Dear Friend - As ones eager to be good stewards of the vision that God has given, we at Music for the Soul prayerfully seek God’s call and leading every step of the way.

Living in the rigors and demands of the day to day it is often difficult to see God’s hand at work. That’s why it is so important to reflect on the journey from time to time; to remember what God has done. For it is through the stories of a ministry like Music for the Soul that one can see God’s faithfulness in weaving together something more beautiful and surprising than could ever be imagined. I hope you’ll enjoy reading some of these stories and seeing the miraculous way God has inspired us, encouraged us, and sustained us.

Additionally, we have been blessed with many wonderfully thoughtful, creative, wise, and passionate friends. From time to time to they have shared their thoughts with us on a wide range of subjects having to do with music and ministry. Some of these are archived here as well. We welcome your thoughts and comments on what you read here. And we pray that you will derive joy in sharing with others – whether through song, poetry, essay, film, art, or the spoken word - the stories of the miracles that God has done in your life!

Steve Siler
Music for the Soul

The I Choose Grace Miracle - 2007

When I had been living in Nashville for just a few years, I was invited to join a men’s prayer group with some other Christian songwriters. Before long, it trimmed down to a very consistent threesome, Scott Krippayne, Tony Wood, and me.


Later, when I was offered the opportunity to assemble a team of writers for a project called Celtic Cry: The Heart of a Martyr for Discovery House Music, I asked Scott and Tony if they’d like our prayer threesome to be that team. The partnership was a natural, growing out of the close personal ties and trust that had developed after years of praying together every week.

After Celtic Cry, we wrote several more projects together that included CDs such as David: Ordinary Man Extraordinary God, and Pressing On: Songs Inspired by the Journey of the Apostle Paul. At one point during this process, a Christian music reviewer referred to us as the “golden boy trio of Christian songwriting.” We still tease each other about that.

Then in 2004, Damaris Carbaugh asked us to help her create The Call, a project inspired by Master Life, a study written by Avery Willis. And in 2006 a gentleman at LifeWay, named Claude King, decided to take several of the songs and create a workbook entitled The Call to Follow Christ.

In June 2007, a few months after The Call to Follow Christ was released, I received an e-mail from my friend Cindy Wilt, who had been my main song plugger during my staff writer years at Word Music. She was volunteering at the women’s prison in Nashville and had been leading a group of women in a study of the Call to Follow Christ.

The women were about to complete the study and Cindy was planning a graduation ceremony for them. Since the women had learned several of the songs that we had written as a part of going through the study, Cindy wanted to know if Scott, Tony and I would be willing to come and perform them live at the graduation ceremony.

It helps to understand that of the three “golden boys,” only Scotty is a singer. In fact, Scott Krippayne sings like an angel from heaven. He is the unofficial voice of Music for the Soul for this very reason, appearing on all but one of our CDs. No one on earth pulls more emotion out of a song than Scotty. He cares and you can hear that he cares.
Don’t look for my lead vocals on Music for the Soul CDs. There aren’t any.

So Cindy’s invitation presented a problem. By this time Scotty, who lives in Tacoma, Washington, had already relocated. Tony couldn’t make it either. So that left me – decidedly not the singer in the group – or no one. Cindy assured me the ladies would be excited for whichever of us could attend. So I somewhat reluctantly accepted.

The day came, and Cindy and I met in the prison parking lot. Going in through the checkpoints and beyond the fence topped with barbed wire, I felt a vague discomfort. The thought came to mind, “I get to go home when this is over. These women have to stay here.” An obvious thought, I know, but still the weight of it settled in on me.

Cindy, the other class leaders, and I were first to arrive at the location for the graduation, a small rectangular room crammed with enough folding chairs to seat about seventy-five people. At the front of the room was a small electric keyboard and microphone along with a stool for me to sit on as I played.

A few moments later the women, dressed in prison blues, filled the room. The group was ethnically diverse and most seemed to be between the ages of twenty five and forty-five. Cindy led the group in a prayer and some other matters of business before introducing me. I said a few words thanking them for having me and then began singing the first song.Then something remarkable happened. A wave of voices washed over me.

I had been so concerned about whether my singing would be good enough for these ladies, and here they were so busy bursting forth in song that they couldn’t even hear me. I was suddenly the accompanist for an outpouring of joy! The smiles on their faces and their total lack of self-consciousness immediately put me at ease as we moved through some of the up-tempo numbers from the CD.

Then it came time to share a song from the project entitled, “I Choose Grace.” When I began the song the room grew very quiet as I went through the first few lines of the verse. Their voices rose again when I got to the chorus:

I Choose Grace
I Choose Grace
I won’t hold on to anger
To judge is not my place

As I tried to sing with them, the words got caught in my throat and the tears leapt to my eyes.
I know from others who have served in women’s prison ministries that the vast majority of women in prison have been victimized in their life at some point. Many have been abused, some sexually, or have been victims of domestic violence, or other forms of assault. Others have grown up in a broken or violent home. Some have suffered all of these injustices.

I grew up in a home where I was unconditionally loved. I have never been hungry, or abandoned, or abused. I have a loving wife and many more good friends than I deserve. I do what I love for a living.
It is one thing for me to choose grace. For this room full of women, it was quite another.

Their courage in singing these words broke me completely. They sang on as I played on keys wet with tears. When the song was over I knelt behind the stool and wept as Cindy continued with the service. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my lifetime. I had learned the deep, true meaning of my own song through hearing it sung by these women. Their voices singing those words had convicted me in a way that writing the song had not.

I was suddenly profoundly grateful for being the only one of us writers available to “sing” on this day. When it was time to close the graduation ceremony, the women asked me if we could do the song again. I held it together a little better the second time.

Later, several of the women came up to speak with me personally. A lady named Evangeline said, “Your songs have helped me heal.” A young woman named Ann said, “I’m trying to forgive what was done to me and it’s hard. ‘I Choose Grace’ is helping.” Another lady named Jerri said, “When I hear your songs I feel like angels are all around me.”

The Call is not part of the Music for the Soul family of resources. But the gift I received that day was an affirmation of everything for which Music for the Soul stands. I pray that everyone who hears a CD from Music for the Soul will feel like angels are all around.

- I Choose Grace Miracle 2007

- 58 days of Miracles 2005 After the Storm
- A Last Minute Miracle 2008 Somebody's Daughter
- A Prayer Miracle 2005 Somebody's Daughter
- A Volunteer Miracle 2005 to 2009
- Giving Hope Miracle 2003
- Heroes Unsung 2002
- More Beautiful Miracle 2002
- Only Love Miracle 2003 More Beautiful Words
- The Car Ride Miracle
- The Daughter Video Angel
- The Farewell Welcome Miracle 1993
- The Miracle of the Pants
- The Never Hake His Hand Miracle 2008
Somebodys Daughter
- Wildest Ride on Earth Miracle 2006
More Beautiful Words
- A Desire for Healing, A Healing for Desire
- There is Hope and Freedom from Eating Disorders - 2007
- Jesus and the Resurrection of Hope - 2007
- My Journey Into Darkness and Secrecy - 2006
- Healing Through Song - 2006
- It Took a Hurricane - 2006
- The Shepherd - 2005
- Tsunami - 2005
- The Lyrics Alive Story - 2004
- The Silly War - 2004
- The Reality of the Healer - 2003
- Music Is Cool - 2003
- Heart Songs - 2003
- What Is It About Music? - 2003
- Soul Song - 2003
- The Beating Heart: Music and Healing - 2002-03
- The Healing Power of Poetry - 2002