The Unconditional Promise

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” ~Colossians 3:16 I was fortunate to be born into a family of Gospel musicians. My wife and I began singing in church and in a group before and after we were married. As a minister's wife, her mother held a Masters Degree in music, continuing our musical heritage. We have 3 children now who are also musicians in the Lord's service. Our family made up the first modern worship team in our church. We also formed a family group to sing special music in other churches, nursing homes, and special events. My daughter, youngest son and I are all 3 left handed, but learned to play many instruments right handed. We love singing and playing songs to the Lord. In 2021, I had torn the rotator cup several times in my left shoulder, and dismissed it was a pulled muscle. In 2022, a handicap rail broke loose as I was exiting the shower, dislocating my left arm. I started wearing a medical grade shoulder brace and continued playing and singing with the Worship Team. By 2023, the pain was almost unbearable. My surgeon ordered an MRI which revealed the rotator cup was torn to pieces and wadded up in my shoulder socket, so they could not reset it...it had to be replaced. Late, the same summer I underwent a “Reverse Shoulder Replacement” with no rotator cup. At the time, I didn't know this was a last resort for a surgeon to perform since the rotator cup aids greatly in the strength and movement of the arm. My first morning home after replacement surgery, I was resting in my recliner watching a message on TV about Adversity and how God sometimes takes us aside to prepare us for something better...or I'll say a new direction in His will. Near the end of the message, the Lord spoke to me saying, “I will give you a strong arm to continue playing and singing in My service.” I was in awe, because He made an “Unconditional promise.” I thanked the Lord because I had no idea of what was to come. Eight days later I was struck with a strong case of Covid 19. I ran a fever for weeks, and then endured the coughing to follow. This caused my physical therapy to be delayed for over a month. I kept doing the exercises the hospital therapist gave me to do before discharging me. I began my physical therapy for the next 3 months, finding it difficult to function, let alone the fact I could not create one guitar chord with my left hand. Through a very long recovery I found my hand would drop like a rock when I tried to change a chord, but I kept working and working. I started printing out new worship songs to learn to play and sing. When I was able to join back with the worship team, I had to rest my elbow on my amplifier to keep my hands from falling off the strings. I started arriving at church one hour early and sat up front playing and singing as our congregation began to arrive to warm up my stiff arm. Today, my notebook is almost filled with new songs I've learned in the past 3 years. This past Sunday I lead “I Thank God” one of my favorite songs. The Lord led me to one song to learn once my arm is strong again entitled “Goodbye Yesterday” with a line in it...”I'm dancing on the grave that I once lived in.” I thank the Lord for his unconditional promise! It has been a long journey, but He has helped me every step of the way! One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 100. because we are “coming before Him with joyful songs! When the Lord made that promise to me, He already knew what was to come, he saw the end when I was still fighting the battle! Danny