Michele McGovern Immersed CD

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a recurring nightmare about a walking bridge. The bridge never looked exactly the same, but it was always very rickety, made of old planks of wood and tattered rope, and was very high off of the ground. In every dream I would eventually come to the realization that I had to cross to the other side, and the idea was paralyzing to me. Many times I would begin to take the first step, but then find myself frozen in fear. Or I would take the first few steps, but then find that the bridge was falling apart before my eyes. The idea of swaying in mid air and not having my feet planted on solid ground was terrifying to me. I was always so relieved to wake up and find that I was in the comfort of my own warm bed.Unfortunately, for several years of my life, fear didn’t end when I woke up. It was just getting started. I was in the habit of letting my mind wander to all kinds of places a mind should never go, and I basically forfeited my peace in the process. Once I allowed fear to get cozy inside of me, it infected every area of my life. And for too long a season, it hindered me from answering God’s call on my life.Since I was about sixteen years old, the year I wrote my first song, I knew God wanted to use me in the area of worship. And even though I was a relatively confident person, I always felt extremely inadequate where music was concerned. In spite of my own hang-ups, God was so gracious to give me confirmation after confirmation, making it clear that this was the road I was supposed to take…but I consistently turned down opportunities to lead worship and basically determined that I never wanted to be anything other than a backup singer. After all, wasn’t it noble of me to be perfectly content in so humble a position? Wasn’t it a good thing that I was not looking for the spotlight?As I started getting older and found a certain degree of comfort hiding behind the piano every Sunday, God started to reveal to me that my decision to stay in the background was not humility at all. It was fear disguised as humility. After a life altering service one Saturday in October of 2003, I knew I had a decision to make. It was now or never. Was I willing to say yes to God, even though I felt like there were a million other people out there who could do it better than me? Was I willing to believe that God wasn’t setting me up to fail? Was I willing to trust that where God guides, He also provides, and that He really would become strong in an area where I felt so weak? Was I willing to start taking steps down the walking bridge?Suddenly it was all so clear. I never understood my bridge dream before, or even sought to understand it for some strange reason. But now it was obvious that the bridge represented my fear of the unknown. It represented being part of something that I could not control. It was my future, my call, my dreams. I knew in my gut that what was waiting for me on the other side would be well worth the shaky walk across. I had a sense that God’s plans for my life were bigger than I had ever imagined, but I also knew that fulfilling those plans was going to require taking a risk. I had to decide whether I would take a leap of faith and trust God, or continue to stagnate at a place where I felt safe and comfortable. Ultimately I did make the decision to say yes to God…and it is a gross understatement to say that it was the best decision I’ve ever made. My life has never been the same, and will never be the same. I am in absolute awe of how amazing God is….that he can take people like me, who understand their own limitations and are acutely aware of their weaknesses, and use them so far above and beyond their own natural ability…so much so that it becomes obvious to everyone watching that God is at the helm. He has provided every resource I have ever needed along the way to create and record my music…including musicians, money, connections