La estrella del jugador de fútbol Fabrice Muamba, centrocampista del Bolton en la Premier League, en Inglaterra estuvo en las noticias en todo el mundo con su milagrosa historia de cómo resucitó. Durante la Copa FA en un partido contra el Tottenham el 17 de marzo, sufrió un paro cardíaco, colapsó boca abajo inconsciente contra el césped y murió clínicamente en el campo, frente a miles de espectadores y millones de televidentes. El partido se suspendió mientras el Doctor Andrew Deaner organizó paramédicos tratando de resucitarlo, pero no funcionó, por lo que fue trasladado directamente al London Chest Hospital. Su corazón dejó de latir 78 minutos completos. El médico que atendió a Muamba, Jonathan Tobin, dijo que "estaban trabajando en él sin que su corazón tuviera un latido muscular. De hecho, estaba muerto en ese momento".
Según un informe de Inspire News, y la esposa de Fabrice, mientras Muamba estaba en el hospital, un joven intendente africano entraba a su habitación todos los días para orar en silencio en la esquina del cuarto. El padre de Muamba, Marcel, también oraba a Dios para que perdonara a su hijo:
“Obviamente estaba muy preocupado de que Fabrice no saliera, pero nuestra fe es muy fuerte y realmente creía que Dios respondería mi oración para salvarlo. Dentro de la camioneta, recuerdo con calma que me dirigí al presidente de Bolton, Phil Gartside, y le dije: "Fabrice estará bien". Probablemente pensó que estaba loco ". De alguna manera, sabía que Fabrice estaría a salvo en las manos de Dios", declaró. Una vez dentro del hospital, el Sr. Marcel se encerró en un retrete orando intensamente: "Le dije a Dios, por favor, toma el control de todo", según declaraciones que dio al periódico 'The Sun'. Luego, Marcel entró en la habitación de Fabrice con el hermano menor de Muamba, Daniel, tomó la mano fría de Muamba y le susurró al oído. “Sé que me estás escuchando. Te digo que saldrás de este hospital por la puerta principal, no por la puerta trasera. Su padre recuerda: "Entonces le dije a Dios: "Tú eres el que resucitó a Lázaro de la muerte. Ahora, en este momento glorifícate".
Cuando Muamba finalmente se despertó del coma, encontró a su familia alrededor de su cama orando y leyendo salmos de la Biblia. "Oraban demasiado fuerte", bromeó Muamba, "que nadie podría dormir con eso". Había estado inconsciente durante tres días y luchó por sobrevivir durante 40 días en el hospital, pero ahora está de regreso en casa con su esposa Shauna Magunda, de 27 años, y su pequeño niño de 3 años, Joshua. Sus lágrimas rodaron cuando habló de su alegría al ver a su familia cuando comenzó su recuperación. El cardiólogo, Dr. Deaner, dijo: "Si vas a usar el término 'milagroso', supongo que podría usarse aquí". El futbolista dijo: "Lo que me pasó fue realmente más que un milagro". Fabrice también le dijo a The Times: "¿No crees en los milagros? Pregúntame, te diré cómo son".
Muamba, un cristiano devoto, agregó: “Soy una prueba del poder de la oración. Durante 78 minutos estuve muerto e incluso si vivía se esperaba que hubiese sufrido daño cerebral ”. Él continuó: "... pero estoy muy vivo y sentado aquí hablando ahora. Alguien allí arriba me estaba cuidando. En la mañana del juego, oré con mi padre y le pedí a Dios que me protegiera, y Él no me decepcionó ". "Confía en mí", dijo, "tomo todos los días como una bendición. Dijeron que debería tener muerte cerebral. Le pregunté: 'Doc, digame la verdad'. Me dijo: 'Escucha, no te voy a mentir, deberías haber sufrido un daño cerebral. Deberías estar muerto. Hace un mes pensé que habías terminado".
