For the caregiver on Family Talk Channel, Sirius XM 131. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. We are so glad that you're a part of this show today. 877-655-6755.
If you want to be a part of the show, 877-655-6755. Maybe you're taking care of somebody who has Alzheimer's. Maybe you're taking care of somebody who has autism.
Maybe you have an addict in your life. Whatever the impairment, there's always a caregiver. And this show is designed to help strengthen that family caregiver and help point them to safety and let them catch their breath.
Take a knee if you have to. And you might even be surprised, you may even laugh a little bit during the show. And we're thrilled to have a special guest today that I'll tell you about in just a moment.
But before I introduce that special guest, we always have to introduce my sidekick. He's the Baron of the Board. He's the Earl of Engineering.
He's the Sultan of Sound. He's the man who's still got half of them in daylight savings. And he's falling asleep. No, he's not falling asleep. He's John Butler.
He's the Count of Mighty Disco, everyone. Just half a leg still in daylight savings time. Is that what you're talking about? Half of you still there. It takes a while for all the hours to catch up with you. I'm telling you. Well, there is a lot of me. It's a fine experience. Six foot 19.
Six foot 19, absolutely. No, this is a good time of year. I was just out raking the leaves. It's a beautiful 60-something degrees here in Tennessee. But from what I understand, it's not quite that sort of climate where you find yourself right now.
No. It actually started off nice this morning. And then the north wind blew in a bunch of snow.
And it dropped pretty significantly. So we got snow coming down right now. Ed, what's it like in Dallas? Ed? Did we lose Ed? No, I'm here. Ed, did you fall asleep again? Sorry, not 70 degrees here.
It's cloudy and 70. Oh, okay. Well, anyway, welcome to the show.
We are literally doing the show from around the country. And we're glad to have you here. That voice you hear is the voice that I've heard often in my sleep, often in my dreams, often in my nightmares. Look, you shouldn't be hearing John in your sleep, Peter. It is.
No, I don't hear John in my sleep, but I do hear you. And that is my wife, Gracie. She's joining us for a special show today. By the way, if you want to follow along on video, we're doing the show on Facebook Live, facebook.com slash hope for the caregiver if you want to be a part of the show. We're going to do some special things here with Gracie today. Later on in the show, Russ Taft, gospel icon, recording artist. I think he's won like 11 Grammys and 18 Dove awards. Well, he's going to join us because Gracie's got a new duet that's off of her brand new record.
It's called Resilient. And we're going to feature that here in just a few minutes. We're going to hear that song, Gracie. Are you ready? By the way, welcome to the show, Gracie. Is this your first time on, on the, on the Sirius show?
It is my first time on the actual show. I've been on the pregame show, but not on the actual show because you were afraid. You were afraid. John is not afraid. He's never afraid. We are still afraid.
It is, it is a, uh, uh, it is always a wise decision to be wary of a force of nature. So, you know, I don't feel that Peter is being out of line. Well, for those of you don't know, uh, let me introduce my wife, Gracie to you. She's laughing, uh, hysterically. She laughs like a drunk. But this just starts snorting here in just a few moments.
I get her really wound up. I've been up since 4.30 PM. Um, but it's, she had a, a terrible, terrible car accident back in 1983. It was 30, is it, gosh, it's 36 years ago next week. Wait, today's the 10th.
Yeah. On the 18th of November, 36 years ago next week. Um, she fell asleep in the wheel when she was 17 years old. She was driving to meet a friend and slammed into a concrete abutment. It's a pretty intense story and you can read about it in her book if you want.
It's called Gracie standing with hope, 80 surgeries, both legs amputated, a hundred doctors, 12 hospitals, seven different insurance companies, $11 million, 150 smaller procedures that we can count. I mean, it's ridiculous to even try. I'm just ballparking these things because it's too much and it keeps going. And, uh, I'm, I met her about a couple of years after her rec, she had returned to college. She was a vocal performance major and I just saw this beautiful woman and, and quite truthfully, she wouldn't leave me alone. She just stalked me and it was just kind of uncomfortable. I went to the Dean and I asked for some help, you know, I said, really, this is, you know, no, no, but, um, I had no clue, no clue, uh, what it was like to be in a relationship with someone who hurt and had the kind of challenges she had. And, uh, we were young and, you know, and I was dumber than a box of hammers, but we, we clearly, I was too. Oh yeah. I think that ship has sailed, but it's, um, we knew there was something special about our relationship and, um, four out of five therapists can't be wrong.
