kind continuously gave God the credit, often in explicitly Christian terms.

For my money, US track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won. After breaking the world record (again) for women’s 400-meter hurdles, she answered a reporter’s question this way: “Honestly—praise God. I was not expecting that, but he can do anything. Anything is possible in Christ. I’m just amazed, baffled, and in shock.” The reporter laughed nervously and moved on to the next qualifier.

It’s not news that athletes thank the Lord for their success. But watching these public displays of piety made me wonder: Why is this still normal? Unlike other events, like the Oscars, sporting events appear to be the last refuge of “acceptable” public faith in our secular culture. In a time when belief is belittled, ignored, or relegated to one’s private life, athletes are unapologetically faithful in public. But why?

The place to start, I think, is the nature of sports itself. Athletic discipline is rigorously controlled because, when the whistle blows, nothing is under control. It’s chaos, contingency, and chance all the way down. The skies fill with rain clouds; the court is slick with sweat; the track is spongy; your opponents are strategically unpredictable.

With good reason, therefore, athletes turn to God. None but God is sovereign. I can’t control the weather, but he can. I can’t stop my body from failing, but he can. Even the wind and the waves obey him (Matt. 8:27). Shouldn’t footballs and softballs obey him too?

For athletes, God isn’t just in charge of the moment. He’s the governor of history. This is true for all of us, at all times, but elite athletes are viscerally reminded of it with a frequency few of us experience.

It should come as no surprise, then, that a victorious athlete will speak of more than God answering a prayer. Sure, they may be caught up in the moment. Deep down, though, they’re expressing faith in divine providence. It’s one more way to be clear about control. None of us has it, because only God does, and the sooner one recognizes that, the sooner peace is possible when losing and real joy available when winning.

In his Hall of Fame speech, Brett Favre told a story that he had never shared publicly:

One more thing about my father, and this is something I've never told anyone. My dad was my high school football coach. He was the head football coach, and he coached me and my two brothers. But I never had a car growing up and I always rode to and from school with my father in his truck. So, he was always the last to leave the building because he had to turn the lights off, lock up, and then we made our way home.

So, it was the last high school football game of my high school career. Although I don't remember how I played in the last game, what I do remember is sitting outside the coach's office, waiting for my father to come out so we could leave. It was dark. And I overheard my father talking to the three other coaches. I heard him -- and I assume I didn't play as well the previous week only because of what he said. He said: ‘I can assure you one thing about my son; he will play better. He will redeem himself. I know my son. He has it in him.’

And I never let him know that I heard that. I never said that to anyone else. But I thought to myself: That's a pretty good compliment, you know? My chest kind of swelled up. But I never forgot that statement and that comment that he made to those other coaches. And I want you to know, Dad, I spent the rest of my career trying to redeem myself.

I'm working on it. I'm trying to get through it. But I spent the rest of my career trying to redeem myself and make him proud, and I hope I succeeded.

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For better or for worse, our words are self-fulfilling prophecies. Are you giving people, especially your children, something to live up to or something to live down to? Are your words life-giving? Or do they suck the life out of others? Are your words encouraging or discouraging?

Texas pastor Tan Flippin was left thanking God, after a cycling accident in 2018 landed him in the hospital with fractures to his hip. His ride that eventful day, past a stretch undergoing repair, beside a subdivision, led to the crash that threw him off his bicycle. He said later, “I’d gone through that area before with no issues.”

When the doctors at the hospital ordered a CT scan to check for a concussion, what they discovered was shocking. They noticed a large malignant tumor on the front of Tan’s brain. That discovery began a long journey of treatment that eventually led to bone marrow and stem cell transplants. Today, he is cancer-free.

Flippin said, “God allowed the accident for my brain tumor to be found.”

The story has led to Flippin's testimony being shared on a regular basis. He said, "People want me to tell this story and that my faith has inspired them and been an encouragement. I hear that about every week.”

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Similarly, God can use the challenges and unpleasant situations we encounter to work out something good in our lives and to bring glory to his name. We can trust God to work out something meaningful through them (Phil. 1:12-18).

