the prodigal comes home

That is the name of Michael English's newest CD. Back in my early college years I came to love Michael English. It was around that time he had his first album out and every one was listening to it. His biggest hits like, "In Christ Alone" and "Mary, Did You Know" were on his first album and those are standards even now. But Michael lost his way and ended up away from Christian music for some time. He had inner demons to battle. His website shares a little bit about this fall from grace and how he has come back to Christ.

Here is an excerpt from The Wall Street Journal review written about his book:

But his personal life was not what it should have been. When Mr. English was
only 20, he had married a pretty young Christian music groupie named Lisa.
They were both ready for a divorce a few years later, but Mr. English's
managers wouldn't allow it, worried that the scandal of divorce itself would
ruin his career. Instead, he was sent to California for a three-week therapy
session. It didn't work. In the early 1990s, just as his reputation was
soaring with the release of "In Christ Alone," his biggest hit, Mr. English
fell into an adulterous relationship with another Christian singer, Marabeth
Jordan. When the affair became public, his publisher stopped all promotion
of his records and pulled his songs off the air.

That was only the beginning of Mr. English's troubles. When his relationship
with Ms. Jordan didn't work out, he began taking Loritab, a prescription
painkiller, to alleviate his depression and his panic attacks. Over the next
several years -- as he tried to rejuvenate his career by singing straight
pop music and eventually Southern gospel again -- he plunged deeper into
drug and alcohol addiction. By 2000 he was "a grungy unwashed hermit" who
sold his performance clothes and other collectors' items on eBay to finance
his drug habit. He began taking cocaine and heroin.

But one evening in late 2001, something happened. Mr. English was listening
to the television's drone and floating on a narcotic high when he found
himself looking down on the swollen, dirty, pathetic man he had become. A
voice told him that he "could keep heading down the road of addiction and be
dead at forty." Or he could turn his life over to God. As Mr. English
describes it, the experience wasn't like Saul's on the road to Damascus, an
audible admonition. Rather he felt a voice speaking within him. Whatever it
was, Mr. English considers the moment a miraculous one. Rolling off the
couch, he knelt down and prayerfully promised to tell the world of God's
goodness and mercy if only he might be helped to get off drugs.

The song I chose today is one of Michael English's new songs, "Feels Like Redemption". Knowing his story and hearing him sing this song really strikes a chord with me. We are all like the prodigal son, we choose to go our own way and live our life the way we think is best. We squander what our Father has given us and we end up hitting rock bottom. We realize we can't do it on our own and we need the guidance and love of our Father. The greatest visual of the prodigal son is that the father was looking with anticipation for his son to come home. What an awesome thought that our heavenly Father does the same! He waits in eager anticipation for us to come back to Him. He forgives and we are redeemed...

I know how hopeless feels
When you’re staring at the bottom of an empty hole
In my life I know how forgotten feels
Wondering if the world even knows who you are

But I’ve never known anything, felt anything
Like the love of Jesus
And it’s hard to describe what’s happening inside
But right now all I know is

It feels like redemption raining down on me
It feels like forgiveness is come to set me free
All my chains have been lifted
Cause when the hands of love touch a broken life
It feels like redemption

Now I know how thankful feels
Cause I am overwhelmed by this gift of grace
And I know how healing feels
Cause all my pain and all my shame
And all my tears have been erased

It feels like redemption raining down on me
It feels like forgiveness is come to set me free
All my chains have been lifted
Cause when the hands of love touch a broken life
It feels like redemption

Say goodbye, the past is ending
Say hello to a new beginning
No more night
The sun is shining

It feels like redemption raining down on me
It feels like forgiveness is come to set me free
All my chains have been lifted
Cause when the hands of love touch a broken life
It feels like redemption

I cried out to the Lord, He heard my cry
He healed my heart and He touched my life
It feels like redemption

So say goodbye, the past is ending
Say hello to a new beginning
Feels like
Feels like redemption