Esta increíble historia de drama llena de asombro al mundo. Lo crean o no, Fabrice está pateando una pelota otra vez. Aunque se ha sometido a todo tipo de pruebas, ninguno de los especialistas sabe por qué colapsó el joven sano de 24 años. Todo lo que saben es que ha tenido una de las recuperaciones más sorprendentes en la historia médica. "Ahora se siente agradecido por cada respiración que toma", dijo el amigo. Muama dijo "hay un versículo en la Biblia ... dice: 'Si Dios está con nosotros, ¿quién puede estar en contra de nosotros?' Si Dios está conmigo, ¿quién puede estar contra mí? Morí, literalmente. Estoy vivo... Ahora no tengo nada de qué temer”.
Hace 35 años, el actor británico de cine, teatro y televisión, Anthony Hopkins, era un ateo alcohólico con una crisis terrorífica. El protagonista de películas como "El silencio de los corderos", confesando su condición, recientemente confesó:
"Yo estaba sumergido en un infierno de destrucción... era como si yo estuviese poseído por un demonio, una adicción, y no podía parar. Y millones de personas alrededor estaban de la misma manera. No podía detenerme".
En medio de su condición, una mujer le dijo que tansolo confiara en Dios. A pesar de no creer en ninguna religión, esta vez dijo: "Bueno, ¿porqué no?". Y sintiendo una necesidad de Dios, se atrevió a orar:
"Sólo pedí un poco de ayuda y de pronto, ¡pow!. Fue justo como darle al bingo"
En su entrevista con Huw Twiston Davies en febrero de 2011, Hopkins admitió:
"Ser ateo deber ser como vivir en una celda cerrada sin ventanas. Odiaría vivir así, ¿ustedes no?. Los vemos molestando en televisión el día de hoy; mucha gente brillante son ateos profesionales que dicen que saben que es un hecho que es locura tener a un Dios o creer en la religión. Pues bien, que Dios los bendiga por sentirse de esa forma, y espero que sean felices. Pero yo no podría vivir con esa certeza, y me sorprendo en relación a algunos de ellos: ¿porqué protestant tanto? ¿Cómo están tan seguros de lo que va más allá? ¿Y quién soy yo para refutar las creencias de tantísimos filósofos grandiosos y mártires de todas las épocas?".
"Yo era ateo, pero ya no lo soy... Nadie sabe toda la verdad. No sé en qué demonios creo, pero siento la uña de Dios rascándome por dentro desde la oscuridad y de vuelta a la luz... Con los años he perdido mi ateísmo y me he hecho creyente en la Inteligencia Universal. El misterio de la consciencia humana es suficiente para hacerle perder el sentido a cualquiera".
The footballer and his wife talk about their story of life, their Christian faith and the blessing of their marriage
In 2000, at the age of 18, Ricardo Kaká suffered a freak in a serious accident while he was beginning to emerge as the special footballing talent of Brazil. While he was in a swimming club, he plunged down a waterslide and hit his head on the bottom of the pool. He broke his vertebrae and the doctors feared that the injury might leave him paralysed. Thank God, he got better, and within weeks, he was back on the pitch;
Kaká praying at the soccer field
“Each day God was giving me strenght and I was praying to Him. All the doctors told me that I was very lucky to be able to move and walk again. I said to them: 'Thank you, but it's not luck. It is God showing me that He have a purpose to my life through soccer. I don't believe in coincidences, If I were not be able to play soccer', God would have used me in another way.”
Two years later, in 2002, and whihe he was playing for São Paulo FC, Kaká met Caroline Celico, a brazilian young woman whom with he fell in love. Carol was astudent that, at that time, was a Catholic. However, she started reading the Bible and became evangelical. Regarding this, she recalls,
“I had always been referred as a Catholic... but in fact, I came from a family in which we had spoken about everything: spiritualism, feng shui, meditation, superstition, horoscopes and more mystical things. Until the day I found something that satisfied me: God.One way or another, in one place or another, in God I found something much bigger than what had once been explained to me, [more] than I had been taught...”.
The relationship between Kaká and Carol was growing up together within the same faith, and it remained, even thoughhe had to move from Brazil to Italy in 2003. After that, they decided to get married, on 23 December 2005 at the “Rebirth In Christ Church” in São Paulo.
