Rich Mullins

It’s funny; the things that spark our memories. Someone had asked me to get the lyrics to a song by Rich Mullins for them. At the request, my mind immediately went to his untimely death in an automobile accident in the fall of 1997 in northern Illinois on I-39 just north of Peoria; he was on his way to perform at a concert in Wichita, KS. That particular morning I was working the early shift at WJLY when a newscast shared the tragic news. You may not recognize the name Rich Mullins, and had he lived, he would have wanted it that way, but you know his music. Probably best know for the worship song “Awesome God” (Our God is an awesome God…) he also wrote and performed many, many other songs in his short career of 12 or so years, and several have become standards in the realm of contemporary Christian music. Rich was a gifted pianist and song writer and had chosen to teach music to Navajo children in New Mexico. He received the average salary for a worker in the United States each year and donated the rest of his earnings to Compassion International and Compassion USA. He was truly a gift to the world from God, and as I continue to listen to his timeless words, I imagine he now leads the heavenly choir with new arrangements praising his King.