That fifth one is kind of moving over doors. That's a new adjective for that. But here we are 33 years later of marriage, and we've been through a lot of hard, hard realities. A couple of years ago, Gracie's health plummeted even worse. We thought it was the end. I mean, we, we just didn't think she's going to make it and, uh, infections and all kinds of things. I didn't think she'd ever sing again. It was really heartbreaking.
Um, and, and then a switch flipped, uh, for her. And, um, I actually, you gave me a good quote yesterday, Gracie, of something you were saying in the hospital bed, uh, when you were doing this and you knew something was just, something's not right. What did you say? Do you remember what you said yesterday? You want me to leave the expletives out?
Yes, please. It's a family show. I figured that. And I don't, they all don't cuss. I'm just kidding.
Um, well, like I only makes me really mad. But anyway, um, but that's not on radio. Um, hopefully, um, I, I just was laying there and, um, I was in a hospital that was farther away from our house and I just thought, I'm not dying like this. Oh no, this is not, this is not how I'm, this is not how this is going to end. This is not going to, this doesn't honor God for this to end this way.
Um, and, and I just, I just started thinking of songs and scriptures and purpose. And, you know, no matter how much Peter told me, I was dying. I didn't tell you. I said, I am not.
And I'm glad you don't have my power of attorney. And so that's literally what I told him. That's actually not quite what happened, but well, it was worse. But she was, uh, I think the attitude of what we're trying to get across here is, is that there was a resilience to all of it.
And that's what we named the record. And we didn't know if, and I was really concerned that she wouldn't be able to sing. Well, the first couple of years I could not sing.
Her voice and everything was just really trashed and singing has been part of her life since she was three. And then, um, I got Chris Latham to come over to the house and he brought over some recording gear. We went to college with Chris.
He's a Grammy award-winning engineer. And we just tried out some things and it was, I mean, I looked at Chris and she's saying this thing live to track. And he had just big tears rolling down his eyes. Live to track, live to recording you in the living room and me in the bedroom, standing on my knees in the wheelchair in my gown.
That's how this went down. And it was, um, it was so amazing and we knew that, okay. And she had a lot of work to do to get her voice back into shape, but she did. And so we've been putting together a lot of stuff and then she put together this, this new record, we started singing more and more and more. And, and then this new record, you know, was birthed from that and it's called Resilient. And this is a special gift of this record that we're doing for Standing with Hope. Standing with Hope is the outreach that she envisioned after she gave up both of her legs to help her fellow amputees as a means of sharing the gospel. And we provide prosthetic limb parts and supplies and training to, um, uh, the country of Ghana in West Africa. We've been doing this since 2005.
And, um, and it's all done to help share the gospel. We have a prosthetic limb recycling program where limbs come in from all over the country and they go to a prison in Tennessee where inmates will disassemble them. And we'll take those parts and send them over there to Africa.
Cause you can recycle feet, knees, pylons, screws, adapters, connectors, all kinds of stuff. It's being used overseas. Yeah. And it's extraordinary. It's an extraordinary ministry that she envisioned.
And then we have two program areas is for the wounded and those who care for them. And this show is a part of it. And this CD is, is designed to help sponsor that.
So for any gift to Standing with Hope at standingwithhope.com, we'll send you this CD. And we thought we'd debut the feature song we're going to do today. And it is a song that Twyla Parris sang many, many, many, many years ago.
And I was working to get Twyla on the show today for this, but we couldn't make that happen schedule wise. But the man who sang it with her as a duet will be joining us at the bottom of the hour. And that's Russ Taff, gospel icon Russ Taff. But I thought we'd go ahead and just play that. Y'all ready to hear it?
Everybody ready to hear it on Facebook live and around the country. This is the joy of the Lord Russ Taff and Gracie. Will be my strength. I will not falter. I will not faint.