What's blasting from your car speakers, and more important, how does it sound? For sound-system engineers at the audio-equipment manufacturer Bose, a playlist is more than tracks that slap. To test stereos, they need songs representing a variety of sounds and recording techniques to make sure new systems can re-create a song with the depth of the original recording.

To have a common reference point, Bose engineers all over the globe share a master playlist. Mark Armitage, head of the acoustical-engineering team at Bose says, "Every system engineer knows these tracks inside and out. It makes for a universal language we can use when testing and tuning." He named a few selections from the test list:

Bruno Mars, "24K Magic" – It features a lot of instruments from the high tweeter notes all the way down.

Tom Petty, "Learning to Fly (Live)” - The crowd starts singing along, Petty's voice drops out, and you get a real sense of how big that auditorium is.

Dave Brubeck Quartet, "Take Five" - Listen for the cymbals from the intro, which are hard to reproduce.

Straight No Chaser, "Homeward Bound" All a cappella. The vocals span all the way across the stage and you can independently hear each person singing.

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We also use music to tunes our minds and souls. The world has its music, which attunes them to worldly thoughts, desires, and actions. But believers also have music which tunes our hearts to God by giving us the vocabulary to express praise and worship to God, unifying us as we gather for worship, and adjusting our hearts so that our faith is expressed to God in worship.

Pro quarterback Patrick Mahomes had just limped his way through a last-minute, game-winning drive in the 2023 AFC Championship when he gave the credit for his performance to someone that even the biggest Kansas City Chiefs fans had never heard of. “Julie WAS the reason I was the guy I was on the field today!” Mahomes wrote to his millions of followers on Twitter that night. Her full name is Julie Frymer.

Who is she and why is she so important to the team? She’s the assistant athletic trainer. Frymyer had one of the NFL’s most important jobs in the 2022-2023 season: She was in charge of putting Mahomes through rehab for his injured ankle and getting the star quarterback ready to play for a spot in the Super Bowl.

Hobbling through a nasty sprain that often requires weeks of recovery, Mahomes wasn’t just able to play against the Cincinnati Bengals. He was fantastic. He was clearly gimpy, grimacing through several plays, but he was mobile enough to make several key plays, including a crucial run setting up the last-second field goal that sent the Chiefs to the Super Bowl to face the Philadelphia Eagles.

Mahomes going out of his way to praise her was the first time most people in Arrowhead Stadium had ever heard the name Julie Frymyer, but the Chiefs knew her value long before the guy with a contract worth nearly half a billion dollars, might as well have given her the game ball.

“I gotta share this just to show you how cold G.O.D. is,” said Tracy Lynn Curry, posting on the social media X employing the hip-hop slang usage for cold as a synonym for cool, meaning “skilled, effective, talented, or great.”

Curry is known throughout the hip-hop world by his stage name, The D.O.C. He has been a critically acclaimed producer, collaborating with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre for some of the biggest hits in west coast rap during the early 90s.

But all of his dreams of rap stardom stopped after a car accident left him with a badly damaged larynx. The D.O.C. continued to contribute to the hip-hop scene as a producer and ghostwriter, but was never able to recover the unique voice that sent him to the top of the charts.

Until now, that is. Curry’s announcement on social media was for a new album that he’s producing in conjunction with the firm Suno, who will use existing recordings to recreate an AI version of his voice. In an interview on CBS Mornings with Michelle Miller, Curry explained that it was his old friend Fab 5 Freddy who convinced him to get on board. “When this thing happens, it sounds like the real me,” Curry said to one of the Suno software engineers.

As part of the segment, Miller also interviewed Mikey Scholman, Suno’s CEO, about the AI being taught to emulate Curry’s voice. When she asked about potential ethical considerations, Scholman defended the project, calling it “a slam dunk. ... Letting D.O.C. recreate the voice that has been in his head that he hasn’t been able to get out there for the last 35 years – I can’t think of a better usage of this technology than that.”

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No tragedy is so great or so long ago that God cannot redeem it for good. God wants to take your place of wounding and use it to accomplish that which would seem impossible, because with God nothing is impossible.

Do impressive-sounding, inspirational job titles make us feel better about ourselves? Can they change our behavior? Research suggests that job titles have the power to improve our well-being and sense of control, and shield us from feeling socially snubbed. They might even encourage us to apply for a job in the first place.

