The Songwriter Who Wouldn't Count His Royalties

Rich Mullins wrote Awesome God in 1988, and within a few years it became one of the most recognized worship songs in American churches. The royalty checks alone could have bought him a large house, a tour bus, the kind of platform that successful Christian artists often build.

But Mullins made an unusual arrangement. He asked his church to pay him whatever the average American worker earned that year and give everything else away. He never looked at the royalty statements. He didn't want to know.

Instead of building an empire, Mullins moved to a small trailer on a Navajo reservation, where he taught music to children. He owned almost nothing. He played his dulcimer barefoot at concerts, sitting cross-legged on the floor.

When Jesus knelt to wash His disciples' feet in John 13, He did it with full knowledge of who He was. "Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power," John tells us, and then He picked up the towel. True humility is never ignorance of your gifts. It is knowing exactly what the Almighty has placed in your hands and choosing to kneel anyway.

Rich Mullins knew what his songs were worth to the world. He just refused to let that worth define him. That is the kind of humility the Gospel asks of each of us.