On “Thank God for Sunday Morning” with Michael from Cochren & Co.
“Thank God for Sunday Morning really is my story for better or for worse,” explained Michael Cochren of Cochren & Co when he chatted with Family Life Radio about writing the song.
Michael described his life as, “Being in the darkness in the night and then God brought me into the morning of His love.”
He grew up in the church, but his faith did not become his own until halfway through college. Before that, Michael described his life as, “A lot of mess and dysfunction and running to the things of this world to fill the void and the insecurities I had in my life.”
His parents got divorced when he was in elementary school and that really shook him up. His world was never the same.
In middle school, Michael began running to different substances and alcohol to try to heal. In high school, he called himself a Christian, but nothing about his life looked like Christ. He smiled every day and made lots of jokes to cover up his pain. He was living in a pit when God began to show him the hypocrisy of going from the things of his Saturday nights to try and fake it on Sunday mornings. He was desperate for a real Sunday morning.
God broke through the darkness of Michael’s life and brought him into the light of His love.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17 ESV).
Since then, Michael enjoys the liberty that forgiveness and his life in Christ brings. As his song says,
Sunlight through the stained-glass window
Feels like freedom on my face.
Really is a new beginning
It really is amazing grace.
Michael keeps His focus on God’s grace by staying in His Word in a divided world where, as he described, “People cannot agree on the basics.”
Staying in the Word reminds him there is nothing new under the sun and things will not be like this forever. Scripture gives him hope.
One day there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying and no more pain (Revelation 21:4).
Reading and listening to the Bible helps Michael to see things through God’s lens. He doesn’t always stay in the Word all the time. When he doesn’t get to his reading, he sometimes listens while on his long commute. Sometimes he just gets “little feedings,” as he called them, but it is all God’s Word, and Michael is confident God uses it to work in his life.
Michael has concluded that there are imperfect human examples in the Bible, and the only true hero is Jesus. He is the only perfect solution.
“God is not asking for perfection. He is asking for faithfulness,” Michael explained, “And when we mess up, His mercies are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23).
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