Kim - I believe that you can't really appreciate the mountain tops until you've spent some time in the valley.
Mark Schultz - I think that's exactly right. There's a guy that I talked to who said that what set Jesus apart, asides from being God, was that He was a man who was intimately acquainted with sorrow. He knew sorrow so well because He was taking on the sorrow of the world and there was a depth about Him. So when you had a conversation with Him, you felt like you were having a huge encounter with someone who was completely and totally in tune with how you were instead of someone who was just trying to skim over the top and have everybody think that He was a great guy. That's powerful.
Kim - I've seen on your website that you have a link to the story of Nathan Milto. How did you learn about Nathan?
Mark Schultz - His mom came to a concert in Indianapolis and had a button on that said "Nathan's Battle" and she said "hey, would you want to do a benefit concert for my son?". I said "sure, I'd love to think about it and I'll go home to Nashville and give you a call". Around the corner comes these 300 other moms with these buttons on and they said "How about doing a benefit concert?" and I said "Anywhere you ladies want to 'cause I don't want to get beat up by a bunch of moms". So we started doing that and I've done four, five, maybe six benefit concerts. It's been a really special thing. Her husband owns dry cleaning businesses throughout Indianapolis and he put his job on hold. He said "Hey, I know there's not a cure for Batten's Disease but I want to be the first dad that's found a cure for his son". So he went out and got the help of Cornell University and three years later, after raising around three million dollars, they've come up with a cure for his sons disease.
Kim - That is awesome.
Mark Schultz - Yeah, so it's a special family to be involved in.
Kim - That's one of those real life reminders that sometimes when you're down in that valley and you can't even see the mountain top, it's only one step away.
Mark Schultz - Oh yes.
Kim - For a lot of Christians, especially the young Christians, the valleys can be so low. We don't know what the next five seconds is going to bring, much less tomorrow or a year from now. That whole thing about faith is believing that God does know and that you won't fall through the cracks. God won't blink and go "oops". A lot of your lyrics and the things that you've said here of late show that this is really where you're at in your walk. You know that God is right there with you and you can live with life and where you're at.
Mark Schultz - Yes.