He is my shepherd. I'm not afraid for the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord will be my strength.
He will uphold me all of my days. I am surrounded by mercy and grace for the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord.
The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord will be my strength. I will not waver walking by faith.
He will be strong to deliver me safe. And the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord.
The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. He's joy, he's joy, he's joy, he makes me sing, makes me shout, and I laugh all night. Joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord is my strength. Joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord, he makes me laugh. Joy of the Lord is my strength. He'll never know he's our strength. When I'm weak and strong, my soul always is joy.
The joy of the Lord is our strength. That is my wife Gracie and Russ Taft, Joy of the Lord, and I, you know, when I listen to that Gracie, I knew that I wanted to see that. You sang that many, many years ago, and I never forgot it. It was such an amazing performance that you did, and I thought, I really want to hear you cut this, and I really wanted Russ to sing it with you, and he'll be joining us a little bit later. Yeah, it didn't sound like that though, years ago.
No, it was a different, it was just a different arrangement of it, and we worked out this arrangement. We had some great musicians in Nashville to help pull all this together. And then Russ Taft. And then Russ, I asked Russ, actually I didn't ask, I begged. You know, it was kind of embarrassing. But I asked him, I said, because I felt like his voice would just, I mean, what his story, and what he and Tori have been through and things, and I thought it was just the right mix. When you hear that, and we just got a few minutes before the bottom of the hour here, but when you hear those lyrics, the joy of the Lord is your strength. You know, and people that know you and have heard your story, I mean, Gracie, no kidding.
You've been through the wringer. What does that mean to you, to hear that the joy of the Lord is your strength? I think sometimes we confuse joy with happiness, and that's not what you're singing. You didn't say the happiness of the Lord is my strength. You said the joy of the Lord.
What does that mean to you when you sing those lyrics and when you hear that? I mean, the joy of the Lord is talked about a lot in the New Testament, but it's specifically, and I won't get into some, well, not that I could teach a Bible lesson on it, but it's talked a lot, though, specifically in the Old Testament, and I would say, you know, something I've clung to is that if you look through the Psalms that David wrote, he went through the lamenting to the Lord, poured out his soul and his questions and his heartache, but then he always came back around to encouraging himself in the Lord. How did he encourage himself in the Lord? Well, he encouraged himself in the Lord based on what Scripture says by going back through as King David, but before he was King David, when he was out in the fields with the sheep, going through all of the Scriptures he had committed to memory. He encouraged himself in the Lord.
He would go back and say all of those truths that we now know we have the beautiful benefit of having them written down for us to be able to go and go, this is where I can stand, but then he just had the scrolls, and he learned them as a young child. A lot of that was just word of mouth. Yes, and so for me, when I think of Russ and I doing it, and we talked about this before we started singing and cutting any tracks, when you're in any kind of pain, whether it's emotional or physical or meritally or whatever kind of pain it is, if it's bad enough, you want to get out of it, and you want to get out of it in any way possible. For me, I think for anybody that's experienced that level of pain, you come to a point where you say, do I want to put a bullet through my head, or do I want to know what David knew, where he said, no, you know what, even though, like Job said, yay, all of this is happening, yet I still will trust. I still will praise. And I came back to that many, many times.
I got tired of hearing sermons about Job from people that came to the hospital. By the way, that's Butler's favorite book. Well, it's a great book, John, because you look at how he handled it, and I dare say, if we had to handle what he handled, I don't know. I mean, obviously, that's conjecture on my part, thinking about that.
We don't do conjecture. But I can say, I've been through things, and I'm in pain all of the time. Unfortunately, no more pain pump, and very little, very little anything else. But the good side of that is that I, with my conscious mind, can say, no, this is why I trust. This is why I hope.
This is why I have a future. This is why I know that if God is with me, I can do this. You know, I remember people asking me after a while of not hearing me sing after this period of time, because I had coded a lot, and they had shoved that huge tube down my throat, you know, John, and they had hurt my vocal cords. And so at that point, they don't really care if they're scraping your vocal cords.
