Episode #305 — We think we know the story behind the music that’s loved so much by so many. Casting Crowns started as a humble youth group band that blossomed spectacularly into one of the most successful and impactful groups in CCM history. But for Mark Hall, the lead singer of Casting Crowns, that’s just the headline.
As a young student, Mark struggled with his reading comprehension. He discovered he had the learning challenge Dyslexia, but he became incredibly good at hiding it from his friends and classmates. It was exhausting, but it worked all the way into his twenties. But then he found himself in a situation he couldn’t ignore.
“I was probably 21 when I took my first youth group to a huge evangelism conference. There was a youth speaker there talking, and in the middle of his sermon he said, ‘By the way, I’m dyslexic. I don’t read very well, so I’m gonna have a kid read this verse out loud for you guys. And that shook me to my core because – in my mind – I thought, ‘Why would you tell all these people that? They’re not going to listen to you. They’re going to think you’re less intelligent. No one’s going to want to hear you.’”
Instead, Mark witnessed the complete opposite of what he expected.
“That’s not what happened. What I saw was that he just showed me his scars, and now I believe everything he says. Because he’s real. And that changed everything. And it was right about that time I read 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul is talking about his thorn in the flesh. And he never said what it is. He’s praying that God will take it away, and that’s what I did. I was always praying God would take it away, but God didn’t take it away.”
“You know, in America we feel like if we just love Jesus our problems are going to go away. That’s just not in the Bible. It’s nowhere in the Bible. So what God says to Paul instead, He says, My grace is going to be sufficient for you. And My power is going to be made perfect in your weakness. So you’re going to keep this thing you don’t want, but I’m going to walk with you in it. And now because of that you’re always going to depend on Me. And when praise comes your way, you’re always going to give it to Me because you know you don’t have what it takes to get there. And you know if you got there, I was the One. I got you there. And all the lights came on. All the lights came on for me, and I realized why I’m the man that I am today. Because I was a little less confident in me, and I had to depend on him more.”
Mark Hall is the lead singer of Casting Crowns, the beloved CCM favorites currently crisscrossing America on their Night Under the Stars, drive in tour.
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