I was bouncing along in the bottom bunk of a tour bus trying to sleep.
One of my most vivid memories of the late 90s tours with my band Skillet was the first tour bus trip heading west on I-40 out of Memphis. I took the lower bunk which was essentially on the floor. The custom tour bus tires were scraping on the inside rim of the wheel well so bad that I could not rest a second. I got very little sleep on that tour, had to manage the road work for the band, advance shows, and deal with the club owners, youth pastors, the driver who stopped whenever he wanted randomly, and the woes of the road for this tough schedule. I slept sitting up in the living room of the tour bus for most of the tour, eventually getting double pneumonia and a lot of experience in the music industry.
I was wiring a telephone hard line plug in a wall underneath a dorm desk when I got the call.
When we got signed to a record deal with Ardent Records, I found out in January 1996 while working at the alarm company that I worked for with our band manager. I was alone in a dorm room wiring up a college system and celebrated the life-changing victory by myself and went back to work on wiring. I have wired a ton of things over the years and always enjoyed workin with my hands, which has got me into some strange places. Atop a 37 foot tall sailboat mast alone and scared to move an inch, repairing a line and a light wire. Crawling under my son’s house moving an electrical wire to reposition an appliance in his modest kitchen. Repairing a clothes dryer in the basement of our Caribbean home with no parts service on island. Running a new light fixture to the back of my classic 70’s motorcycle on the side of the road. You never know where you’ll if you keep moving and serving and loving life.
My knees were touching the stage when I cried over the incredible honor to lead a ministry.
I did not know where I would go when I started college on classical guitar and finished in social research in the Oxford Library in England. I did not know when I snuck out of my friend's window in high school with an electric guitar, amp, cord, strap, and pick for $45 that I would make music and ministry my entire life. I wasn’t even a believer in Jesus Christ at the time and did not know writing was my love. But when we reached the 24th graduation last year Vining Hall was packed and I was on the front row listening to talented young people orate and jam and become graduates again, it was magic. Exactly like I will be on May 10, 2025. I will have my knees pressed up against the stage in order to fit everyone in the room. I will be proud of the room and the huge number of shows that have happened here. I will arise to be the speaker at my own event as a satisfied man, and make myself ready for whatever God has the next day, next year, next boat, next house, next band, next friends, whatever - I could not have known that I would be here, at Visible Music College, for a quarter of a century.
Sitting there on the 10th, my eyes will get wet from the emotion of trusting God for over 1700 people through the college, a thousand creative jobs easily and many more families, ministries, and stories told from Visible Music College graduates.
They will never know where they will go. They will go BE VISIBLE.
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