Mandisa Hundley - Idoleyes: My New Perspective on Faith, Fat & Fame

I couldnt sit down. Not even during the commercial break leading up to the moment each week when Mandisa would take the stage. Neither could I bring myself to go to the houses of friends who were popping popcorn and watching the show en masse. I was too nervous. And anyway, I needed to concentrate; God forbid that anyone would talk when I was trying to listen. This was big, and I didnt want to miss a single facial expression on that screen. I held my cell phone in a choke hold in my left hand. Id need my right hand to throw something at the television if one of the judges had the audacity to be derogatory. The cell on the left, however, was the necessity. Anybody who knew the drill knew to let her fingers do the talking the second the lines were open. After all, this is the land of the free and the home of the brave, where the democratic process of getting to cast your vote is an inalienable right.

The phone was stuck to me like glue for a few other reasons as well. I often had some kind of text message from Mandisa on broadcast days, directing me how to pray. I also needed to be ready to text my buddy Travis Cottrell at least half a dozen times during the course of the show. He has been the worship leader for our Living Proof Live events for nearly a decade and is the one who introduced that precious woman into my life. Our girl was in a world none of her advisors had ever navigated. In fact, had the decision been up to some of us, we probably would have counseled her to stay under the umbrella of the church at large and out of the harsh elements of a mean world. It wouldnt have done any good. To her tremendous credit, if Mandisa believes God has told her to do something, there aint no mountain high enough.

I remember the first time I ever laid eyes on Mandisa. I was meeting my team at an arena in Charlotte, where we were holding an event for the next twenty-four hours. I am the lone Texan serving with a mass of Tennesseans, so Id flown in separately, getting my notes ready and keeping my face turned to the sky, seeking a torrential downpour of God. I had worked with the same basic praise team for several years, and I was wild about every single one of them. We have truly been a team in every sense of the word, never seeing ourselves as two separate entities on that platform. Worship is very important to me. The Word is very important to them. Im in the front row while they lead the singing. Theyre in the front row while I lead the study. We do what we do together.

Travis had let me know we had a sub on the worship team that weekend in Charlotte. One of our regulars had not been able to make it. The thought that Mandisa came to us as a sub still amuses me. It just goes to show, God doesnt call subs. There are no accidents in His work. There is no coincidence in who backs out and who steps up. He moves His chess pieces around the board at will, and that weekend, we got the queen.

When we gathered for prayer time before the event began, I still hadnt heard her sing, but I instantly liked her. Mandisa has a sweetness in her demeanor that is endearing before you know how gifted and stunning she is once the cat is out of the bag. In that small room in the underbelly of the arena, I sat across from her for the first time and had to fight the temptation to stare at her. My goodness, she was beautiful. Not only that, she was dramatic. Goodness knows, I like a little drama. I cant remember if she prayed out loud with us in our first prayer time or not, but once she did, I marveled over the depth of relationship I could tell she had developed with Jesus at such a young age. I recall thinking that she must have known a lot of pain to love Him like that already. Only in the Christian faith is desperation a gift.

As our praise-team novice took the platform that evening, shed learned forty songs in three days, complete with sign language to one of them. She was a team player. And when it was her turn to take the lead, she brought the house down.

Travis loves to shock me. If he has somebody new on the team and he knows full well the person is going to blow my mind, he usually wont tell me in advance. He waits until Im standing in the front row with my chin to the ground, having a near-death experience, before he cuts his eyes away from the keyboard and laughs his head off at me.

Not long after that, Mandisa became part of the family. We have had the great honor of serving alongside that darling young woman of God many, many times over the years that followed. Travis summed it up beautifully: In all my years of doing this thing, there was never one any more musically prepared, more prayed up, and more selfless in their offering. She had a huge gift without a huge ego. What an incredible rarity!