Since a powerful-sounding job title can signify social status, it’s not surprising workers aspire to them. But a fancy title isn’t always about status. Simply making a title more fun can influence behavior. After attending a conference at Disneyland and upon discovering that employees there were called “cast members,” Susan Fenters Lerch felt inspired.

The former CEO of Make-A-Wish Foundation returned to her office and told employees they could create their own “fun” job title, in addition to their official one, to reflect “their most important roles and identities in the organization.”

Researchers interviewed these employees a year and a half after Lerch’s decision. They found that their “self-reflective” job titles reduced workers’ emotional exhaustion, helped them cope with emotional challenges, and let them affirm their identity at work. Researcher Daniel Cable said, “The titles opened the door for colleagues to view one another as human beings, not merely job-holders.”

Researchers have also found that giving an employee a more senior-sounding title can make them act more responsibly by making them feel happier at work. Sociology professor Jeffrey Lucas found that giving high-performing employees a high-status job title could stop them from leaving. He carried out two experiments and discovered that workers with important-sounding job titles “displayed greater satisfaction, commitment, and performance and lower turnover intentions” than those who didn’t.

“However, as far as job titles go, it's important that people actually perceive the titles as conferring status. In other words, fancy titles that people perceive as being nothing more than just that would be unlikely to have positive consequences.”

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This attitude could apply to valuing church staff, elected church officers, and volunteers. Do we follow Paul’s example in giving affirming titles those who serve with us? He publicly appreciated them and called them “fellow workers,” “beloved brothers,” “faithful ministers,” and “true partners” (Phil. 4:3; Col 4:7).

Mara Reinstein writes in Parade Magazine:

We met Steve Martin years ago as a banjo-playing comic with an arrow through his head singing "King Tut." He's now a movie star and serious musician as well. In an interview, he recalled the movie "Father of the Bride" beating every other movie at the box office and thinking, "Oh, this month it's my turn."

The interviewer followed-up, "Does it hurt when it's not your turn?" Steve answered, "Not anymore … you have to remember that there's always going to be somebody better than you and there's room for everybody. I'm also a musician … I work with a lot of bands. I always say, 'Don't be jealous of other bands. You're just going to eat yourself up and waste time and it will get you nowhere. So be inclusive and say, ‘Great job.’ It takes a while to learn to not take it all so seriously."

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The world may not call jealousy and envy "sins" but it recognizes they create issues. He's right, isn't he? It does take a while to learn to let others be praised.

In his book, Every Deep-Drawn Breath, Critical Care Doctor Wes Ely explores the ordinary miracle of taking a breath.

We take for granted our ability to breathe. We do it again and again, one breath after another, without thinking. Yet the lungs are incredibly complex, the respiratory system made up of so many different actors, structures, and functions. Cells with hair like projections called cilia move fluid, goblet cells secrete mucus, and column-like cells line and protect. Our lungs have cells that are integral parts of our nervous system, lymphatic system … and immune system. They contain cartilage, elastic tissue, connective tissue, muscle, and glands, and all of this gives rise to a system of airways that is 1500 miles long, from New York City to Dallas, and filters every ounce of air entering the body.

Dr. Ely feels so much admiration for the simple process of taking a breath that he compares it to how “an artist admires a Rembrandt [painting], the way the light, the colors, the brushstrokes all work together to create something more.”

It is said that George Frederick Handel composed his amazing musical The Messiah in approximately three weeks. It was apparently done at a time when his eyesight was failing and when he was facing the possibility of being imprisoned because of outstanding bills. Handel however kept writing in the midst of these challenges till the masterpiece, which included the majestic, “Hallelujah Chorus,” was completed.

Handel later credited the completion of his work to one ingredient: Joy. He was quoted as saying that he felt as if his heart would burst with joy at what he was hearing in his mind. Sure enough, listening either to the entire work of The Messiah, or to the "Hallelujah Chorus" brings great joy to one's heart.

Similarly, in the midst of the many challenges he faced, including chains, imprisonment, and slander, the Apostle Paul, filled with the joy that Christ gives, could say, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4). May the joy of the Lord fill your heart today!