Among the 600 guests to the wedding, were the coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, and the famous players Ronaldo, Julio Baptista, Dida and Cafu. During the ceremony, the choir sang a song that had been composed by Kaká himself, for his bride. The song was named “Presente de Deus” which in English means “God's Gift”.
Kaká believes God chose him, and therefore he has testified about his faith, which he considers vitally important in all the days of his life and which he manifests openly.
When Kaká scores a goal, something that he usually does, he lifts up his arms to the heaven in gratitude. When Brazil won the World Cup in 2002, and when Milan triumphed again in the Champions League final of 2007, he tore off his team strip to reveal a T-shirt with the words: "I belong to Jesus."
In 2007, Kaká's team won the Milan's Champions League over Liverpool, and he would be awarded with the “European football Ballon d'Or” and dubbed the best “FIFA's World Footballer of the Year”. Next year, he was named the most influencial and famous footballer of the whole planet, and one of TIME Magazine's 100 people with most influence all around the world, having the 29th position.
Kaká holds his family values and Christian principles. He never drinks alcohol, nor chase after women. He even has confessed that he was a virgin until he married his “childhood sweetheart”. His favourite book, he says, is the Bible. His favourite band is a Gospel-rock band called "Redemption" ('Resgate', in Portuguese).
When he was asked in an interview what had inspired him in the crossroads of his life and his career, he said that the key had come to him when he was still very young. He says:
"I learned that it is faith that decides whether something will happen or not. Thank my parents I grow up with biblical formation, but one day I went further and I experienced a new personal experience with God”.
Carol’s first pregnancy came out by surprise because she had been diagnosed with polycystic ovaries. After months trying to get pregnant, their first child Luca Celico Leite was born in 2008, which made the couple very happy. A year later, when passing a cream on the child, Carol would felt a lump in his abdomen and took the boy to doctors in Milan (where his family lived before Kaka was transferred to Madrid). According the doctors, nothing had been found, but Caroline had a feeling, and decided to take the child to Brazil: "I’m a mother and I have feelings, I took the trip to Sao Paulo and took him to the pediatrician there.”
Luca had to be hospitalized and operated because the doctors detected a small tumor that, hopefully, was removed successfully. “Thank God it was benign. The surgery lasted little, but was the longest half-an-hour of my life” she said in a thankful voice.
Three years later, her second child, Isabella was born, and Caroline became no more no less than a Christian pastor who started preaching in Europe and via internet. During 2009, Kaká received criticism from people who were interested more in the way he plays soccer, than what's inside of him, “Some friends lost contact with us because he wasn’t playing that well.” says his wife.
It was also in 2009 when they both stopped going to a charismatic church called “Renascer”. Carol says that she saw things that she had never seen before, things she had been told about, but she had never admitted it. Carol and Kaká confessed to be against the theology of prosperity, a common lie on many churches nowadays which practically state that “God will make you rich”.
They explain that that is why they left the Brazilian Church:"They were teaching things that were not in the Bible". Carol says, referring to abuses in money in the congregation, “It became a business that needed to be administered”, she claims, “and I didn’t want that for me.” She says she was trying to please people instead of God and that is why today they don't attend any church, saying that they prefer to pray and worship God at home. “My daily life is about talking to God all the time. Many times I talk to my husband or friends who’ve read the Bible through a theological perspective. But I have moments when I need to talk to God alone.” says Carol.
They had the chance to spend more time together because Kaka stood at home recovering from injuries that he had got in the 2010 World Cup. Though he had already been hurt, he had insisted he wanted to play. He learned a lesson. “We learnt football wasn’t everything” he says. “Football is a taboo subject at home. Is it a way not to get stressed.”
Later on, in 2010, Caroline Celico decided that she wanted to make a Gospel CD. There, Kaká would sing with her the very song “Presente de Deus” which, as it was stated before, was written by Kaká and played in their wedding. The album also featured the Brazilian singers Claudia Leitte, and the Brasilian Christian singers André and Ana Paula Valadão. The on-line CD delivered 12 songs that talk about love, friendship and faith in God.
