Over the past month I’ve taken a dive back into the 90’s with Rich Mullins. Today someone posted about his words from a song that still mean a lot in grief. I’m not the only one resonating with Rich it seems.

It got me thinking, what makes some words sink deeper, hit harder, ring more true?

Rich died relatively young, a car accident. I listened to his song about how he wanted to go out like Elijah and in a way he did. At least it was sudden. I hope he got to see the chariot coming for him on that lonely road. I bet he did. It’s eery to listen to him sing the song not knowing how his life would end.

His songs are the ultimate American road trip songs. We call road trips windshield therapy and Rich is often our therapist as we speed along past the expanses stretching before us. Like a modern psalmist which I guess he is, he brings God to light in nature.

I listened to Rich on the 20 minute commute taking our kids to and from their last school overseas. During that time, we faced the decision to leave the other side of the world for the home we used to have that wasn’t really home anymore. He expressed the truth I needed to hear at that time in his song of the same name, The Other Side of the World. It still brings tears. It is still true.

I walked and thought and the it came to me that my favorite authors and artists seem to be the ones that clearly have been with Jesus. They’ve sat with Him in joy, sorrow, confusion, pain, and truth and came away changed. They don’t seem to have the answers, the pithy sayings. They express much deeper the reality of the present against the reality of the eternal. I walk away at peace with God even if there are no clear resolutions to current aches and struggles I face in this day.

Because whatever I want to be in this life, I most of all want to be one who has the scent of being with Jesus. And I feel most at home with others who seem to get that too.

So, if you’re looking for a throwback 90’s experience or just need someone to express something true through music, take a look at our friend Rich. He sat with Jesus really well in this life.