They just want you to live, which I'm grateful for living. But I remember a good friend of ours in Nashville asking me that, and I looked at her, and I started crying, because I remember trying to sing the hymn just with the congregation out in the congregation. And my voice cracked just trying to sing the hymn. And I thought, if I can't sing, that's how I encourage myself and the Lord. That's how, that's what he gave me since I was, before I think I could read or talk, is song. And I just, I asked her, I said, since you're asking, could you pray that I would be able, if the Lord doesn't, this side of heaven, instantaneously want to heal me, or even over time, I'll take whatever he wants to give me. But if he would just restore my voice, because I was vocalizing, I was doing all the things I knew to do, and it just was not happening. It was not coming back. And you know, she started praying for me, and you know who I'm talking about.
I'll call her out if I have to. And I love that woman, and she started praying, and then she had some other friends of mine that know me closely, prayed and the same thing. And I didn't know if it was going to work, John. I didn't know if it was going to work when Chris Latham came over and set up all of his stuff there.
I was very nervous about, oh my goodness, what happens if nothing comes out? You know, and that's kind of how, the infancy of how this whole new CD started. And thank God for Chris Latham, and people like you, John, and people that kept Peter sane. Well, no. It takes a lot of people to keep Peter sane.
We passed that exit on the interstate a long time ago. Well, let's just say functional. Functional. No, that's a good, you're very... We, music has been such a huge part of our life together. We both study music professionally. We've both been playing since we were kids.
And it's just been a big part. When we couldn't even speak sometimes, we would just sit at the, I'd sit at the piano and play and you'd sing. In fact, I was just doing that just before we came here. We're doing this from Madison Valley Baptist Church in Ennis, Montana, where I now serve as the music director.
And we're doing the show from here right now where we're renovating a small cabin, where we'll do it all hopefully here soon. That sounds so quaint and... It is. Currier Knives.
It is Currier Knives. I was going to say, it's very English countryside. It's not English, it's Western countryside. I understand. No, no.
Give me my Dickensian awesome, all right? All right. All right, Fezziwick.
All right. But we... 135-year-old Bill Miner's cabin, just so you know. Even still that we couldn't speak sometimes, but we could do music. And then when I thought Gracie wouldn't sing again, I thought, oh, it's just... But then she did, and she kept singing, and she kept singing. And I was watching you, Gracie, and we put this...
The last track on the CD is the old hymn, Breathe on Me, Breath of God. And we put that on there because my mother was in intensive care last year, and she was really hovering at death's door. And Gracie said the same thing to my mother that she said to herself. And my mother couldn't catch her breath. She was having congestive heart failure. And she couldn't breathe very well. And Gracie did not know this hymn, but my mother asked for it.
Breathe on Me, Breath of God. And so Gracie learned it from my mother, and I could hear her singing this hymn all throughout intensive care. And she sang it, and nurses stopped and listened to it. And it was just acapella. And so we put that on there as the last hymn because I thought it was important.
Every one of these songs that you do has a story behind it. There's a meaning behind it. I'd never heard it.
I had never heard it before. I really appreciated that very much. I had a sight read there in front of your mom. That's all right.
You learned it, and you did it well. What if that had been the very last song she had heard? It would have been a good one. That would have been on you, Peter.
That would have been on me, but she'd been okay with it. And I think the whole purpose of this record is to communicate that there's something more, something that's stronger, that sustains us even in the worst moments. And I can say you've had more worst moments than most, and you've been doing this for a long time, and yet here you are. You're laughing. You're cutting up with Butler. You're making fun of me, which is, you know, I understand that. But you know what?
You're not miserable, and the joy of the Lord is your strength. So I love that tune from you and Russ. He'll be with us here after the bottom of the hour. Don't go away. This is hope for the caregiver, hopeforthecaregiver.com.
This is Peter Rosenberger. It's the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. I'm here with my wife, Gracie, who I've cared for for a lifetime. Thank you for being with us. We'll be right back.
We'll be right back. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope. Welcome back to the show for Caregivers About Caregivers, hosted by a caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. I am Peter Rosenberger, and I've been caring for this woman at my side right now for a lifetime.
This is my wife, Gracie. You just heard her coming in from the break on that song, that song for her new CD, Resilient. And last segment, we debuted the new duet she had with gospel recording icon Russ Taft, who is on the line with us right now. And Russ, I want to thank you for taking the time to call into the show. It means a lot.