Hear the single and see it with English subtitles:
They refused to get money from it. "I’m doing this CD to give it away. I will not sell it. I’ll put on a website, so that people can download all the music for free”she stated."I always liked singing, but I did it on the shower. That doesn’t mean that ‘the wife of Kaka will become a singer,’ I created this project to bring a positive message to people,” she said. And that was it. During the first month available, there were more than 15,000 online downloads (though today it is no longer available sadly).
Kaká and Carol joined the 26° "March for Jesus" which was held in Rio de Janeiro in 2008
In this way, the soccer player proved that he can do both thigs: play soccer, and sing, as long as love is the reason. However, they say they are not planning to make a musical career because they aren't singers at all.
Kaká describes the birth of their first child and his victories and conquests in football as gifts from God and reafirm that his faith is strong and that's what he wants for his family is this:
“It is my will that my kids and all the others live according to the will of God. One of my favorite verses is when Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life”. That means that God is everything! and Jesus is the way I will follow.”
In march 2010, Kaká (along with other famous soccer players such as Lucio, Marcos Senna, Nicola Legrotagglie, Cyrille Domoraud and Oscar Ewolo), shared their Christian testimony in a video named "The Prize -Chasing the dream".
Let's talk about the conversion of a rockstar. Lou Gramm spent 26 years as the front man of the famous rock band “Foreigner”. He is the voice behind the great classics “I wanna know what love is” (1984) and “Waiting for a girl like you” (1981), two of the most succesful singles in the 80's, which respectively ranked the #1 and #2 in the chart music position all around the world. But there's more than meets the eye, and not everyhting was sucess for this amazing singer. As years went by, his life would experince ups and downs, but more deeply than many of us. It's so true that in his life "there's been heartache and pain", but there's also been hope and faith that he eventually found in Christianity.
This time, I'm sharing the transcription of a conversation that Scott Ross from CBN held in an interview with Lou Gramm, in which he shares the experiences that changed him radically. He openly talks about his struggles, and he speaks sincerely about his feelings, telling us how he got this new faith that helped him to overcame the most difficult and troubled times of his life.
Scott: At a point of your life, when you were extremely succesful, did you bind to the whole rock n'roll scene... you know, sex, drugs and rock n'roll? Were you living that stuff?
Lou Gramm: “Yes, I was... all of it. Thought I grew up in a good solid family background, I honestly felt that drugs and alcohol were changing me into a person ― or had changed me into a person ― that I didn’t recognize anymore”.
Scott: How did that happen?
Lou Gramm: “I think it was more like when I came to New York. It was prevalent. And most of the guys of the band kept different hours. I was used to be operating in the morning and in bed by midnight. When we would record, a lot of times we would begin recording at about 5 or near 6 pm, and work until 4 or 5 of the next morning. At that time my sensibilities were not clear anymore, and just would begin to... be one of the guys.”
Scott: How were you feeling?
Lou Gramm: “I could feel myself changing inside in a negative way. It was just party after party and it became very habitual. When I tried to stop, I was very surprised that what was fun before, became something that I absolutely needed, and at that point I knew that it was way past the recreational and I began to really dislike the person that I had become.”
Scott: Did you had all the trappings of success and what you wanted?
Lou Gramm: “What I thought I needed. And I needed more of the same.”
Scott: More success?
Lou Gramm: “And everyhting I was in.”
Scott: So how did you finally realize that this reality wasn't really for you...?
Foreigner performed in the Madison Square Garden, at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary a 13-hours New York concert on May 14, 1988.
Lou [nodding his head]: “At the end of an afterparty, after a showparty, and I knew my wife and children would be expecting me, but, at number one, I could't drive myself, nor did I wanna have them see me like that. So I stayed the night in Manhattan and grappled with the person I had become.”
Scott: What did you see?
Lou: “Something that I didn't like, I didn't like and didn't respect and I saw the possibility of my own demise. It was in this huge, posh hotel room that I got down on my knees asking for God’s help to heal me and help me to get rid myself of this horrible addiction. I just started praying, because I knew there wasn't anybody in the world that could help me.”
Scott: Did you know how to pray?
Lou: “I think I just started talking to God, it wasn't necessary a prayer in a pre-fabicated form. It was a conversation.”
Scott: Saying...?
