The Gospel Through My Speakers

 Romans 10:17 (ESV)

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

As I’m sitting here after cleaning my living room...which, by the way, was awful, one of my favorite Casting Crowns songs is playing in the background: Jesus, Friend of Sinners.

I’m taken back to this punk-rock kid working at Walmart, filing CDs in alphabetical order. I hated that job. It took forever. It bothered me to my core. How could all this mess happen? How could CDs get so misplaced?

Kind of like my living room.
(lol)

As I moved into the Christian section, which I never liked to do, I came across a large cluster of Casting Crowns CDs. I remember thinking, Is this all Christians listen to? Because that’s all there was sitting there.

I started picking them up and placing them on the counter, at least twenty of the same album. I thought, Surely these won’t sell. Who in the world is Casting Crowns?

Why did that moment stick with me so clearly? Why do I remember it today?

I didn’t know it then, but now I can see God’s hands all over it.
Talking to that wild punk-rock girl…
Just listen.

I didn’t.
Not then.

Years later, I was sitting in church when someone sang a song so beautiful it stopped me in my tracks. On the drive home, my ex-husband said, “I sure wish secular Christian music wouldn’t be sung in church.”

That comment sparked something in me.

Why did that song bother him so much?
It felt so real. So relatable.

When I got home, I went to the computer and typed in the lyrics I could remember. And there it was:

Glorious Day – Casting Crowns.

It felt like getting hit over the head with a stick.
A full-on flashback moment.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Casting Crowns became my escape from the world. I remember secretly buying that album, sitting alone in my car, and playing Who Am I on repeat. Living in a dream. Escaping my reality.

I wasn’t supposed to listen to music like that.

But it fueled me.
It gave me hope.

Scripture, sung through song, became a lifeline, reminding me that Jesus was always beside me.

Since then, I’ve become a huge Crowns fan. And now I understand why twenty albums sat on that shelf. I’m sure they sold every single one, because each album is just as impactful as the last.

The gospel on every track.

Sometimes music is what connects us to God.

As I sit here now, I realize something:
I heard the gospel over and over again...not in the church I was attending at the time,
but through the speakers of my car.

Especially through that Casting Crowns album.