Worshiping Through a Crisis

It was five years ago, on a hot August night in Orlando, Florida that I unintentionally entered into one of the deepest valleys of my life. I had been fighting a summer cold, but throughout the weekend had been singing through it…as always. However, on this night, as I was singing along, I went up to hit a high note, and suddenly there was no voice…no sound. I came back down and then tried it again, and nothing…not a peep. So for the rest of the night, whenever I had to sing a high note, I would choose a lower note instead and tried to simply survive the rest of the concert.

A few days later, after I had rested my voice, I tried to sing again…and still nothing. It slowly went from bad to worse. So after about a month, I finally went to the doctor where he discovered a polyp on my left vocal fold. He then said these words. “Outside of a miracle, unless you get this surgically removed, you will not be able to sing.”

Suddenly I was faced with a crisis. I had never even considered what life would be like without a voice. Singing and leading worship was the only thing I knew. It’s the only job I’d ever had. And now, I was faced with surgery, and if something went wrong in that surgery, perhaps never singing again! I honestly did not know what to do. I had always stated that a mantra of my ministry is to “worship God as a lifestyle.” But that is easy to say when life is good. Now, my faith was shaken and I was faced with a dilemma I never asked for and never saw coming. But then again, all crisis is like that. None of us ever ask for a crisis to visit us. We don’t go seeking out life-altering problems…they come find us! Read more