The Songwriter Who Never Knew What He Earned

In the 1990s, Rich Mullins wrote some of the most beloved songs in Christian music, including Awesome God, an anthem sung in churches around the world. His albums sold hundreds of thousands of copies. His concerts drew crowds. By every measure of the industry, he had arrived.

But Mullins made an unusual arrangement with his financial manager. He asked to be paid the average salary of a working person in the county where he lived. Everything else — every royalty check, every concert fee beyond that modest wage — went directly to charity. He never even looked at the statements. He literally did not know how much money his music generated.

Then he moved to a Navajo reservation in New Mexico to teach music to children.

When asked about his lifestyle, Mullins pointed back to Scripture. He understood that the call of Christ is a call to open hands — to hold nothing so tightly that it cannot be surrendered. He saw his gifts not as something to leverage but as something to lay down.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8). Rich Mullins lived that verse out loud. He sacrificed not because he had little, but precisely because he had much — and understood that none of it was truly his.

What might the Lord be asking you to hold with open hands today?