Andrew Greer - Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth: Spiritual Conversations Inspired by the Life and Lyrics of Rich Mullins

WINDS of HEAVEN, STUFF of EARTH

WINDS of HEAVEN, STUFF of EARTH

Spiritual Conversations Inspired by the Life & Lyrics of

RICH MULLINS

ANDREW GREER

and RANDY COX

The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the Giver of all good things.

RICH MULLINS & STEVE CUDWORTH

Copyright 2017 by Andrew Greer and Randy Cox

Published by Worthy Inspired, an imprint of Worthy Publishing Group, a division of Worthy Media, Inc., One Franklin Park, 6100 Tower Circle, Suite 210, Franklin, TN 37067.

WORTHY is a registered trademark of Worthy Media, Inc.

HELPING PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THE HEART OF GOD

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017946599

Unless otherwise noted Scripture is from The Voice. Copyright 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Lyrics used by permission, 1995 Universal MusicBrentwood Benson Publishing (ASCAP) (adm. At CapitolCMGPUblishing.com). All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Excerpt(s) from The World as I Remember It: Through the Eyes of a Ragamuffin by Rich Mullins, copyright 2004 by Old Hickory Media Group. Used by permission of WaterBrook/Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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ISBN: 978-1-68397-040-8

Interior Layout: Bart Dawson

Cover Design: Melissa Reagan

Cover Photo: Ben Pearson

Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS

by Amy Grant

by Cindy Morgan

by Brennan Manning

by David McCracken

by Sarah Hart

by Lowell Alexander

by David Mullins

by Mark Lowry

by Jason Gray

by Dan Haseltine from Jars of Clay

by Josh Blakesley

by Sara Groves

by Melissa Reagan

by Ian Morgan Cron

by Mitch McVicker

by Ashley Cleveland

by David Leo Schultz

by Marita Meinerts Albinson

by Carolyn Arends

by Keith Bordeaux

by Mark Lee from Third Day

by Jonathan Martin

by Reed Arvin

by Brandon Heath

by Ian Morgan Cron

by Jimmy Abegg

FOREWORD

Rich Mullins introduced me to an experience with God in the context of music that I had never known.

In 1981, I was attending college at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. A cassette tape of a song Rich had written landed on a desk at my management company. During a meeting with the team, I remember sitting around a Formica-top conference table, listening to songs I might record for a new album, when Richs song started playing. By the end of Sing Your Praise to the Lord, I was standing on that conference table, arms up in the air, whooping and hollering. I have been moved by a lot of songs, but when that song reached its iconic release point, I was levitating.

I ended up recording Sing Your Praise to the Lord on Age to Age. That was my first introduction to Rich. I think Rich and I both spent way too much time in our headsI still doso our friendship just clicked. He was disarmingly honest about his life and the things that he struggled with, and he came at things from a different angle, a different perspective. Many times in our conversations I would think, I hadnt thought about it that way. He made lofty ideas about God so earthy. He humanized God. He humanized Jesus for me.

Rich didnt waste any time trying to be good, or at least trying to appear good. Theres a little bit of good and bad in every one of us. But what Rich wanted to know, what we all want to know, is that we are loved.

For love to make the difference in any of our lives, much less in the world, we have to learn to receive it for ourselves. That learning is not a one-time thing, it is a daily thing, and it is in light of and in spite of all the things we grind on in our headsall the chatter, all the old data that we allow to play over and over. Until we get quiet enough and still enough to receive love, or rather, when we get still and receive it, along with the experience of receiving love comes the absolute awareness that we are all connected equally to love. Equally. Then it makes sense when Jesus says, If you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me.

We have made our wild, unique, overwhelming relationship with our Maker into a study. We go to Sunday school. Maybe we get a masters degree in theology. Rich was very smart, but he blew in the face of all that. The reality of a relationship with God is something completely different, and other, and untouched by the study of God. While I love reading and studying the Bible and believe it is a life-giving pursuit of its own, it is not required for a relationship with Him. Thats how Rich introduced people to God. He was always saying, Here He is. Just open your eyes. Hes right there. Give in. Lean in. Fall into Jesus.

This is how he lived his life, and he made the rest of us curious.

The wind blows all around us as if it has a will of its own; we feel and hear it, but we do not understand where it has come from or where it will end up. Life in the Spirit is as if it were the wind of God.

JOHN 3:8

AMY GRANT
Nashville, Tennessee
March 2017

I am thinking now of old Moses: sitting on a mountainsitting with God. I am thinking of the lump in his throat, that weary ache in his heart, that nearly bitter longing sweetened by the company of God.