RICH MULLINS

Lately there seems to be much exposure on heroes cut down in their prime. A song that has been my no 1 favorite for the past 2 months is "Sometimes By Step" by Rich Mullins. Mullins is best known for the church standard "Awesome God". Even my 7 year old daughter sings along in the car as we zip around.

Not surprisingly, with my jurassic exposure to these sorts of issues, I actually thought "Sometimes By Step" was one of the latest songs released. Recently when reading of the demise of Steve Irwin and Peter Brock, I was rather taken aback to see Rich Mullins name juxtaposed as another hero prematurely taken from this world. Another poignant death, and as I will write another day, by no means the last to be brought into "my little world" these few weeks. He died 9 years ago in what the world terms a "tragic accident" when he was just 42. The song "Sometimes By Step" is in fact 15 years old! Do not know that Mullins death was a tragic as we seem to think. It has been recorded that in the afternoon of the accident that took him out, he told his manager that he was in a period of the greatest peace he had ever known. Uncanny huh.

A little about him - whilst Mullins was known as a great song writer, he had a great living compassion for the poor and adhered to a vow of poverty. From his music earnings he took a small salary and the rest was channeled out to the needy world. He modeled his life after his hero St Francis of Assisi and with some friends whom also took vows of poverty formed the charitable support organisation "The Kid Brothers of St Frank" which is still very active today.


Sometimes by Step by Rich Mullins and Beaker
As Recorded on The World as Best as I Remember It, Volume 2

Sometimes the night was beautiful
Sometimes the sky was so far away
Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close
You could touch it but your heart would break

Sometimes the morning came too soon
Sometimes the day could be so hot
There was so much work left to do
But so much You'd already done

Oh God, You are my God And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me And I will follow You all of my days

Sometimes I think of Abraham
How one star he saw had been lit for me
He was a stranger in this land
And I am that, no less than he

And on this road to righteousness
Sometimes the climb can be so steep
I may falter in my steps
But never beyond Your reach

Copyright 1992 - Edward Grant, Inc., 1991 - Kid Brothers of St. Frank Publishing


Pic : The sky at dusk one evening in 2003. Taken from our Templers Park home.