I just love the song with you and Gracie, and I love just having the opportunity just to hang out with you when we recorded it. How are you feeling today, Russ? I'm doing great. I'm doing wonderful. Say hello to Gracie and you. It's good to hear your voice.
I love you. Thank you so much for calling. Well, listen, Russ, when we did this song, and I started thinking about some stuff I wanted to do with this record of hers, and I thought about you specifically because I knew that you and Tory and your family had walked through some deep waters. And, you know, you ever get to that point where you're just not comfortable hanging around people that haven't walked through deep waters because you don't really have anything in common with them?
Yeah, and, you know, most of the time, unless you've had your legs, you know, your head beat down and you've walked through trouble times, you don't have a lot to talk about with these people because, it's like Gaither always said, he said, if you haven't walked through tough stuff, hang on, it'll come. But, you know, that song is so powerful for me that, and by the way, I had a great time in the studio with you and Gracie. That was one of the best recording atmospheres I've ever been in. Well, that's saying something, Russ. That's very kind of you to say that. Well, I mean, you know, it had purpose, it had meaning, and, you know, not just singing on somebody else's record, but you guys' ministry has been so powerful through the years of reaching out and being encouragement to people that have walked through great things, great things, and so it was a joy for me to contribute my little part to you guys' ministry.
You know, it was more than that. Tell us a little bit, I asked Gracie in the last segment, what it meant to sing the joy of the Lord as her strength. It didn't say the happiness of the Lord, it said the joy of the Lord.
I want to ask you the same question. What does that mean to you when you hear that phrase? Because you've been in that place where you had no place else to go. It says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, those who run into it are safe. You've been in that place where there is nothing else but Christ to cling to.
What does that mean to you to sing that? Well, as you guys know, the main battle is in your mind, and that's where so much of the battle is fought, because you're going to have voices all the time, good, bad, up, down, in and out, but when you hear yourself praising God and saying to yourself, no matter what the circumstance, He will work in my behalf and He will see me through. I believe when I praise and I worship, to me it goes up to glory. It passes through the throne room, and then He sends it right back down to us with power and grace and mercy and strength.
So it's just this continual cycle of us sending it up and He's sending it back down to us that's full of Himself, of what He is in our lives. But when you say, what does it mean to praise, I go back to the battle is in your mind, and I've watched people like Gracie, and if you have stay positive and say God will work with me, God will help me, God will see me through, you have a choice to make. Either you will, like we have a plaque at our house, it says trust God or go crazy, and you have to trust. Done both, Russ, I've done both.
Yeah, absolutely. But I love to surround myself with people that are walking through or have walked through, but I have a choice every day. Will I grumble and complain about my situation in my life, or will I trust God and keep myself in this attitude of praise? Because when we praise, we're saying, you are alive, you are real, you are working in our lives, and I will not let any kind of other negative voices in. And if you don't have anything to positively say to me about Jesus, don't talk to me, just stay away from me, because I want to surround myself with people that are focused on God, and continually reminding ourselves that His joy, His joy is our strength, and we have the capacity to stay there.
But you have to work at it. You just can't wake up and be tossed to and fro with your mind, I don't know if I can make it, and I don't know what's going on, or you can get up in the morning and say, Lord, I turn this all over to you. I can't handle this, but with your strength, I can walk through anything. Even though I walk through the valley of shadow, He will be there. He will be there, but you have to stay positive and praise.
You have to stay focused on your choice. And I know for me, I have through the day, through the months and the weeks, I have gratitude meetings in my head. And I sit there, and I will go through things that happened through that day, through the last week or the last month, of things that He has walked with me through. And I begin to feel this gratitude come over me, like I can trust Him, and I feel this gratitude, and my mind changes from grumbling and complaining and fearful and afraid to everything will be all right, everything will be all right. Because even in death we win, you know? But for me to praise and to worship and singing that song, it's just reminding us who God is and that we can be in contact with Him all through the day, all through the night, the next day and the next day and the next day.