Lou Gramm: “That I didn't want to be in this position and that I really believed that that lifestyle had the better of me and that I couldn't walk away from it on my own, that I needed it, more than it needed me; and I prayed for the strenght and the sense to break the chains.”
The Hazelden Foundation in Minessota
Scott: What happened?
Lou: “The next morning I called a place that a friend have told me about, called 'Hazelden' in Minnesota, and went to rehab. I didn't know for what was it but it was a good facility and there was a pastor as part of the rehab to re-connect with God. That's where I became a Christian. I received Jesus that moment.”
Scott: Did you prayed, "Jesus Christ, come into my life"?
Lou: “Yes, I was asked if I was sure about it. I definitely did it because that's what I wanted for a long time and it was an option that He was offering to me.”
Scott: Did you tell your bandmates?
Lou: “Not right away, but when I returned in the next tour months later, nothing in the band had changed. They said they were all thrilled that I had cleaned myself up. After a show, as usual, we were driving on the bus to the next city, and the cocaine lines and the joints came out, and I let them know that I wouldn't be doing that with them anymore.”
Scott: And the response was?
Lou: “ ―'What in the world’s wrong with you?'―”
Scott: About your relationship with Jesus, how did your bandmates received that?
Lou: “Most of them were pretty angry, because making the desition changed me from the old.It kept for, I'm saying, about another seven or eight years, but there were more and more breaks between tours and the next album, in which I was heavily involved in the melody and the lyrics, started having inferences to God.”
In 1990, Lou had departed from the band (which is one of the "breaks between" tours he talks about). Later he rejoined and in the next Foreigner album, "Mr. Moonlight", he clearly expressed some glimpses of a new faith who was putting down roots in his music composition:
Lou:“Totally. We had a young girl who was a singer, and whenever we would have shows coming up, we would have at end of each show about one week, and she would find a real talented and soulfull choir; and when we would perform alive, the choir would come on stage and sing that song with us. And it would bring the house down every time.
They were always Christian choirs, baptist, sometimes white, sometimes black, sometimes mixed, but the point is that they would sing the song with a soulfull feeling, to me there was no doubt what the song was about.
I remember when we were recording the song a friend of Mick Jones came in, and he was a representative for a small gospel group of New Jersey. He suggested that we should use a choir for that song, and suggested a choir that he was involved in, the 'New Jersey Mass Choir'. They came in, and before they sang, they made a big circle and hold their hands and said the Lord's prayer while we were in the control room. When they started singing, it was just changed!, it changed the meaning of the song. The song was big enough in its lyrics, that when the choir was put on it, kind of got a double meaning, so that it could be about a person and his God, you know.”
Just after collaborating in Petra's album "Petra Praise 2: We Need Jesus", in 1997, some juncture hit when Gramm was diagnosed with a rare type of brain tumor called a “craniopharyngioma”. Fortunately, it was benign, but the complex surgery to remove it actually threatened, not only the singer's career, but his very life as well.
Lou: “I got intense headaches when I would wake up in the morning. I didn't know why that was coming. Also I would call my mom and dad who have had the same phone number over 20 years and I couldn't remember the last four numbers. That started to really scare me. I would see people at the grocery store who I had known for 10 or 15 years and couldn't remember their name. The doctor recommended that I would go for an MRI [Magnetic resonance imaging], and they found a tumor in the frontal lobe of my brain about the size of an egg that had tentacles wrapped around my optic nerve and my pituitary glandand. They determined that it had been growing in me since birth. I thought I was in a bad dream, really. I just couldn’t figure out”
Scott: Was it operable?
Lou: “Some told that it was so big that they knew they couldn’t operate, other said that it'd be extremely difficult and they didn't hope a lot of hope of success. I went back to home, thinking that I was going to die.
One night I was watching a segment about a doctor in Boston, who is provider of laser surgery that he was using to operate brain tumors that were considered “inappropriate”. They gave a phone number, and I was on the phone early the next morning, I talked to his assistant and told her what my prognostic was and she told me that there was a cancellation on Thursday and that I should come to Boston that very day. It was Tuesday.”