Jesus is the reason for the season. But he doesn’t show up much in the top Christmas songs played on Spotify. According to October 2021 data from the streaming service collected by Every Noise, the most-played Christmas song around the world is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas,” followed by Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” and Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me.” Some top songs make oblique references to the religious aspect of Christmas, but most stick to love, the weather, and an occasional chestnut.

Globally, the most popular Christmas song to mention Jesus is Boney M.’s “Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord,” which comes in at No. 71. It is followed by Nina Nesbitt singing “O Holy Night” at No. 79 and Josh Groban and Faith Hill performing “The First Nöel” at No. 90.

The presence of Jesus in popular Christmas music varies widely by country, however, revealing differences in musical taste, holiday traditions, and the spread of Christianity by missionaries, militaries, markets, and immigration.

Top Christmas Songs to Mention Jesus Around the World:

In Sri Lanka at #1 is “Bethlehem Pure” by Anil Bharathi

In Nigeria at #4 is “Silent Night” by Just Faithful

In Egypt at #6 is “What Child is This?” by Peter Basket

In Australia at #6 is “Silent Night” by Dean Martin

In the United States at #10 is “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” by Perry Como

In France at #28 is “O Holy Night” by Tracy Chapman

In Hong Kong at #93 is “O Holy Night” by Nina Nesbitt

In a recent issue of CT magazine Tim Larson reflects on Christ in Christmas:

Some of us are worried about others experiencing doubts: children, siblings, friends, or maybe even spouses or valued members of our churches. Perhaps we are even worried that our entire culture is losing its faith. If so, I have good news for you: Christmas is your ally in the tussle between faith and unbelief.

As a scholar of the subject, I can tell you with confidence that, by and large, atheists love Christmas. They see it as Christianity at its most inviting. Unbelievers often feel closest to the faith at Christmastime.

I have a friend who was once a zealous Christian. He left the church and became quite comfortable saying he no longer believed in God. Yet a few years ago, he told me rather sheepishly that he had gone back to his old church for its Christmas Eve service. Since then, the way he talks about Christianity has noticeably softened. I would not be surprised to hear someday that he had returned to Christ. Christmas draws even skeptics toward the faith rather than pushing them away.

In our culture … the Christmas season takes up 10 percent of the year! Our entire culture is geared up during the holiday season to make it easier to talk about Jesus. Even the Salvation Army suddenly becomes part of mainstream culture.

We can’t force our secular culture to celebrate Christmas in a Christian manner. And yet, our culture is amazingly interested in the Christian aspects of Christmas. A Christian sacred day is also a federal holiday. Many churches gather their largest congregation of the entire year at Christmas.

In the Chicago area there is a radio station that uses the standard rock format for most of the year. But for about the last ten percent of the year, you can tune in and hear, “Joy to the world! The Savior reigns,” or be invited to “cast out our sin” and let Jesus enter in, or be offered “tidings of comfort and joy” because “Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day.” We should be grateful that for six weeks during every year, even pop stations sometimes play songs that proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ.

When he was a kid, Kevin Boyer's parents left him special notes in his lunch box. Now he's keeping that tradition alive with his own students. Boyer is the family and student support coordinator at Gorsuch West Elementary in Lancaster, Ohio.

Last year, he wrote a personalized letter to every student in the school, and he's doing it again this year. Every day, he pens six notes, so that by the last day of school, he will have written a letter to all 600 students. Boyer makes it a point to learn the name of every kid in the school. He also finds out their interests and hobbies so when it's time to write their letters, they are one-of-a-kind. Boyer told local reporters that some students tape their letters to their desks, while others have told him they proudly display the notes on their refrigerators at home.

In the fall of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued two landmark statements. The first was the famous Gettysburg Address in which Lincoln commemorated the battlefield of Gettysburg. The other statement, made just weeks before, may be a bit more surprising. On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln instituted the first official Thanksgiving holiday.

Lincoln wrote, “It has seemed to me fit and proper that [the gracious gifts of the Most High God] should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.” Thus, Lincoln set apart the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father.” Apparently, in the midst of the worst war our nation had ever seen, Lincoln thought the time was ripe for gratitude.

