Beautiful

When I was a kid, we went to a Southern Baptist church. That church was also home to a contemporary Christian musician....we just didn't know it at the time. Shaun grew up to become a celebrity with his great voice. His music made him famous, but his heart for mission work is what makes him 'famous' in my mind.

Over the course of the past year or so, I've been able to reconnect with him over the internet. He's a couple years older than me but he remembers our family from all those years at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. I've watched him (via live video stream) while he was on mission trips with Compassion International, a Christian child-sponsor organization. He works closely with them, taking well-known bloggers on trips to the neediest countries to love the children there, play games with them, hold them & hug them and find sponsors for them. Each of the bloggers can post throughout their trip & "advertise" in a way for the organization. I've been honored to "watch" these trips the last couple of years & watch Shaun's heart. I am honored to know him & call him a friend. Even if it's been 15 or so years since I last layed eyes on him in person, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that Shaun Groves is a man of honor with a passion for Jesus.

Tonight on Facebook, he posted a link to his 2 new radio hits. I went to the site & played one of them over & over & over & over. Before you hear it, read the story behind the song:

THE STORY BEHIND I’VE GOT YOU

I met Kiran a few months ago, but if I live a hundred years I’ll still remember her. Her house is a box six feet wide and four feet deep with a roof made from sheets of plastic held in place with rocks and sticks. There’s not enough room for Kiran’s two brothers and father to sleep inside so they bed down on the street. There’s also no room for furniture or a closet. All they own is pinned to the ceiling by a sheet stretched tight overhead and pegged to the walls with sticks jammed into holes.

Kiran’s house was about four and a half feet tall so the neighbors all came out to laugh at the giant Americans cramming themselves through the miniature doorway. Once inside, my friends and I sat on the ground asking questions and listening to Kiran’s story. Then it was Kiran’s turn to ask us a question.

She stood straighter than before, a big smile on her face. “How do you like my home?” she asked.

We all held tears behind wide grins. “It’s beautiful,” we said.

Then Kiran took Keely by the hand and walked us through her neighborhood. The sudden presence of white faces had drawn a handful of beggars to Kiran’s street. There they sat, one with hands and feet eaten by leprosy, pleading for food. The shifting winds blew the unmistakable smell of human waste into our noses then mercifully pulled them away. Together we crossed a bridge that spanned polluted waters shimmering in the midday sun.

As we stepped off the bridge Kiran began to cry.

“I’m just so very happy,” she said.

What could make a girl living in twenty-four square feet so happy? What could make an eleven year-old without a closet, a car, a television or a cell phone so happy? What could make a girl who walks past beggars and through so much filth every day so very happy?

“I have God and my sponsor,” she said.

Then we turned a corner into a brothel where women tricked and trapped into prostitution stood waiting to pleasure sweaty strangers for fifty cents an hour. Men stared at us. At Kiran. Seemingly oblivious to the danger and lust all around us on the crowded street, Kiran began to sing.

“Lord, I lift your name on high.”

She swung Keely’s hands in hers.

“Lord, I love to sing your praises.”

Almost skipping, Kiran floated through the darkness like a firefly.

“I’m so glad you’re in my life. I’m so glad you came to save us.”

I don’t believe God loves the poor more than he loves rich folks like me. But I do believe they’re often better at loving him back. “Blessed are the poor,” Jesus said. To those with nothing Jesus is everything. That’s something to sing about.

I remember this story. It was from one of the Compassion trips. And out of that, he wrote this amazing song that will no doubt become a major hit. Go to THIS site & click play. I promise you will be blessed.