Course Charting: Reclaiming the Past
Sometimes you have to let go in order to receive. When I crossed the bridge, I accepted the possibility that I may never play guitar in a band again. And the stage seemed like a quickly fading dream from my past. Little did I know I was about to meet the man who would revive my musical aspirations and alter them in ways I could not have imagined.
I met Danny Nicholson on the deck of a beach house in the Isle of Palms, South Carolina. He was the guest speaker at a Christian retreat for college students. He sang a few original songs and talked about music as the expression of a heart changed by God. I’d heard Christian rock. Stryper, the first real heavy metal band to sing about Jesus, was getting popular. But until I heard Danny, I’d always thought of music as a way to be cool and meet girls (Okay, so now it was Christian girls). It’s true, my heart was changed by God, but many of my perspectives on life lagged behind.
After Danny’s talk, I introduced myself and told him I played guitar. He said he was thinking about forming a band, and that we should talk further back at the college. The next week, Danny and another guitarist named Brian Turner came to my dorm room. We talked about music, I played a little for them, and Danny said we should get together to learn some of his songs. That’s how it started for me. One day, I’m just a guy from Nevada trying to find his way in a strange land (literally and figuratively), and the next day I’m in a Christian band.
Every band has a story that every musician likes to tell. Remembering the purpose of these posts, I will resist the urge to tell ours here. I’ve told this much only to illustrate something I observed several posts ago–namely, that the really big ideas in life are often connected. I was obsessed with music before God found me. The bridge required me to lay that obsession aside in order to follow Jesus. Then, once I followed Him into the deep, He miraculously reclaimed that old part of my life, gave it back to me, and used it for His purposes.
I played music with Danny for about nine years in a band that became known as Heart of Love. We traveled throughout the southeast, playing hundreds of concerts and meeting thousands of people. All of that was great, but greater things than music came out of it. 1) My bandmates became my brothers. I never knew friendship at such a deep level until I found it with these guys. It’s been nearly twenty years since our last concert, but I’m still in contact with some of them. In fact, Danny and I are now working on a writing project together. 2) I met my wife. Tammi ran the sound for us. All that time together on the road and playing shows brought us together in a very cool way that may not have happened otherwise. She still controls my sound when I play at church. 3) It formed my philosophy of Christian life and ministry. Everything I know about service, humility, accountability, submission, communication, and so much more started with Heart of Love. God used my bandmates and our music to teach me the same things He taught His disciples. Danny always talked about the music being secondary to the mission. It took me awhile to get that, but after all these years, I see it more clearly than ever. No one hears the music we once made, but the greater things that began in that band have made me the man I am today.
Heart of Love: Steve Johnson, Matt Buchner, Danny Nicholson, Michael Gunter, Kevin Jones
