“Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed….” —Luke 17:20
People keep calling up my radio show telling me I need to go up to the lake for the chance of meeting country music star Ella Langley – and I’m not sure why.
I’m not exactly what you would call an “Ella Fella.” Yes, I’m Alabama born-and-raised, but I ain’t exactly a country boy.
I don’t listen to country music. I don’t drive a truck. I don’t have a dog. I don’t drink whiskey (well, at least not like I used to). I’m not into shooting, mudding, hunting, hiking, or fishing in the moonlight. Whenever someone asks me if I want to go camping, I suspect they’re up to some sort of funny business (especially in June).
And honestly, I don’t really enjoy spending time on the water. I guess it’s a nice enough time, but the outdoor lifestyle has never really called me. I have a buddy with a lake house and a dad with a boat on the bay. I visit them once in a blue moon. And that’s about enough adventure for me – at least until recently.
Something about getting up before the sun and praying at the break of dawn changes a man. I still ain’t a country boy, but I find myself increasingly drawn to God’s creation after each sunrise prayer with rosary and Bible in hand.
What a 120 days it’s been.
I look forward to falling asleep, just to awake early the next morning to hear the unseen birds sing in the moments before the dark gives way to the light of a new day. It’s my new favorite part of the day, the very beginning. It’s not so much what I see each morning. It’s more something within me, something my naked eye could never see, something from deep roots that has bloomed and allowed me to, once again, see the world anew.
So, maybe, I will go up to the lake soon – but not to meet Langley. I mean, why would I want to meet her more than anyone else up on the lake? Why would I want to meet any celebrity? The novelty? The story? The status? The prestige?
Yeah, I know who Langley is. I’m not that oblivious. I even know a few of her songs. She is a genuine talent and has undoubtedly worked her tail off to unfold the pages of her star-studded destiny. I know she’s a hometown hero around these parts for the startling success she’s found from such humble beginnings.
But I don’t know her. I know her celebrity, her persona, and some of her well-crafted art. But that is not the same as actually knowing her.
So why be extra eager to meet someone I don’t even know and won’t know even after meeting? Outward appearances, even a pleasant passing greeting, can’t replace a true connection within.
That said, there is something Langley recently said at one of her concerts that caught my attention. I’m still not eager to meet her more than anyone else up on the lake, but what she told a crowd in Oklahoma City had me strangely relating to that famous stranger, saying, “The kingdom of God is within!”
“[For the first] year of my life, 365 days, a little more than that, I’ve read my Bible almost every single day,” Langley told the crowd. “Instead of trying to go to other things like I have before – either men or drugs or other feelings – to try and make myself feel a certain way, I go to Him first, and that’s something that’s changed about me in the last year.”
She continued:
And there was a time last year where I didn’t think that I – you know, the thing that I thought I was cut out to do my whole entire life – I didn’t know if I could do it.
I didn’t know – you know, the social media aspect, everyone knowing who you are but you don’t know them, everyone having an opinion on who you are. And they have no idea who you are really. They don’t spend a day with you. They just see, kinda, the outside stuff. That’s hard.
…
If you don’t remember anything from this show, I want you to remember this.
Last year I didn’t think I wanted to be here anymore. And when I’m standing here right now, I’m so grateful for the day that I was given today. And the only thing that has changed my mind on that situation is our God.
So, if tonight, if you feel that way, you feel like, you know, this life is too much, just too hard, there’s too many consequences, there’s too many hard choices, too many right or left turns, I don’t know which way to go.
I just want you to remember that there’s one North Star and we all know who that is.
I can’t imagine how lonely it may feel to be known and loved by millions who don’t really know you at all. I can’t imagine what it’s like, how scattering and confusing it must be, to have millions who want to meet you just for the sake of meeting you – not to mention all those lost souls who choose to lash out in resentment and pain at whoever their jaundiced eyes see.
Yet, I wonder how many people have treated Jesus that way? How many treat Christ as a celebrity they met once or hopefully will meet some day without ever getting to know Him within? How many have torn at his Sacred Heart while claiming to be a friend?
To truly know someone depends much more on what’s within the depths of a broken and contrite heart than anything that can be observed by the naked eye. Yet, when we offer up our hearts daily to Him, He will make our hearts grateful for the gift of yet another sun rise.
Though I’m still no country boy, I guess I’m due for another lake trip once again.
And if I do happen to meet a famous stranger, I’ll simply say, “Amen, Ella, Amen.”
Coda
The kingdom of God
Arrives like the dawn
In the early morning twilight
From the unseen trees
The birds must be
The first to see the daylight
They greet the Sun’s beams
With sweet melodies
As darkness still shrouds my eye
Hidden wingèd things
In triumph sing
“Salve, a new day is nigh!”
Though I cannot see
Their sweet melodies
Nor the first light of the Sun
I now believe the
Light never leaves
That day and night are of One
Day gives way to night
Night gives way to day
A way no naked eye sees
Yet when morning dawns
With the birds’ song
God’s kingdom shines through the trees.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL, M-F 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances, as well as any feedback, please email [email protected]. Follow him on X @TheJoeyClark or watch the radio show livestream.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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