Who gave you wings?

In the story, It’s a Wonderful Life, Clarence, the angel, earns his wings by showing George the people his life had touched to enable George to see that, indeed, he did make a difference in the world. I bet we all could tell stories about someone who made a difference in our lives — someone who, if they were never born, would leave a huge hole in our personal histories and so life might have led us to different ends had that person not been there.

“What are you going to do after this summer?” a man named Ron asked me during the summer of 1969. I had just graduated from college and recorded my first album of original songs and was performing and leading music at a high school camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, finding out the impact the songs God had given me were going to have on people.

“I’m going to seminary,” I replied.

“Why are you going to do that?”

“I’ve always planned on it ever since I felt a call to the ministry.”

He looked out over the swimming pool and the tall Ponderosa pines that surrounded this beautiful setting for a place to relate to kids. He had been the speaker the first week of camp that summer and his teaching and my music had made a powerful combination. I admired him greatly and his unorthodox approach to ministry and his genuine love for kids had enthralled me.

“Well, I graduated from seminary not too long ago, and if you come with me, I’ll teach you everything I know.”

The course of my life was altered that day. It was a huge turning point that set me up for the Jesus Movement and being ready to take advantage of a mighty move of God. I went with Ron and he did just what he said he would do, although he didn’t do it out of a book, or even his own program. He taught me mostly from his life — by being an open book. We went on trips together. I watched him and then he watched me. We walked and we talked and there wasn’t anything I couldn’t ask. It was the closest thing to Jesus and his disciples you could get in the modern world. download

I owe my life, my confidence, and style of ministry to this man. He gave me wings.

Some years after that, my wife, Marti, suggested I write a song about Ron and liken him to an animal. I said he’d be a black stallion — an Italian stallion. I wrote the lyrics to the following song about him. It became the title song of my most popular album.

He’s a dark horse in the nighttime

Heading straight for the enemy camp

And he has no fear

‘Cause his eye is clear

Throwing light like a burning lamp

And maybe sometime at the right time

You may see him galloping by

A simple man

With a single plan,

And the Spirit in his eye

He’s the one who no one thought could make it through

He’s the one who looks a lot like me and you

But he can hear it when the Spirit

Tells him where to go and what to say

‘Cause he knows that he can never be free

When he’s going his own way

He will not deny the struggle in his heart

But he also knows the grace that is his part

And his secret is the Spirit

‘Cause he’s trusting nothing of his own

And he’s fixed his eyes on the highest prize

And he’s headed for his home