John is a
voiceover professional, so if you’ve ever heard a pleasing, resonant baritone
voice in a commercial, it just might be his. His might be called a ‘velvet’
voice. But there’s another voice that John Mohr has used, one with a background
story that he may sometimes wish had never moved him to speak – one that admitted betrayal. What he felt in the wake of
his admission of guilt spurred the words he penned in “Find Us Faithful”, a
hope that he indicates has grown over the succeeding years as he watches a
couple of generations proceed in his footsteps. Having bloodlines to those he
wanted to motivate was undoubtedly part of the impetus for John’s words and
notes in 1988, but the rest of us can broaden the audience to whom we look as
we think about the coming journey of offspring – spiritual or not, those we may
not have even met or imagined yet.
It’s not
clear where John Mohr was when he wrote “Find Us Faithful” – perhaps he was in
our near California (see its seal here), where he has lived much of his life with
his family – but the story he tells indicates it was a life chapter that
developed while he was in many places. It’s a story that John says emerged as
he looked back on several years of marital unfaithfulness. After many years of deceit,
John says multiple friends convinced him that he needed confession – complete and
brutally straightforward – in order to make his life right. He describes his
wife Luanne’s forgiveness as nothing short of miraculous, analogous to what he reflects
upon is true for all those who confess and trust God’s leading – that freedom
is the reward. In the wake of this realization, John composed ‘Find Us…’, probably
because he already had children whom he wanted to impress with the importance
of being in touch with a godly faith. He evidently did not expect that a journey
that has included touring with the Gaither Vocal Band; or singing among other
believers in various venues in the Nashville area; or even living in Ukraine where
he worked with hospitals and orphanages with Luanne and their six kids was a
guarantee of the message’s transmission. Even though the voice he has used most
often in the last 10 years (2010-19) has been in thousands of commercials and even
in an audio version of the bible, John’s words in the song he wrote in 1988 still
resonate perhaps most loudly and personally. They are about himself, but invite
others to personalize them.
Think
about what voice you want them to hear. That’s what John Mohr might say best
sums up the poem he wrote as he felt the release from a guilty conscience and
considered how others might listen to his words of encouragement. You and I may
not have physical offspring, as John Mohr does. But, my own experience in faith
has had me crossing paths with others whom I never knew until I was an adult –
friends, church leaders, ministers, and others. I hear their voices, too. And,
whether I appreciate this much, others may pay attention to my voice also. The
trick is to get them to hear not me, but Him. John Mohr reminds me that I’m
part of a ‘heritage of faithfulness’ (v.2), a group of ‘pilgrims on the journey’
(v.1), not a lonesome soul drifting into nothingness. Join the crowd, and grab
some others to bring along!
See the
author’s home page here, and imagine his ‘voiceover’ voice singing the words he
wrote in 1988: https://www.jonmohr.com/
