Somebody To Love

We know that our Heavenly Father is the giver of all good gifts, according to James 1, and that can include material blessings, certainly, but more importantly, there is a host of spiritual blessings.  We
also recognize that He has gifted each of us for His glory. 1st Peter 4 says:
10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Remember, God supplies the ability, as we read in verse 11.  We can be confident that He has provided certain abilities that He desires to us to carry out His mission, and we can develop a willingness to serve Him by allowing Him to activate His Spirit within us and bring forth that giftedness.  We can identify and embrace those gifts, and rejoice when we see that God is using us in His service.

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We can consider how we are to allow God to receive glory in all that we do.  Paul taught in 1st Corinthians 10 about seeking to please God, and even though he received flak for his dietary choices,
he wrote this:
30 But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks?
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
32 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God,
33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

I remember, it must have been 15 or 20 years ago, that a Christian band from Canada made an appearance at First Baptist Church in Montgomery.  There were band members that actually visited the studio prior to the concert and performed some music - of course, there was no drum set, so the drummer used a Faith Radio trash can to keep the beat.

The name of the band is Downhere.  Perhaps their most familiar song is one that will be heard throughout the Christmas season on Christian radio - it's How Many Kings.

The band announced back in 2012 that it would no longer be active, but the word was that it wasn't a "break up."

The lead singer of Downhere was Marc Martel.  And, millions of theatergoers have heard his voice in a recent film release.  You see, Marc has a rather distinctive voice - you could say that he sounds like the former lead singer of a band known as Queen.  And, he decided to embrace that gift a few years ago.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Marc's online audition in 2011 for something called, "The Queen Extravaganza" that one of the band members was putting together, designed to be a touring tribute to the group.  The article states:

Some may see this as just the karaoke version of "America's Got Talent." That is, until they click on the audition of Marc Martel. To date, Martel’s audition video hovers around 476,000 views and here’s why: His voice is probably the closest thing to Freddie Mercury next to Freddie Mercury. Shot in his disheveled studio (which many readers have already commented on), the 34-year-old, newly married Martel (sorry, ladies) recorded his rendition of "Somebody to Love."

The Journal highlighted Marc's philosophical perspective:

Martel’s band, by the way, is a Christian rock band. Will singing the songs of Queen help, or hurt him in the eyes of those with strong opinions about Mercury and his sexual proclivity? Martel feels this is a non-issue. “Freddie Mercury wrote songs that were real and true. Rock and roll reaches people because it’s honest, and doesn’t shy away from the issues. You can have a great voice, but people can spot a fake from a mile away. Our music may come from a biblical standpoint but we don’t shy away from true experiences – doubt, loss, pain, sorrow – we want to deal with all of that. Queen’s repertoire deals with those emotions and feelings too and I love singing their music because at the end of the day, it’s just true.”

His audition video landed him on the Ellen show, and ultimately, in the slot on the tour.  And, the original video has over 15 million views!

Faithwire did a piece on Marc, and stated:

In an interview with Noise 11, Martel, who has been covering many of Queen’s songs for years and is the former lead singer for the Christian rock band Downhere, said the film studio hired him to “do some of the singing in the movie and give the audience an immersive experience and not be able to tell where the singing is coming from.”

The article also went back in time to a Beliefnet piece announcing Martel's winning of the "Extravaganza" slot:

Martel, in a separate conversation with Beliefnet, said the last 10 years of his career “have been a preparation for me to be able to handle this,” adding he couldn’t have done it without his faith.

“I don’t think I could’ve handled this 10 years ago,” he explained. “God’s moving in this, very obviously.”

Martel mentioned the "true experiences" of Freddie Mercury's life.  As Plugged In writer Adam Holz puts it in the review of the film:

Despite his prodigious vocal talent, Freddie Mercury's real life was a mess. The film depicts his longing for lasting love, suggesting that Freddie's rocky relationship with his father resulted in an emotional vacuum he sought to fill through increasingly reckless choices.

For a brief moment, his romance with Mary Austin hinted at the fulfillment of that desire. But the movie suggests that Mercury's attraction to men—and his own tortured relationship with his homosexual identity, which he refused to publically acknowledge even when everyone already knew his "secret"—torpedoed any hope of lasting intimacy with Mary.

So, the film (that I haven't seen) does seem to be a cautionary tale; Holz refers to "the outcome of Freddy Mercury's choices as a tragedy."

By the way, Marc Martel isn't the only Christian singer to have appeared on the Ellen show; recently, Lauren Daigle performed on the show and received some criticism for it, due to the fact that Ellen DeGeneres is gay.  In a radio interview documented by Billboard, Daigle said:

“I think the second we start drawing lines around which people are able to be approached and which aren’t, we’ve already completely missed the heart of God," she said.

“I don’t have all the answers in life and I’m definitely not gonna act like I do, but the one thing that I know for sure is I can’t choose who I’m supposed to be kind to and who I’m supposed to show love to and who I’m not, because that’s the mission right?” she continued. “Be who Christ was to everyone."

You may not necessarily agree with Marc Martel's performing of Queen songs, but I think that his experience can teach us several principles.  He is desiring to use a God-given gift and apparently believes that the Lord has sustained Him in the use of it.  We can consider how we can embrace our gift. I think each of us has been created by God and there are talents that we have been given; ways we can bless the Lord by blessing others - we can identify that unique wiring and even enjoy using our gifts for Him.

We can also consider how we can seek creative outlets.  There are so many ways that we can express ourselves, and that's a healthy thing. And, remember God has not called us to walk the Christian life alone - He has placed us in the body of Christ and in this world.

But, whatever, we do, we can remember to make it about Christ.  Now, there is the element of doing God's will; we can't expect Him to honor our trying to make sinful behavior somehow glorifying to Him.  But, we can go before Him, ask His direction, and be careful to give Him the glory when we see Him work through us.