As you get older, you start to consider what your legacy might be. Has the story of your life amounted to much? Have you left footprints deep enough to follow after you go home to your eternal reward (or curse)? Will anyone even remember your name? These questions seem to creep into your mind more and more as you age and reflect on the past.
This morning, I was reminded of a song by one of my all-time favorite Southern Gospel singers / songwriters, Squire Parsons. Take a moment to listen to this publicly displayed YouTube video:
Now, let me tell you a couple of stories about Squire Parsons. These are personal stories from the past that involve both of us. The first one took place many many years ago when I was the choir director at Chapel Hill Baptist Church. I was a part-time minister and our church was starting to grow and flourish. We wanted to host a Southern Gospel concert to draw attention to the church and, of course, offer a meaningful time of praise for the congregation. At that time, my pastor, his wife, and I were singing together in a local Southern Gospel quartet, so we had a few connections to people in that world of music. We made a decision to ask Squire Parsons to be our musical guest and he accepted even though we did not have a lot of money to pay him.
I vividly recall the evening when we had the concert. Squire was the perfect gentleman and was a powerful singer and presenter on stage. That evening, we had our little 200 seat sanctuary filled to the brim. We even had to seat people in the choir loft. People traveled from all over West Tennessee and parts of Kentucky to join us that evening. It was a HUGE success and a blessing to all who were there. This is still one of my fondest music ministry memories.
The next story takes place many years later, while Dawn and I served in Romania with IMB. While I worked there, I often had opportunities to join in with various outreach efforts and sing to groups of people. Sometimes it involved an inside church service, sometimes it was part of an outside event in a rural, village setting. I generally would sing some of my favorite Southern Gospel songs because the Romanians seemed to have a true affinity for them. Since I was a huge fan of Squire, I really wanted to use some of his music as backup tracks. So, I reached out to his office via email to request permission to do so.
I was pleasantly surprised when his office administrator wrote me back and gave me permission. She even offered to send me the tracks (MP3 via email) from his greatest hits CD, the original tracks! I paid them a nominal fee to get the tracks and suddenly, I had 20 of Squires original song tracks to use as accompaniment for my musical outreach activities. How cool is that??? One of the songs, a personal favorite named One Voice, even has a faint copy of Squire’s voice in the background. I assume that they dumped the vocal tracks from the originals before they sent them to me, and somehow didn’t get Squire’s voice completely removed. I still use these tracks from time to time and when I sing that song, it makes my soul smile as I sing – with Squire Parsons. HOW COOL IS THAT???
There you have it. My personal stories of a great man of God who has blessed so many over the years of his ministry in song and Gospel presentation. I’ll include a couple of links below to help you learn more about Squire if he is new to you. God bless, thanks for reading this message. Take care in how you write your story. 🙂