And we're waiting for Him to part the Red Sea. And so if He stood at the Red Sea and said, I don't know if it's going to happen or not, I hope God does something, I'm not sure. But stand still and see the glory of God and keep your mouth shut. If you're going to talk negative, if you're going to talk negative about a situation, there's no need to praise, you know, there's no need to reach out for the joy of the Lord, because we are focused on destruction, we are focused on failure, and we've got our fingers crossed hoping that something good will happen, but we stay in a situation in our mind, like I don't know if He's going to do anything, and my situation is so bad and nobody's hurt as bad as I have. Because you see people out there with great, great, great pain and hurt, and some survive and some don't, but it's the ones who stay focused, stay in God's presence, worship Him and praise Him, and keep that attitude of my God is alive and He's real, and somehow, some way He's going to see me through the situation, but for me, if I don't focus on that, my mind will take me somewhere else that pulls me down, makes me afraid, and so for me, it's like, you've got to go crazy. Well, listen, my mind is a dangerous place to go into unaccompanied, and I get that. I know Gracie wants to ask you a question, but before I turn it over to her on this, when you sing what has now become one of the most signature songs out there, period, and particularly for you, praise the Lord.
He can work through those who praise Him, praise the Lord. You've sung that song now for 40 years, we're close to it. Right, right. But it's different now when you sing it, isn't it?
Oh, absolutely, absolutely, because it's turned into a song that I set it up now when I talk about it before I sing. It's like, what do you do in the meantime? What do you do when you're waiting to hear back from the doctor? What do you do when things are falling apart around you, or when you're waiting to hear back from a biopsy?
What do you do? Well, this song, praise the Lord, tells you, He works through those who praise Him. You know, don't sit there in fear and be around people that say, I don't know if you'll make it or not, I don't know if you'll make it or not, but be with people, be with Jesus, and keep yourself positive. Keep yourself positive. A friend of ours went through breast cancer, and after the surgery, this was years ago, the doctor came out and she told us, keep her positive, keep her positive, because those that are positive have a much greater chance of getting well than those that don't stay positive.
I mean, when you have a medical doctor telling you, you know, surround yourself with truth, surround yourself with light, surround yourself with Jesus, and stay positive, your chances are so much greater of things happening for your good. You know, man, you get me talking about this, I get so fired up. Well, that's all right. I get fired up too, I'm trying to constantly tell Peter, the power of life and death is in the tongue. It literally is in the tongue. Absolutely. So if you're going to, I mean, somebody can make them sick. I've watched people literally make themselves physically sick by just saying, I think I'm getting sick, I think I'm getting sick, I think I'm getting sick. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I just want to go, please stop saying that, you know what I mean, because I think it's not just a mental thing. God clearly, at least in the Bible that I'm reading and read, there is a whole lot of spiritual realm around what goes on with our tongue, or else it wouldn't say that's the hardest thing to tame. It may be the smallest part of our body, but it's the hardest thing to tame.
Absolutely. And that's why I go back to what that doctor said, stay positive. Stay positive.
Keep her positive. And I mean, you know, in a spirit world, you know, and the power of our tongue, and God is standing there saying, I'm ready, I'm here, I love you, I love you, I love you, and we're standing there saying, oh, I don't know if you'll come through or not, you know, I just don't know if I can get through this one, you know, it may be. This is what I tell my fellow caregivers, because so many of us are the loudest voice to the one who is suffering, and if we're not speaking life to these individuals, who are they going to listen to, and if we're not having life spoken to us, who are we listening to? And I had a caller call him one time, and he was saying, you know, they're trying to get the victory, and I said, no, no, I stopped him. I said, the victory's already there.
You've already got the victory. It happened at the cross, had nothing to do with you. Rest in it.
Rest in it. And this is what concerns me about what's going on. So many people were looking at medically assisted death now, and all these things that are going on, because the world just keeps offering death. And as believers, we have a responsibility to offer life and speak that. And that's why when I put the two of you together for this song, I thought, here are two people who have faced hard things in their life. I mean, hard things.
Who have faced it with eyes wide open, looked at it, and held on to Jesus with all that you had. And I often say, you know, we accept the fact that he's holding on to our scared hand with his scarred hand. Right. And when I put you two in, one of the things that I love about your voice and Gracie's voice and the songs that both of you sing and that you've sung for a lifetime, it's always earthy. It's not flowery.
