How Keith Green helped shape my understanding of faith, generosity, and what it means to be used by God.
Some people come into our lives without ever meeting us. We may never shake their hands or speak a word to them, yet somehow they leave an impression that lasts a lifetime. For me, one of those people was Keith Green.
I became a Christian in the summer of 1982, when I was nineteen years old. It was a remarkable time in my life. God had become real to me in a way I had never experienced before, and I wanted to know Him more than anything else. Keith Green had died in a plane crash just a short time before my conversion. I never had the opportunity to see him perform or hear him speak in person, but his music became an important part of those early years of my faith.
There was something different about Keith. It wasn’t simply his musical ability, although he was enormously talented. It was the passion behind the music. When I listened to him, I heard someone who seemed to genuinely love Jesus and wanted others to know Him too. His faith didn’t seem like a profession or a way to make money. It seemed to be his life. And that meant something to a young college student who was just beginning to discover what it meant to follow God.
A Gift I Never Forgot
One thing that particularly impressed me was Keith’s approach to giving away his music. His ministry believed that money shouldn’t prevent someone from hearing the message. If you couldn’t afford an album, you could request one anyway. I remember doing just that while I was in college. I believe I received one or two albums without paying for them. It might not sound like much today, but I never forgot it.
Here was a musician whose work had value, yet he was willing to give it away because he believed the message mattered more than the money. Over the years, I’ve thought about that example many times. After all, isn’t that at the heart of Christianity? Jesus gave Himself for us through His life, His suffering, His death, and His Resurrection. Salvation wasn’t something we could earn or purchase. It was a gift. Keith’s generosity helped me understand something about giving without expecting anything in return.
A Moment I Still Remember
Sometime within the first year or two after becoming a Christian, I attended a Keith Green memorial tour presented by his wife, Melody. I don’t remember every detail of that evening. More than forty years have passed, and I don’t want to pretend to remember things I don’t. But I do remember the message that stayed with me.
Near the end of his life, Keith had developed a growing passion for missions and reaching people with the love of Christ. The memorial tour seemed to carry that passion forward. I remember standing up during the event and expressing my own desire to be used by God to reach people. I was young, enthusiastic, and full of dreams about what God might do with my life.
At the time, I probably imagined that being used by God would involve preaching, ministry, or some other recognizable form of Christian service. And for many years, parts of my life did involve those things. But life has a way of taking us down roads we never anticipated.
Forty Years Later
Today, I work part-time at Publix. After spending much of my career in information technology and eventually serving as a vice president, I now find myself cashiering, bagging groceries, helping customers, and working alongside people of all ages. It’s certainly not where I would have imagined myself when I stood at that memorial gathering all those years ago. But something interesting has happened. I’ve discovered how much I enjoy the people.
A smile, a kind word, remembering someone’s name, helping someone who is having a difficult day. These are small things, but I’ve come to believe they can matter more than we realize. Sometimes I think about Keith Green’s song Because of You and what it means to let the love we’ve received from God become something we share with others. I don’t need to preach a sermon to every customer who comes through my line. In fact, most will never know much about my faith or the journey that brought me here. But perhaps they can experience a little of God’s kindness through the way I treat them. And perhaps that is enough for that particular moment.
The Same Desire
Looking back, I see something connecting that young college student to the man I am today. The circumstances have changed. My understanding of life has certainly changed. I’ve experienced wonderful blessings, painful failures, and more than a few unexpected turns. But the desire I expressed at that memorial gathering hasn’t really changed.
I still want God to use my life to reach people.
I simply understand that reaching someone doesn’t always mean standing behind a pulpit. Sometimes it means standing behind a grocery register. And giving doesn’t always mean handing someone a free album. Sometimes it means giving a little of your time, your attention, your patience, or your kindness without expecting anything in return.
Keith Green never knew me. He never knew that a young college student would listen to his music, receive his generosity, and carry something of his example through the next four decades. But he made a difference in my life. And perhaps that is one of the most beautiful things about giving ourselves to God. We may never know how far even the smallest act of love will travel.
Sometimes the seeds we plant grow in places we will never see.
And sometimes, more than forty years later, we discover that God is still growing something from a seed planted long ago.
Keith Green photo: Last Days Ministries, via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0; unmodified.
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