Laura Story's Blessings

“I hated singing in front of people,” confesses the singer/songwriter Laura Story, who walked away with top honors at the 54^th Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  

Story and her husband, Martin Elvington, walked the red carpet to accept the Grammy award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song for her song, “Blessings.” The 2010 Female Christian Vocalist of the Year nominee and winner of the 2009 Dove Award for Inspirational Album of the Year continues, “I never would have done it if God hadn’t put stuff in my heart that I had to share with people.

Story sings about doubting God's goodness and love as she eloquently describes every believer’s eventual struggle with doubt when life gets hard. She says the song is a reminder that God remains faithful even when He doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want Him to. Story sings from her own experience.  Married to her high school sweetheart Martin, her journey hasn’t been all easy.
 

The greatest trial of their lives, she shares, was when Martin was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2006, just one year into their marriage.  “When you’re standing at the altar promising ‘for better or for worse, in sickness and in health,’ you think that part is for when you are old.” Martin underwent multiple surgeries, experienced severe, life-threatening complications, and has been through extensive rehabilitation.  

Though still troubled by vision and memory problems, he travels with Laura when she performs.  All the way through his illness, Story recounts, Martin never lost his sense of humor. 

“In the hospital he had so many memory problems.  I would show him my engagement ring, and he would say, ‘Who are you married to?’ and I would say, ‘I am married to you!’ and he would say, ‘Yes! Yes! You are my wife!’”

Story shares that many times she was angry at God. “I wondered why, if He had the power to heal Martin, why He didn’t. But God, in His gentleness, would peel my fingers out of the fist I was shaking at Him and say to me, ‘I love you, and I am walking through this with you.’  I reached the place where I realized that if He could heal Martin and He hadn’t, then He must have a very good reason.  He does not owe me an explanation this side of Heaven.”

Instead of struggling with the question why, her music centers around some of the spiritual lessons she has learned through Martin’s illness.  in her CD, Great God Who Saves and the song, “Perfect Peace,” she sings “In this time of trials, there’s pain that no one sees.  So trust Me when I say, ‘I will give you perfect peace.  And you’ll never walk alone.  You’ll never be in need. Though I may not calm the storms around you, you can hide in me.’”  When she first heard the final version of the CD, she confesses, “I said, ‘Oh no, I said all that?  I’m supposed to be this professional Christian who never doubts or fears. . .’” She discovered that “God’s ok with his children having fears and doubts as long as we bring them to Him.”

Being a performer brings with it unique struggles and challenges, Story says. She comments on the natural tendency to get prideful and enjoy the limelight and attention.  “When you’re standing up here with a microphone and a spotlight, it can be deceiving, even to me, but I remember that it’s really all about Him.  He deserves the glory.”  Story credits her commitment to her local church, Perimeter in Atlanta, for keeping her grounded.  

“I can do a show on Saturday night and (people are) bringing me bottled water and fruit trays.  Then I drive home and go to church the next morning, and I’m the one getting the bottled water and the fruit trays.”  This demonstrates the truth that both are ways of serving God.  “One way is out in front of an audience with a microphone, and the other is behind the scenes.  Both are needed in the Kingdom.  It’s not the job you do,” Story states, “it’s the fact that God has called you (to do it) that makes it important.” 

Story serves as one of the worship leaders at her church, and is the women’s worship pastor to approximately 150 women.  “My time at church fills me up,” she explains. “They send me out, then I go out, and I get filled up. I come back and encourage them.  That’s how I know it is a spiritual thing.  After every concert, I walk away encouraged.  I talk with people afterward, and while I am talking with them, they are ministering to me. It is truly a God thing that two needy people can get together and both come away filled.” 

Story’s ministry journey began at age ten. “I grew up in a big

 Baptist church in Spartanburg, (SC)” she relates. “We were having

 a revival and the speaker was talking about us all being sinners. I 

knew that I wasn’t a very good kid, so it made sense that God

 wouldn’t want me in Heaven with Him. (I remember) hearing the 

news that Jesus wanted to pay the price for my sin through what He

 did on the cross, and that I could be clothed in His goodness. It 

made sense. (I knew) that it was the totally right thing to do.”




And her decision to serve Him in ministry? “That part was easy,” 

she says with a flash of a smile, “Why wouldn’t I want to spend the

 rest of my life in gratitude to Him?”

Special Note: Laura and Martin became parents for the first time on September 14, when they welcomed Josphine Grace Elvington into the world.
 

  To hear Laura's song "Blessings," visit http://www.youtube.com

/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ&feature=artist

To hear more of Laura’s story, visit her website at 

 http://laurastorymusic.com/media/

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