Grace is God's Favor on the Broken

Here is the link to the video and lyrics to Michael Guglielmucci's now infamous song 'Healer.'

The story behind the song is a sad one, yet it is a contemporary parable about human brokenness and God's illimitable grace.

=========================

Michael is the son of a pastor.

He is also a pastor.

He writes songs glorifying God. Wonderful, powerful songs, sung by masses of devoted Christians; blessing the Church and blessing God with his songwriting.

Michael was diagnosed with cancer.

He wrote the song 'Healer' as an anthem testifying to God's power to heal, and His strength in troublesome times. He would perform the song on stage sitting down, with the oxygen tubes hooking him to the supply that his weak body desperately needed...

It was a powerful reminder that God's grace is available in the midst of human brokenness.

=========================





It was, of course, a huge deception; Michael was lying about the cancer.

He had never been diagnosed with cancer, and was in fact perfectly physically healthy. There was, however, something desperately wrong with Michael.

He had been telling people he had cancer to cover the fact that he had been compulsively looking at pornography for 16 years. He was ashamed and afraid; he was defeated.

Upon this revelation, many of us in the wider Christian community were appalled at this hypocrisy. The world of course, was overjoyed at the opportunity to point to yet another disgraced figure on the stage of global Christianity. I have heard many Christians talk about how the song has been ruined for them, now that they have heard the whole story. The situation was, in all respects, a colossal failure...

...or perhaps not.

Perhaps Michael's hypocrisy is a contemporary parable. Perhaps we can learn from the ugliness and the deception. Perhaps by digging into the open wound, painful though it might be, we can root out the cause of the of the injury...

In short, that image of Michael on the stage, lying to everyone about his own holiness, singing of God's goodness while deceiving the worldwide church, a sinner hiding in plain sight, is not a reason to throw away Michael, or the song he wrote, rather it is a powerful reminder that God's grace is available in the midst of human brokenness.

It is for this reason that I continue to be blessed by this powerful song. The story behind it far from detracts from the power of the song, rather it increases its potency as a reminder of God's glory. It speaks to me of God's glorious grace, that I am never so far away, that He cannot reach me...