We may be tempted to think Lincoln’s statement of gratitude was inappropriate, naïve, or even offensive. Reading the entire text of Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, however, disabuses the modern reader from the conclusion that he had (somehow) forgotten about the Civil War. Lincoln candidly addressed the horrors of the Civil War, a war “of unequaled magnitude and severity” that had transformed tens of thousands of Americans into “widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife.” But he coupled this hardship with hope, recognizing the hand of God guiding him through the valley of the shadow of death.

Conflict and gratitude. Hardship and hope. Lincoln wasn’t confused. He was seeing thanksgiving through a biblical lens.

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The surprising context for the holiday Lincoln instituted is a good reminder to us today. God wants us to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18) because it focuses our hope and future in the goodness and power of our God and not on our “light and momentary troubles” (2 Cor. 4:17).

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation sold a record number of guitars in 2020, driven in part by people forced to stay at home during the pandemic. The company calculates that nearly a third of those new musical instruments were purchased by people who play in praise and worship bands.

No one knows the first person to bring a guitar into church, but it became common in charismatic congregations in Southern California in the 1970s. Folk, rock, and folk-rock went to church with the hippies who converted during the Jesus People movement. Guitars became staples of the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard church style before spreading to other evangelical churches.

Guitars also had some practical advantages. They were portable. When a new church started in a school, or someone’s house, or even on the beach, no one had to haul over an organ. Guitars are also easier to learn to play than the pianos and organs traditionally used in church music.

Duke Divinity School’s Adam Perez says, “People joke about how simple it is—three chords or four chords—but that was a strength, not a weakness. You could have a beginner guitar player who learned to play to lead their small group, their cell group, or even a new church. You’re democratizing access to the sacred.”

According to Ultimate Guitar, an estimated one million guitar players are “gigging” at churches every weekend, and more people play praise and worship music than any other genre in the US.

When the prospect of war threatened the viability of the annual international classical Kharkiv Music Fest, organizers were left scrambling. But their answer was found in the same place as many other Ukrainians looking for shelter amidst the conflict: underground.

Instead of the Kharkiv Philharmonic concert hall, musicians assembled their instruments inside of an underground subway station. They played their instruments for a grateful public in an ad hoc event known as the “concert between explosions.”

Among the first pieces was the Ukrainian national anthem, played while members of the audience stood with their hands over the hearts. Art director Vitali Alekseenok said, “Music can unite. It’s important now for those who stay in Kharkiv to be united.”

The program was intended to highlight the connections between Ukraine and other Western Europeans. It included arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs, interspersed with works by Bach, Dvorak, and other well-known composers.

One violinist said that the concert was unique among his performance experiences. “There was no stage excitement that usually happens when performing for people. But I knew that I was where I should be.”

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Even in a time of deadly conflict, music and art are gifts that can point us back to God.

New York City has the largest Ukrainian population in the United States, a community of about 150,000. Thousands had come to the United States as Christian refugees, most of them Baptist or Pentecostal, under a special asylum for those fleeing Soviet religious persecution.

As President Vladimir Putin put his nuclear forces on high alert, some took to the streets to join the protests against Putin’s aggression. But mostly, these followers of Jesus gathered in the churches to pray, weep, lament, and sing to God. They called their praise songs “weapons of war.”

As the nuclear threat escalated tensions, people in the service were in disbelief about how quickly the situation had spiraled. One church leader told Christianity Today, “Our minds fail to understand: How is this possible in this day and age? God allowed this to happen, and we do not know why. But we know God is sovereign, and he is on his throne. There are people who think if they kill someone it will accomplish a goal.”

A worship leader said, “Our hope is in the Lord, the one who holds things together. No matter how things fall apart, the Lord created this world, and he holds things in his hands.” He played music and led worship in tears. But he also told his church family, “Even if a nuclear attack happens, the hope we have is we go home. And we will be together with Jesus, the one we know will help us.”

In an issue of CT Magazine, singer-songwriter Kira Fontana shares how she was delivered from a new-age mindset to a life-changing relationship with Christ:

From the outside, my life looked great. I was enjoying a fantastic job as one of the top vocal coaches in Los Angeles. I had worked with major-label and top-40 artists, as well as hit TV shows like The Voice and Glee. Clients regularly flew in from around the world.

