The anniversary of Rich Mullins death came and went this year without much recognition. You may be asking yourselves "who is Rich Mullins?" thinking you don't know him. You may not recognize the name but if you attend church or listen to any Christian music at all you will be familiar with his work. Awesome God, Hold Me Jesus, Sing Your Praise to the Lord (recorded by Amy Grant), Elijah, Sometimes By Step etc. etc. I have been looking for a perfect you tube video to show ya'll in his memory. I found several pieces...and may end up posting one. But today I found a wonderful tribute on Josh Via's blog.
We saw Rich in concert in April of 97. He passed away in September of the same year. The more I learned about Rich, the more I admired him. (so much so that we used Mullins for Aaron's middle name!) From a distance he may have appeared as eclectic or even a bit weird. But what he was actually was one of the godliest men this world has ever seen. A man worth millions yet chose to give it all away. He lived on a very modest income-having all his checks sent straight to his church. The board gave Rich the national average income for the year and gave the rest away. He lived the last bit of his life on an Indian reservation in New Mexico. Perfect he was not. However, he was so honest about his flaws that they too seemed to bring admiration.
Something that was glaringly obvious from Rich's music was his desire to be home. He longed for heaven. He sang about it so often. The song "Elijah" was recorded on Rich's first album and then again on his last. In my opinion, his desire to go out like Elijah was honored. The details of his death are grim but very similar to the chorus of the song-
When I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in central park
It won't break my heart to say goodbye.
Listen to the song in its entirety here
Elijah by Rich Mullins
No comments:
Post a Comment