It's not this, you know, cotton candy stuff. If you're struggling, I'm going to hear it in your song. If she's struggling, I'm going to hear it in her song. It's real. And people want to hear and participate in something that's real.
And you guys, no other artist, Russ, affects either one of us like you have with us for the years. And it's just, it's real. And what you and Tori and your family have gone through, and you've opened up your chest and shared it with the world and say, you know what, this is real. This is who we are.
But more importantly, this is an example of what Christ can do with lives that are willing to trust him in it. And so when you guys, and I was watching in the studio together with you, and you came in together on that third verse, you know, I would walk by faith. There was this, it was, you could just tell it was visceral with both of you. And that was a declaration.
Yeah, it is. It's a declaration. I've got a, we've got a caller that wants just to chime in real quick. Can you hang with us, Russ, while we just, I think she wants to say something to probably you and Gracie. Can you hang on just for a second? Can I make one more comment before we go there? Oh, please, Russ.
Please. I found with me there is nothing more believable for me than my own voice. And I learned early on through my, what we walked through, that I, every day I would write, the joy of the Lord is my strength. You know, I can do all things through Christ. And I would say it out loud to myself, no matter what the situation looked like, because me hearing my voice, making positive confessions, somehow it took, it made it alive.
Because you can hear other people and it comes from the outside, comes from the outside. But in yourself, standing, looking at that mirror with that slogan every day, saying it to myself, my faith, it becomes stronger and stronger because I'm saying it out loud and my own brain is hearing me say it. My body is hearing me say it. I can do all things through Christ.
And it keeps you focused. But anyway, go ahead and bring the caller in. Well, this is Bonnie who wants to, Bonnie, you're on the line with Gracie and Russ and me, of course, and John Butler. But I don't know who you want to talk to, but we're glad to have you here, Bonnie. How are you feeling? I am doing very well. I'm very happy to be saying hello to both of you.
And with Gracie there today, I thought today is the day I will call and say hello. And thank you for your ministry. And it has been a lifeline for me as a caregiver. I love you. That's very meaningful, Bonnie. Thank you and thank you for listening. Thank you for taking the time to call on this. By the way, if you want to find out more about Russ, it's RussTaff.com, R-U-S-S-T-A-F-F dot com.
Russ, where are you next playing and singing? Well, I don't pay a whole lot of attention. I work every weekend and they just tell me four days before, OK, you're going to Cincinnati this weekend. OK. And, you know, I prepare what I need, but I don't spend a whole lot of time looking at my calendar because I don't like to sit and my mind starts playing. I don't know if you can make it this month.
Oh, I don't know. But I look at it. I accept it. I receive it. And and I turn it all over to God. But I you know, I know that the 22nd, I'm going to be in Danville, Illinois.
I mean, Danville, West Virginia. OK. And then the weekend after that, I'm somewhere and the weekend after that, I'm somewhere. But, you know, it's I like that because every weekend there's a challenge. There's something new. There's something great. And if I look at that day three weeks before that, I start formulated in my mind a certain thing I want to see happen. Instead of just showing up there.
I've never done the same program twice in 15 years. Well, I think Butler and I would say the same thing about this show. Right. Peter goes, why? Why do you get so nervous, Grace? You've done this in June times. You've sung the song. I still just get the same amount of nervous.
And maybe that's why I always tell her to break a leg. I'm going to take it off and throw it at you. But but you know what, the rest. That's really interesting that you said that, because I just had to do that last month. I wrote down.
It took me about four hours and I just went through. I mean, barely touched on scriptures that I have said to myself, outlet written down, pasted all over the place on the mirrors, walls, you know, and written them as large as I could write them in as bright a colors. I could write them and set them out loud because there is power in that. And I think there there are singers that I hear. And this may be why I migrate to you. But you can I want you to feel comfortable to tell us the truth.
You're on live, you know, not television, but you know, might as well be. When I worship, when I make a conscious decision to say no by God, literally, I will trust. I will praise. I will thank him. Sometimes when I get up in the morning, I make myself go, thank you, Lord, for this day. Now, some people might not get that because they might go, that's really ridiculous.
