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BLOGGED
OrThat Grace Might Reign...RevisitedBob Couchenour
From blogs of Bob Couchenour on MySpace.com between April 2006 andAugust 2006 re-examining “That Grace Might Reign” originally written byBob Couchenour in 1985 from studies in the late seventies
 
 
That Grace Might Reign...Revisited
I was committed
I entered into what may be called a “saving knowledge” of Jesus Christ some 30+ yearsago. I was 22 years old and heavily immersed in Rock & Roll and drug culture. From 16years old through high school and post high school, I was a daily pot smoker (multipletimes a day), regular wino, heroin shooter (as well as other opiates), Southern Comfortguzzler ( a fifth at a time), LSD tripper (150 trips in 18 months - I stopped counting at75), cocaine, methodrine, PCP, Quaaludes and beer, and lots and lots of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Iwas committed.Heading out to find myself, traveling in a converted US postal mail truck/camper with ahomosexual friend (I am straight), we swung through Nashville, made an ass of myself,and finally landed in Atlanta Georgia. I decided to stay in Atlanta while my friendcontinued on to New Orleans.In Atlanta I frequented the rock bars, eventually got an apartment, and settled into aroutine of work eight hours, practice the guitar 6-8 hours, sleep, work eight hours,practice the guitar 6-8 hours, sleep, work eight hours, practice the guitar 6-8 hours, sleep,punctuated by pot, booze, angel dust, Lynyrd Skynyrd and a few other “classic great”southern rock and blues artists. I was committed. I can distinctly remember the thoughtgoing through my mind that I was on a ‘Prophetic Mission’. Of course, how I defined thatmission at the time was not exactly Prophetic in a Biblical sense by any stretch of theimagination. The point is “I was committed”.Without going into a lot of detail (which may come sometime in the future), Christ got ahold of me. I had been sharing a house with another musician I imported from the DCarea. The routine was basically, work, pot, rock ‘n’ roll, pot, sleep, pot, work, pot, rock ‘n’ roll, pot, sleep, pot, work, pot, rock ‘n’ roll, pot, sleep, pot. We we’re committed. Ormaybe it’s, we should have been ‘committed‘, or maybe it’s ‘we didn’t have the vaguestidea in the world what it meant to be committed‘.Booiiing!!!A light went on.(or was that ‘bong’).No-- man, it was a booiiing !!!Enlightenment -Sitting in my living room, in my cloth lounge rocking chair, rolling a joint. The usual
 
 
after work routine. Smoke up an get into the music.But this time I was faced with a question. Did I really want to do this? What? The musicor the joint?I was committed to the music. But the pot was getting us nowhere. It was a delusion. ButI liked it. But it was a fantasy, and believing it enhanced the music was a farce. I couldsee it in music created by other musicians when they got high.Being high listening to or playing allowed me to believe the music was great. But beingstraight listening to a smoked up group was a boat load of shit. I wasn’t committed tomaking shit.But I didn’t have the desire to stop myself. In that rocking chair, by myself, being temptedto light up that joint. I was posed a question. Do I really want to do this?NO- Christ, if you can take this from me -- DO IT.I threw the joint across the floor.My guitar playing partner came home and a literally bounce into the kitchen. “I going tobecome a Christian”A moment of silence - “Yeah, Right. What have you been smoking’?”“I’m going to become a Christian.”I proceeded to explain we were going nowhere like we were, and I had to change.The conversation led to long hair and “Christians can’t have long hair.”No understand now - this was at a time when musicians had LOOOOOONNNGG hair.And mine was loooooonnnng.I said I would deal with that when I found something about it in the Bible. So the firstthing I had to do was buy a Bible, which I did the next day.And, of course, the stupid thing had a dang concordance in it, and I was now obligated tosee if the word ‘hair’ was there. It was.Well, maybe it doesn’t actually say anything about ‘long’ hair. It did.Well I checked the verse and Oh Shit Sherlock. I was smart enough to read the context(verses before and after) and followed some of the cross references.
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