Healing Grace -- John Chisum and Gary Sadler

 

One or both of these songwriters needed some help, though we don’t know just exactly what that was. One thing was for certain, and that was that John Chisum and Gary Sadler sought out the One they felt sure would hear and communicate “Healing Grace” to them. Both John and Gary have spent much of their musical lives in the Nashville area (See the map-image of Nashville in Davidson County here), and that crucible for music development and production worked on both of them as it has for so many others, including by 1994 when their prayer-song about healing and grace emerged. John’s testimony particularly has resonance, in that he’s a living example of an up-and-down career musician who undoubtedly called out to his Creator-Protector on more than one occasion for this song title’s expression in his life. ‘You can make it’, John might say. ‘He’s there, so just keep singing that song of dependence on Him. It never grows old.’

 

Was it 1983, or memories of that time, that had John Chisum writing a set of lyrics and sharing his thoughts with Gary Sadler? Gary must have had his own memories of ‘healing grace’ episodes, ones that every introspective person surely recalls, perhaps even as a catalyst in one’s life. That could be said of John Chisum, given what he and his family experienced upon arriving in Nashville in 1983. John had a job at a church that ended abruptly, like a door slamming in one’s face. He and his wife were without a home and few resources, a most desperate circumstance. John shares in another venue (see his own website link below) about a time when he was 58 and ‘life fell apart’. Whether this was the 1983 experience or a separate episode is not clear (but, he would be nearly 100 years old today in 2024 if that incident was in fact 41 years ago at age 58…a photo on his site suggests otherwise, and that these were two separate incidents); what he says after this opening sentence is noteworthy, something that tells how deep was his hopelessness, a condition that someone might feel more than once in a lifetime. The lyrics on which John and Gary collaborated indicate a recognition that misdeeds, ‘transgressions’ and ‘sins’, were a root cause of the trouble they felt. And yet, that did not permanently distance them from the Healer, the Dispenser of grace. The Confessor – you and me – needs only to use the ‘cry of our heart’ to ‘seek (His) face’. The verbs that John and Gary use can tell us much about what we do, and also what God does in response. God is the one ‘loving’, ‘hear(ing)’, ‘show(ing)’, ‘touch(ing)’, and finally ‘releas(ing) and ‘wash(ing)’ us from our guilt; while we ‘come’ to ‘confess’ and ‘acknowledge’ wrongdoing, and to ‘seek’ Him and ‘receive’ His gift. Verbs are powerful words.

 

Knowing the story of this song, whether the impetus was John Chisum’s or Gary Sadler’s reminiscence or in fact a composite of them both, is really not the point. A ‘song scoop’ is just a single isolated mouthful that you and I take in, savor, and swallow. But, it might also be one that was so tasty the first time – in the way that we sense Him moving in and through us – that we know implicitly to whom we can go for more of what blessed us the first time. He’s not a vending machine, but more like a glue or fragrance that doesn’t wear off, unless we make a conscious effort to rid ourselves of Him. Who would want rid of God after ‘receiving’ from Him, as Chisum and Sadler tell us three times to conclude their lyrics? John and Gary would almost certainly tell us (and I plan to ask them someday) whether ‘Healing Grace’ was one story, or an ongoing statement. Which is true of Him in your walk?

 

 

Read about one of the songwriters here: Spirit Soul Body | John Chisum

 

And, here: Life & Work with John Chisum - NashvilleVoyager Magazine | Nashville's Most Inspiring Stories

 

And, here: About – Nashville Christian Songwriters

 

See here information on the album on which the song appears: Firm Foundation - Album by John Chisum, Integrity's Hosanna! Music | Spotify

 

See very scant information about one of the two songwriters here: Sadler, Gary | Praise!

 

See information on the map-image of Davidson County (where Nashville is) here, including the public domain status of the graphic: File:Map of Tennessee highlighting Davidson County.svg - Wikimedia Commons . The following statement is associated with the graphic re: its public domain status: I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.