Scott: They didn't give you so much time to think a lot...
Lou: “And I did. Thursday morning about 4:30 am, they were wheeling me into the operating room and they had the drip in my to put me under. I was praying to God that if He wanted to take me, I was ready. I didn’t pray for Him to let me live; I prayed that He may do His will. The operation took 19 hours but the tumor was successfully removed. I was very happy to be alive.”
The operation’s effects and the heavy medication caused Lou's weight to balloon from 145
pounds to 260 in a year. He would lose his train of thought, fall asleep in the middle of conversations and get aptia. He had three car crashes after falling asleep at the wheel.
Scott: How long did it take you to get back on stage?
Lou: “The operation was in April and I was performing in August. I shouldn’t have been anywhere near a stage, however, I was told by management that Foreigner had commitments and that I needed to get on the road. I knew it was way to early. I couldn’t remember the words to any of the songs. They all had to be written down in big marker pens and taped to the floor because I couldn't figured out all the words, I lost key words. When the band would take the stage, I could see people gone and the reviews were like 'what happened to Lou?, it's like he's taking too much pasta'”
Scott: In the middle of all that, was there desilutionment?
Lou: “A little bit. I thought that when the operation was over, there would be a recovering, but it took at least 4 and half or 5 years to start feeling any better. I felt that God was testing me. At 2001 and 2002 , I would wake up in the morning feeling more tired that I went to bed at night.”
Scott: What happened to the marriage?
Lou: “Over. Lost. She told I wasn’t the man she fell in love with. When the mariage ended and we went to court, it was really obvious that I was uncapable of seeing my two little twins much, cause I could barely take care of myself.”
Scott: What happened to your brothers and friends?
Lou: “My brothers and friends were good, I had a lot of people visiting me and helping me, cooking for me as a child in bed.”
Scott: When did it change?
Lou: “About 2002, I just noticed that litle by little my conciousness and my thoughts were coming to me more naturally and I was feeling better. I was told that maybe my creativity would have been damaged by the operation, but I realized that I was still able to create and compose music.”
Lou's faith in God, not only has endured after his battle with the brain tumour and his troubled times; It also has kept him hopeful, and it has been growing as a mustard tree, even to the extent that he has decided to dedicate an essential part of his carreer to compose praises to The Lord
Lou remained with Foreigner for years, but he finally parted ways in 2003. Since leaving Foreigner, Gramm’s health would continue to improve. He has lost half the weight he gained after the operation, and in 2009, he decided to start a new Christian musical project called “The Lou Gramm Band”.
Lou: “I had thought a lot about making a Christian rock album, not a trade back to payback the Lord for letting me live, but I have a God-given talent, and I felt and wanted to honour Him by using it for Him.
Right before my dad passed away in 2002, he had just got the three Gramm brothers in the room, and said that it was mom's and his hope that someday the boys would do something together.
Even though my brothers and my friends believe in God they were not sure about what I wanted to do. But they jumped on board and as soon as we started writing songs and they heard the lyrics and the powerful music, they were moved. They really loved it now."
During the late and early decade 2000, Lou has been performing Foreigner songs with his new band.
Though it has not became famous in the market due to the lack of advertising, his Christian music album remains as one of the most powerful testimonies of his commitment and faith.
The God-given talent of this rock-legend is very strong and alive, and his music continues to be promising. With electric guitars,rhythmic drumming, fresh melodies, complex guitar solos, keyboard accompaniment,soothing backing vocals, and sense of conviction in the high-pitched voice behind; the songs in the album "The Lou Gramma Band" is conveys high-quality music, great compositions, and powerful Christian messages. Take the lyrics of this, his latest album, into account:
In "You Saved Me", Lou recapitulates the moment of his conversion:
"With my feet firmly planted on the shores of sin
I was lost, and afraid
For into the sorrow I was livin' in
I felt down, and I prayed
I found trouble, and sorrow
had taken hold on me
Trouble and anguish
Please deliver me!
YOU saved me!
I was all alone, and the time was right
YOU saved me!
Shine the light of the day in the darkest night
YOU saved me!
I was all alone, and the time was right
YOU saved me!
