The Unplayed Notes of Keith Green

In the late 1970s, Keith Green made a decision that baffled the music industry. At the height of his popularity, with albums selling briskly and concert halls filling up, he announced that his music would be given away for free. "You can't sell the Gospel," he insisted. His record label pushed back. His advisors warned him. The math didn't work.

But Green believed the Lord had asked him to do it, and that was enough.

He set up a "whatever you can afford" policy, sending albums to anyone who wrote in, whether they enclosed a check or not. Thousands of records went out with no payment attached. Financially, it was reckless. Spiritually, it was obedience in its purest form — doing what God asks before the outcome makes sense.

What strikes me about Green's choice is that obedience rarely looks wise in the moment. Abraham heading up the mountain with Isaac didn't look wise. The Israelites marching around Jericho didn't look strategic. Obedience almost always requires us to act before we understand.

Green once wrote, "I only want to see You. I only want to seek Your face." That lyric wasn't poetry — it was a life policy. He oriented every decision around one question: What is the Almighty asking of me right now?

The call for each of us is the same. Not to understand first and then obey, but to obey first and trust that understanding will follow.