I mean, why does he have such a heart? I mean, sometimes I get up and I'm in still so much pain. I keep thinking maybe if I lie there just a little bit longer, it'll go away.
But it doesn't. And so I get I sit up and I say out loud, thank you for this day. Thank you that I woke up alive, that I have air in my lungs, that I have purpose. And when I sing, though, my question for you is. When you sing. Does it train not when I say transport, I'm not talking we transcend, but does it friends in your physical situation, your physical and emotional feelings and all that's going on.
Absolutely. Because I tell you, there's something about gospel music. That connects us to the eternal. I mean, rock and roll can't do that.
Country can't do that for us Christians. And we're singing scripture. We're singing things that are that are powerful in people's lives and in our lives.
And it goes to another level. I mean, when I sing, you know, twist and shout or if I sang praise the Lord, he can work through those who praise him. Praise the Lord.
There is some eternal thing happening in the spirit world inside of me, outside of me. You know, but but I threw the whole concert. I'm praying. Lord, you know, there's certain songs that you always have to do. You got your hits and stuff that you have to do. But I am praying through the whole thing. You know, what's next? What do you want me to do? I don't be so so formulated in what I do. I can't hear the voice of the Lord.
And absolutely not. And that's why for me, I don't sit down. I sit down and I got those eight songs that I people want to hear. But other than that, every crowd is different.
You know, Jesus did not get the same message over and over and over again. But you've got to risk. You've got to step out there. And let me say one more thing. We've got just a few more minutes. Go ahead.
All right. Gracie and Peter, you guys are carrying the banner of people that this could have taken out. That this could have crippled you for life. And you had a right to be angry and mad at God.
A lot of people are. But you saw the value of worshipping and you're like me, Gracie. The praise and worship did not start in concert. It starts in our hotel room about three in the afternoon. And and, you know, we we get that going and going. But there is something supernatural in our own words. Say it to ourselves. It's powerful.
It's very, very powerful. And I watch you guys, you know, fight and grow and fight and grow to the point now. This this. Well, I can't.
But I smell what you're stepping in, Russ. Yeah. That kind of came out funny.
It actually came out just perfect. But, you know, it's like Paul and Silas, you know what I mean? But it's like Paul and Silas in prison after being beaten. Yeah, they're singing hymns and something at midnight.
They were singing hymns, you know, and I'm thinking there's something transformative that happens. No, that P.O. Satan so much that they did. I mean, seriously. I'm not worried about that. But no, but I mean that. I'm not worried about doing that to Satan. I'm more worried about I'm more focused on what a testament to glorify God is.
No, I know that. But for me, I like the fact, though, I don't mind. I don't mind if it ticks him off, too, though.
It's kind of a bonus. Well, I'm not. But what is what is wonderful in all of this that you guys have laid out a path for everybody else to follow. And you have laid out an example. And now God is using that to instruct his kids all over the country and all over the world of when you're up against the struggle. Don't turn in fear, but watch what we do as we follow Christ. And God has created platform after platform for you guys to continue to share this message. And the Holy Spirit is behind this.
He's behind this. And I'm saying, tell my kids I love them. Tell my kids to worship me. I'm there with them. Tell my kids that they can get through this because you're an example. I mean, a church, a pastor can sit up there and say it out loud.
But when you have somebody that you look at them and you hear them and their life has just been scattered by tragedy and how they are following Christ and letting him minister to them every day. But anyway, I'll stop. Russ, we're out of time. And I want to thank you so much.
Russ Taft. The record is resilient. It's Gracie's new record. Gracie, thank you for being here with us.
You can go see more about it at Hope for the caregiver dot com. There's a big picture of Gracie right there. Click on it and be a big picture.
Big. I put a big picture of you, baby. A big picture.
Not the little picture. The big picture, baby. Listen, John, thank you for being a part of this. And thank you all.
Hope for the caregiver dot com. Russ, I'm very grateful. We'll hopefully see you soon. Gracie, thank you, Doc. We'll see you.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-01-23 01:26:59 / 2024-01-23 01:47:15 / 20