I can close my eyes, but I still see the light
Free ourselves from who we are
I can't do it alone
I let you know how I feel
...
I never lose heart
I pray for, my Lord, to give me hope
Cos' dark days and winding roads
It's all I've known
YOU saved me!
I was all alone, and the time was right
YOU saved me!
Shine the light of the day in the darkest night
YOU saved me!
I was all alone, and the time was right
YOU saved me!
I can close my eyes, but I still see the light
and when I lost myself
You took my hand
I found trouble, and sorrow
had taken hold on me
Trouble, and anguish
Please, deliver me!
...
I live by my faith
my faith
Now I call upon my Lord
To save me
To save me"
In "Willing To Forgive" (a powerful, precious and inspiring song!), Lou celebrates God's forviness:
"Called me out from my darkness, to learn the secrets of my soul
Uncertain of my first step, I’ve gotta search until I know
In my desperation, it’s the life that I have lived
I can feel my vindication, but You’re willing to forgive!
You're willing to forgive! You're willing to forgive!
You're willing to forgive!
Rise up and follow, my faith is not in vain!
In my time of reflection, please be standing in the rain
You give understanding! And I get what I deserve!
Oh LORD! It's YOU! that I serve!
You're willing to forgive! You're willing to forgive!
You're willing to forgive!
In "I Wanna Testify", Lou raises up his voice saying that "he just want to testify" what God's love has made in his life:
"Friends, inquisitive friends, are asking what's come over me
A change, there's been a change, it's so plain for everyone to see
Love won't get on me and it took me by surprise
Happiness is all around me
You can even see it in my eyes,
yeah, yeah, yeah
I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!
I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me,
yeah, yeah, yeah!
It might be... a mighty long way
a mighty long way, a mighty long way
Once I was a halo man, and with your lonely heart it dwell
The love came sneaking up on me, and brought a light to an empty shell
Well, I heard so many times before that love can't be so bad
I just got to tell you now!
That it's the best LOVE I've ever had,
hey, yeah, yeah!
I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!
I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!
yeah, yeah, yeah!
hmmm... Precious!
sure been precious to me!
hhhhmmm... Precious!
sure been precious to me, yeah, yeah, yeah!
I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!
I just wanna testify what Your love has done for me!
yeah, yeah, yeah!
In "Made to be broken" (a very vigorous song), Lou declares
"I'm a man with a mission, in the very heart of darkness
at the edge of existance...
I've got a heart, that's made to be broken
The harder I try, to hold on to my Lord Oh yeah!...
You gave me resistance... Can we still make from his to be at the edge of existance...
I've got a heart, that's made to be broken
The harder I try, to hold on to my Lord
I've got a heart, that's made to be broken
The harder I try, to hold on to my Lord
I cast all my chains until nothing remains Only my Faith in You Lord Now You know where I've been Lost in the every end But it's all in Your hands, my Lord..."
The album also includes an excellent and sweet version of Billy Preston's "That's The Way God Planned It", in which Lou sings at the top of his lungs and with a strong voice:
"Why can't we be humble, like the good Lord said?
He promised to exalt us! for love is the way!
How men be so greedy when there's so much left?
All things are God given! and they all have been blessed!
That's the way! God planned it!
That's the way! God wants it to be! Didn't He?
Well, that's the way! God planned it
That's the way! God wants it to be! for you and me!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Let not your heart be troubled,
Let mourning sobbing cease;
Learn to help one another!
And live in perfect peace!
If we just be humble, like the Good Lord said!
He promised to exalt us, for LOVE is the way!
That's the way! God planned it!
That's the way! God wants it to be! doesn't He?
You better believe me!: that's the way! God planned it!
That's the way! God wants it to be, for you and me
that's the way, all right,
come on! come on! come on!
I hope you get this message! and where you won't others will
You don't understand me, but I'll love you still!
That's the way! God planned it!
That's the way! God wants it to be!
You better believe me!: that's the way! God planned it!
That's the way! God wants it to be!
In "Baptized by Fire" (a very rockish song), Lou sings:
"All the things I cannot see, when no one is watching me I caught site Heaven, and the streets of Gold
It's gonna take some time, it won't happen over night;
but the hearts of darkness, will appear in plain sight, plain sight!
