Award-winning Christian artist Ginny Owens led chapel Friday, Jan. 15, to conclude Belmont’s Career and Calling week by asking the question, “If I am an unfolding story, how do I read to others when they look at that story?”
Owens told the audience of her “musical journey,” one that started when she attended Belmont and eventually led to her career as a successful musician. Inspired by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, Owens found a passion for songwriting at a young age, amidst a shy and unsure confidence. She pursued music education while in school and was always involved in band or choir. Despite her interest and talent, Owens’s career wasn’t taking off. After more than 15 rejections to teach music due to school administrators’ hesitations regarding her blindness, Owens created a new dream and began producing her own albums.
At first Owens said she did not understand why God would lead her to such a dark place with no job or forseeable path. “During that time, God taught me how to surrender. At every step I had to trust Him because He had my best interest at heart,” she said. From this experience, Owens wrote her career-defining hit, “If You Want Me To.”
“I am always struggling to surrender; it doesn’t come naturally,” she said. “But we each have an unfolding story, and God knows the completed story, so we have to trust Him each step until that point.”
Owens sang two other crowd favorites — “Be Thou My Vision” and “What My Life is For.” She talked about the beauty in music for its universal language and power to connect people and tell stories. Of her calling to perform music, Owens said she has come to terms with an important truth, “We are not alive for ourselves. We are alive to do bigger things, like give our time and love away.”
