Christian songwriter used pen to deal with hurt, frustration
By Ashley McCleery
The North Jefferson News
Staring at his bruised and swollen Achilles tendon, Billy Smith, the student minister at First Baptist Church of Pleasant Grove, knew the Lord wanted to use this youth group football injury for His glory.
“It made me stop and start thinking,” Smith said. Smith then realized the Lord had been trying to tell him something, but he wasn’t still long enough to listen and take heed. And, Smith knows from experience the Lord is persistent.
At age 14, Smith began attending church even though his family opposed Christianity. He spent countless nights in prayer during his first year as a Christian, and he felt God calling him to preach. But he was too scared to obey, so he tried to ignore the call.
“The third night I felt God calling me to preach, it became something that grieved me. The minute I agreed to preach, I felt an instant peace,” he said.
Smith had conceded, but he didn’t take action. So the Lord used Danny Tesseneer, his pastor at Haig Missionary Baptist Church in Morris, to prompt Smith to preach. After a preaching a message about God being able to use Christians no matter their age, Tesseneer approached Smith and said, “Billy, when are you going to start preaching?”
At that moment, Smith knew he needed to start preaching, and he did- at age 15. Now, he’s been in the ministry for 16 years, and his family has accepted the Lord.
Many years later, the Lord was once again tugging at Smith’s heart. But, this time it was to sing. “As a little kid, I wanted to sing, but God called me to preach,” Smith said. “It wasn’t God’s call then, but God started giving me songs, and I kept procrastinating. With this injury, God was saying, ‘I’m going to slow you down and let you do this.’”
For 10 years, Smith has written songs as a way to reflect on his life and even heal from the past.
When he and his wife, Jami, lost a baby, Smith turned to writing as a means to cope with hurt and frustration. However, he also wrote about his joy when they adopted their now five-year old daughter, Sarah Nicole.
Using these songs and several others, Smith began forming his CD, “Look Beyond,” with the Lord’s prodding. “The truth is there are a thousand guys trying to do the same thing with their music, but it’s my offering to the Lord,” he said. “And ‘Look Beyond’ is about looking beyond this life though bad and good experiences to see whose arms I’m running into.”
To celebrate the completion of his CD, Smith held a free release party at First Baptist Church of Pleasant Grove on Thursday. “To have a lot of people there that we’ve loved together and experience it together will be a really cool thing.”
For more information visit his website at www.billysmithmusic.com to order “Look Beyond.”