The voice of my prayers...! He can hear me anywhere!
Baptized by fire, caught up on this high wire
Now feel my blood run cold, Oh Lord heal my wounded soul!
...
There will be no dispair! He can hear me anywhere!"
In "Redeemer" (another rockish song)
"I don't look at things the way I used to
My whole desires have lost their gains
Through the doorway of love
There's a threshold of pain
Redeemer, gotta get it in the light
Redeemer, now You better put yourself in the fight"
In "Rattle Yer Bones", he shouts:
"Something's missing in our day
I've got a heart and a spirit
...
The circumstances out of control
I was a fugitive, a vagabond,
and I walked this salty earth
I'm not a held slave of this world
I've got to get the strength that I need
Rattle Yer Bones
Walk on stone
...
I've been redeemed,
this new life in me
and you will see The Truth
when You look in His eyes
Rattle Yer Bones
Walk on stone...
Rattle Yer Bones
Seven times a day"
In "Single Vision", Lou call his nation to turn to God again:
"Is the way of this cold world I keep my distance
and the days full of darkness
I give my resistance
Any kept secret, will come to light
Just because I feel it, It don't make it right
But I know who'll be there!
In the light of a single vision
One nation under God
In the light of a single vision
In the visible,
Our country will have gone
Turn my eyes from the darkness
and those that seek my soul
Let, my Lord, mighty Truth
Shine, light, more than than gold
In my desperation, and the end of my pride
even if it's painful, it's always on my side
And I know You'll be there
In the light of a single vision
One nation under God
In the light of a single vision
In the visible,
Our country will have gone...
Don't take our Lord from the classrooms
Please let us say our prayers of thanks
And when we pledge to our country
I know that without Him
we will never be free
In the light of a single vision
One nation under God
In the light of a single vision
In the visible,
Our country will have gone"
In the track "Our Lord Never Fails", Lou sings about God's fidelity:
"Our Lord never fails,
He heals the broken hearted
Our Lord never fails
now that's His only way
Our Lord never fails,
He's Truth and He's wisdom,
Our Lord never fails
Lights up our darkest day
My heart is wounded withn me,
Love is just beyond my reach
I come out from the darkness
I hear the words that You teach
Our Lord never fails,
He heals the broken hearted
Our Lord never fails
now that's His only way
Our Lord never fails,
He's Truth and He's wisdom,
Our Lord never fails
Lights up our darkest day
Our Lord never fails,
He will liberate your soul
Our Lord never fails
If you walk by faith alone,
Our Lord never fails
He's got this single vision,
Our Lord never fails
Our Lord never fails"
Lou composed a hard-rockworship song called "So Great!":
“SO great, SO great, is Our LORD!
SO great, SO great, is Our LORD!
The fire in my heart, is already kindled and burning
I take hold of His words, that God sends me, His truth and His mercy!
SO great, SO great, is Our LORD!
SO great, SO great, is Our LORD! (My faith is my Lord)
When there is no way, to satisfy the longing of my soul
Well, it’s then that I pray to my Lord
my rock and my fortress!
...Well I've made my decision And that's all I need!
(Just then, after a guitar solo in the same song, a chorus of children voices retake verses from Foreigner's song "Real World"):
...lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
and If I die before I wakeI pray The LORD my soul to take
I pray The LORD my soul to take!
SO great, SO great! SO greatis Our LORD!
SO great, SO great! SO greatis Our LORD! My LORD!..."
In an interview on july 2013, Lou remembers the time where he passed through health problem. He reflects and says it was a nightmare, but one that "I guess it was in God's time that he was gonna bring me some glimpse of normalcy and little peace in my llife, you know, and the fog did lifted and I started thinking a lot clear and I actually that I was getting better. " He discusses how it was an honor to be inducted to the "Songwriters Hall of Fame" in 2013, and the possibility of performing again together with Mick Jones; something that --at this time-- have already happened a couple of times. Wearing a cross on his neck, he told with a smile that he is now on his third marriage and his wife is expecting.
