Brandon Heath Speaking on the Nashville School Shooting

Brandon Heath Speaking on the Nashville School Shooting

Transcript

Brandon Heath:
Good morning, Sandi. Thanks for having me this morning.

Sandi:
It is easy for us to feel really detached from the news of a story like what happened in Nashville. The reason we invited you on this morning is because you are more connected than we are. Explain in proximity and then in relationship, how close you are to the Covenant School, that has been in the news the last 24 hours.

Brandon Heath:
Yeah. We live about a mile and a half from the Covenant School. It’s in an area called Green Hills in Nashville, and it’s a part of a small Covenant Presbyterian church. It’s a tiny little school around 200 students. We have been there a handful of times and are very close with families that attend Covenant School. And it’s just a sweet place. And we loved it so much that we decided to send our kids there. So thankfully we were not there yesterday because our girls are still in preschool, but we are planning to start in the fall. So our community is really just shocked by what happened, that it could happen in a community like ours, which I think proves that it could happen anywhere.

Nick:
Well, Brandon, I know you don’t have the answers, right? We’re all struggling here, but I’m just curious, what is today? How do you move forward today? Holding your kids a little bit closer… things to be praying for… just kind of curious to help us as our hearts break here from afar. Just how can we best care for you…and what your day looks like?

Brandon Heath:
Yesterday was exhausting. I mean, my wife and I cried all day. Our girls are in preschool and so they don’t know about the tragedy, but this morning is a new day. And we’re gonna go to pancakes this morning. I’m taking them to breakfast, you know. I did squeeze them a little extra hard yesterday, but I think every day should be like that. You know, we’re just not promised another day. But what we are promised is that the Lord will be with us. And I’m seeing that a little bit more clearly today. And I’m not gonna take it for granted. I was telling my wife yesterday, I wanted desperately to see a picture of the shooter so that I could focus my anger on someone because I was really angry. I’m still really, really angry…but as the words came out of my mouth, you know, maybe it was the Spirit that just prompted me to redirect my anger at the Enemy… because we have an Enemy.

I don’t know what was going on in this person’s life – in the shooter’s life. And I’m working on having compassion for that person. I can imagine that their parents are just destroyed by this news. But I think that the Enemy does a work on us. And I don’t think it’s a quick work. I think it’s a long, very meditated work. And let’s just name the Enemy Satan because that that’s the name that we’re given to call him. And I believe that he does whatever he can to affect the greatest amount of people. Even though you don’t live in Nashville, you could see this and then become complacent to it. And I think that’s the other way that the Enemy is working… is that school shootings, unfortunately, are becoming normal. And we can’t allow our hearts to be hardened to this sort of tragedy. And we also have to personally look and see what ways are we being affected by the Enemy, who doesn’t want us to love, who wants us to self-destruct. So those are things that I don’t know that I could be angry at anyone for more than the Enemy this morning.

Finding JOY every day

Whether celebrating and singing along on the good days or getting a pick-me-up and encouragement on the hard days, let JOY FM be your soundtrack to bring JOY to your day. You can take JOY with you wherever you go by streaming right now by clicking here to listen. Or you can easily bring JOY with you by downloading the JOY FM App.

What can you expect from listening to JOY FM?

You’re going to hear a lot of great music.  Music with meaning…but you’re still going to want to sing along with the songs.  

You’re going to hear on-air personalities that are real people. Laughing. Having fun. And being honest about life. 

And you’re going to notice that JOY FM leaves you feeling a little better about life in general.  A few minutes of listening should leave you feeling uplifted…encouraged…refreshed…ok, we’ll say it…more JOYful!