Steven - Not one to look for a demon behind every tree, but I think that one of the greatest things in the Christian community that God's enemy uses as a weapon is to convince us that everyone around us has it so much more together than we do. "If they ever really knew, and I was really honest with them, I would be ostracized." So we stay in the dark, hidden out. That's the place where that enemy can work the most. As Christians we don't have to pretend. We can say, “We are broken and we don't have it all together.” We don't have to pretend. We are already saying, “I needed God to send his son to die on a cross for me, that's how bad off, how desperate and how bad off that I am.” It's so weird that those very same people that will acknowledge that will still act like we've got to make everybody think we've got it so together.
That's probably the greatest gift that my parents ever gave me ... their honesty. I've thought about that so much as a parent. My dad didn't really have a dad growing up. His dad was an alcoholic who wasn't around after he was 3. I remember early in my life, when I was about 6 or 7, my parents became Christians. We would get down on our knees as a family and I remember my dad saying “Man I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be a father because I never had one growing up. I need God's help and I know I'm going to blow it, but I know that God will help me and I have to trust that.” Just that honesty ... that really impacted me and I have to trust God to be there for me just like He was there for my dad. That is how I enjoy Cinderella moments.
That ended our interview and I walked away from our conversation respecting Steven Curtis Chapman even more as a man (rather than just as a singer) even more.
Three weeks later, when I read the news about Maria's death, I thought how sad it is that the opportunity for those Cinderella moments can end in a blink. We never know when our appointed time will be, so it is so very important to take breaks from the busy-ness and business of life to enjoy the dances while the music still plays.
