Recently a ten-year old picture I had taken popped up on social media. The picture captured a Southern California musician playing Mississippi blues meets California rock and roll in a Singapore live music venue. When I close my eyes, I remember the excitement and skin tingle I always experienced when listening to his music. As I got to know his story, I found myself appreciating the way he used his life’s angst and pain to share his belief in hope and life’s possibilities. It always felt as if he was a David coming out of a rough period with a simple request, “O God, let me sing a new song to you, let me play it on a twelve-string guitar.” (Psalm 144.9)
I am struck by how this artist was able to gift me with light, especially as I came to understand the darkness and demons he wrestled with every day. I am not sure where his journey has taken him. I find myself still using the lessons he left me with.
In every situation we face, we have an opportunity to share care, kindness, and hope. On most days, he lost the battle with the demons in his life, many of his own creation. In good times and bad, when he was down as well as when things were “ok”, he brought his “A” game to the stage. He used his pain to inform the wail which anchors a great blues song. His belief in the possible brought an energy to the hope expressed in the rock infused blues which was his trademark.
In losing out to the demons, he shared his lessons of letting others help you even when it seems impossible. I recall the late nights when the stage lights had cooled down in the darkness, where he asked, no begged me to learn from his failure. The emotional intensity gifted me with a reminder to always look beyond myself for greater answers.
Even as I let the sounds replay in my mind, I find myself reaching back to use his lessons today.
