A
MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE
Touched by An Angel
By David R. Currie,
Executive Director
skies are blue,
and the dreams that you dare to dream really does come true.
Somewhere over the rainbow,
blue birds fly,
birds fly over the rainbow,
why, oh why can't I.
You all know that song. Most of you probably do not know that this classic song, made famous years ago by Judy Garland, was the number one song in the United Kingdom for many months. The song comes from the album, Songbird.
It has sold more than one million copies in the United Kingdom and is often the number one seller on amazon.com. In fact, recently, they listed it as the number one selling album in Texas on amazon.com. Finally, most of you probably have never heard of the singer, Eva Cassidy.
When you go to amazon.com and click on the CD top sellers, you will find Eva Cassidy several times. When you type her name in the search field you will find all you want to know about her. Her success will surprise you.
I had never heard of Eva Cassidy until I read about the success of Somewhere Over the Rainbow in a USA Today story in mid-May. Then on May 25, ABC news show Nightline featured Eva Cassidy. When they played Somewhere Over the Rainbow, this old, hard, battle-scarred rancher and preacher felt little streams of salt water sliding down his face and wetting his mustache. It was amazing. Eva Cassidy had the most beautiful, pure, innocent, powerful voice I had ever heard.
Later I was pleased to learn I was not the only one and thus not totally crazy. I found an article that began:
"Hearing Eva Cassidy's voice is for many people a deeply personal moment. There is the tale of the listener who heard Eva's version of Over the Rainbow on Terry Wogan's Radio 2 show and was so overcome with emotion that she had to stop driving. E-mails, letters and faxes flooded in. When they showed a grainy home video of Eva singing at a club on BBC 2's TOPT2 just before Christmas, similar behavior resulted."
One will need tissue paper when one sits in silence listening to the songs. I urge you to buy the CD or cassette of Songbird. The songs are "covers" of songs written and sung by others. Many are more than 50 years old. When Eva sings them, they take on a life of their own. The gift of her voice is that special.
Now let me tell you just a little of the rest of the story. Eva Cassidy is not performing on The Tonight Show or The Letterman Show. She is not selling millions of albums because she is singing concerts all over the world. She is not being interviewed on MTV.
Eva Cassidy, only 33, died November 2, 1996, as an unknown small-club singer from Washington, D.C. She seldom performed outside D.C. Eva died of malignant melanoma. Two independently-released albums, "The Other Side" and "Live at Blues Alley," sold few copies. She recorded them shortly before they discovered her cancer. No record label ever signed her.
You can look up Eva Cassidy on the Internet and read the amazing story of her posthumous success. I will not rob you of the joy of reading it for yourself by telling you all the details.
I find tremendous encouragement from reading about and listening to Eva Cassidy. I understand the emotions people describe in their reviews of the album, "Songbird," on amazon.com. Part of the emotion is knowing the story. It also is the voice and soul of Eva Cassidy. In a few more weeks, I may be able to listen to "Over the Rainbow" without getting goose bumps and tearing up, although I am not sure.
One story told on "Nightline" was about how shortly before her death, her friends were doing a tribute to her. She, in pain, went to the stage and sang, "What a Wonderful World." The first time I heard the song, I was listening to "Live at Blues Alley" on the way to the ranch. She dedicated the song to her "Mom and Dad who are here tonight," and then sang "What a Wonderful World." This old cowboy wet his moustache again.
Then God gave me, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Gal. 6:9, NIV) I thought of many of you and the journey we have had together.
I know many are tired of this "Baptist Mess." I know you get discouraged that many do not even care. I know being lied about and attacked is not enjoyable. I know in some churches, and many states, the cause seems hopeless. I know the temptation to walk away from it all.
Allow the success of Eva Cassidy to remind you that we as humans do not know the "rest of the story." We do not know how all this is going to turn out. We must not become weary in doing good.
Eva Cassidy had a beautiful gift, a voice that you have to experience to understand. She was true to her gift, using it as she felt comfortable, being true to whom she was. Now, five years after her death, her life and her gift is touching millions.
You and I have a gift, a God-given understanding of the gospel of grace, love and compassion. The Spirit that dwells in us will not let us desert the One who has called us by his grace and mercy - Jesus the Christ.
I do not know how successful we will be in the next few years in stopping fundamentalism's evil. Some will go to eternity with God in the next few years and will not see the results of our work together. Therefore, I want to say an encouraging word to us.
I believe we will win this battle, "for in the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." I believe your faithfulness to the gospel will have eternal success. We will preserve the Baptist witness in America. They will know Baptists as people of grace, love and compassion. That day will come again in the 21st Century and your faithfulness will have been the key.
God does not want to be represented to the world by Baptists who are mean, judgmental, angry and legalistic. Despite the power of evil, I still believe we live in a beautiful world.
I see trees of green, red roses too,
I see them bloom, for me and you,
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.
August 2001