Though I had moved to LA to pursue a career creating my own music, somewhere along the way that dream got lost. Throughout this dry time, I managed to find temporary peace and joy through an LA megachurch for “spiritual but not religious” seekers. The church was transdenominational, which appealed to me. I adopted Eastern beliefs about God and practices like meditation.

After almost 20 years of spiritual seeking, I truly believed I had attained higher levels of consciousness than most people. I believed there were many roads to God, and my thoughts were awash with “love and light” and other positive-thinking mantras. However, when I really looked at my life, I knew something was missing.

Around this time, several members of my family became born-again Christians and started talking about Jesus. I remember one of my brothers calling my spiritual center “satanic.” What could be so horrible about channeling love and light, attaining higher consciousness, and finding inner healing?

When my brother asked me, “Who do you think Jesus is?” I answered, “He was a great spiritual teacher, and one of the most enlightened people who ever lived.” He said, “How can you live like Jesus when you have no idea who he really is? You’ve never read the one book that would tell you who he is.”

I spent a solid year praying and reading the Bible. Scripture confronted me with many ideas my new-age mindset simply couldn’t process. As I did this, God began revealing his truth in ways that radically transformed my mind.

In time, I came to see that my most cherished beliefs had all been focused on myself. Even though they were framed in spiritual ways, they were oriented toward self-realization and self-help. But discovering the Bible’s definition of good shattered this confidence. I finally saw that I wasn’t capable of being a good person on my own. And I sensed my need for a Savior.

Meanwhile, God gradually opened my eyes to the reality of evil in the world. But day by day, God revealed to me the real state of the world—pulling back a veil and showing me depths of darkness, I had never fathomed.

I began attending a local church in Santa Monica, asking God to reveal himself and praying he would bring me out of the darkness. I asked a ton of questions, and I read multiple books on apologetics. Eventually, I was ready to finally surrender my life to Christ.

As a new Christian, I prayed that God would show me how to use my musical gifts for the sake of his kingdom. I soon realized I no longer belonged in the secular music industry. The lyrics of most pop songs disturbed me, and I was concerned about the destructive impact these songs were having on young people.

After only a couple of weeks of praying, I felt God clearly call me to leave LA and move to San Diego County. Alone one night in my new home, I felt I had truly reached the end of myself. I cried out to God with a desperation and sadness I had never felt before, asking, “Why did you even make me?” I felt I had completely failed in so many areas of life, including my own music.

That very night, I woke up from a dream at 3 a.m. In the dream I heard an amazing song. I got up, rushed down to the piano, and recorded the chorus for “Refuge.” It was my first worship song. From that day forward, I experienced a complete revival of musical creativity. God was saying, “I made you to worship me.”

Since I put my faith in Christ, God has redeemed everything that was lost in my life. He has freed me from the prison of my selfishness, rescued me from darkness, and brought me into his glorious light. He has given my life new purpose, equipping me to serve his kingdom and glorify his name with music. There is no greater joy.

In 1779, a British pastor published a hymnbook titled Onley Hymns. It became an immediate bestseller. The public largely ignored Hymn #41 in the collection, titled “Faith’s Review and Expectations.” The author of the hymn made no further mentions of it in his diaries during the remaining 30 years of his life. For the next 120 years it never caught on with churchgoers, or with anyone else. Hymn #41 only made one appearance in all the other hymnbooks published in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was a hymn without honor in its own country.

But when Hymn #41, originally written by the pastor and former slave trader John Newton, jumped over the shores to America, it quickly rose in popularity. After someone renamed it, a singing instructor from South Carolina set the lyrics to a new tune. During the 1850s, the hymn added some lyrics from African American worship. On December 10, 1947, the famous singer Mahalia Jackson recorded a version of the hymn.

Eventually, this obscure hymn, which is known today as “Amazing Grace,” has become what one person has called “the spiritual national anthem of America.” It’s original author, the pastor and theologian John Newton, would have been astonished by the universality today of the hymn he wrote 250 years ago for his local church worshippers. What he composed to illustrate a village sermon has developed into a global anthem.