Episode #244 — Jaci Velasquez began her music career with a flourish – becoming one of the most successful Christian recording artists of all time while still in her teens.
Then came an unexpected career twist, a young marriage ending, and feelings of brokenness and uselessness. So – as Jaci explains it – she ran away to Great Britain, hoping to put the Atlantic Ocean between her and her problems.
But God was about to re-purpose all of it for a greater plan. First, Jaci says she needed to find the courage to face what had happened – the courage to come home.
“The way I found the courage was realizing there was nothing left. There was nothing to go back to, nothing there for me but just to be kind of at the bottom. Because there’s only one way to go after that, and that’s to go back up. So I had to hit the bottom.”
In the meantime – in addition to everything else she was dealing with – a health issue had also entered the picture.
“God’s going to use whatever He wants to do what He needs to get done. During that whole process, in that whole time frame, I had a polyp on my vocal cord. And so this polyp made it very difficult for me to sing, and I knew I was going to have to have surgery.”
“So God used that time with me needing surgery for me to have to come back home. To face the shame. To face all the criticism. But the interesting thing about it now that I look back is I was going to come back and face the shame and face the criticism, but because I was going to have to have surgery I was not going to be able to speak, to say anything about what anybody would say. Because I couldn’t talk – I think it was for 6 to 8 weeks. It was a while!”
Though it was immensely challenging to live through, Jaci looks back on it now as a vital part of her journey of faith.
“Isn’t that so powerful to think of the fact that you don’t have to say something, you can’t say anything? People are going to say anything about you and to you, but you can’t say anything back? God can do a lot with that!”
Jaci Velasquez is a multi-platinum recording artist, advocate, actress & the author of the new book “When God Rescripts Your Life: Seeing Value, Beauty & Purpose When Life Is Interrupted.”
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On the Road with Jaci Velasquez
