How Jesus Rescued This Award-Winning Christian Musician
By Movieguide® Contributor
Musician Darren Mulligan explained how walking with the Lord has transformed his life and brought him a peace that he never thought was possible.
“If I had been on this podcast three, four years ago, you would have caught me in a very dark season in my life, you know. Where I am now, I have a sense of peace and contentment and joy that I always thought belonged to somebody else but not me,” Mulligan told the “That Sounds Fun” podcast. “I never thought I could have it or hold it.”
“What I realized I was doing was before Jesus rescued me, I was trying to fill my life with promiscuity and violence and drunkenness and blasphemy, and all these things, they never brought me joy. And then when Jesus rescued me, I tried to fill my life with being good and with being self-righteous and with being holier than thou,” he continued. “What I found was that left me just as miserable as living the life of debauchery.”
Because Mulligan realized his approach to Christianity was leaving him just as empty as before, he decided to slow things down and do things on God’s terms rather than his own.
“So what I have decided to do in the last three years, what I decided to do three years ago was I said I was going to study the scriptures every day, and I came to Matthew 11:28-30, and Jesus is walking — we always find Him walking or sitting and talking — and He, in that says, ‘Come, follow me. Learn to walk in the unforced rhythms of my grace, and you will find rest for your weary soul,’” Mulligan said.
“So the path can seem dark a lot when we’re too far behind Jesus, right, you know, so I’m like, ‘Jesus, you go ahead. I’m going to hang here for a while and dwell in my sin and my circumstances,’ and I can’t see the light. The light’s too far away. And then sometimes I catch up with Jesus, and I say, ‘Jesus, thanks for the ride. Now I’m going to run on ahead.’ And then I look back, and I still can’t see the light. It’s too far away. So all I do every day is very simply, in the morning, I get up, I read, I talk with Jesus, and I try and live a really ordinary, decent kind of life,” he explained. “And I have found great joy in the simplicity of just going for a walk with Jesus, nothing more, nothing less, and that’s the way I’m going to live the rest of my life.”
In finding his peace Jesus, Mulligan has freed himself from the grind mindset of the entertainment industry and has trusted his career to God’s hand. Now, he takes joy in simply doing as the Lord asks and leaving the rest up to Him.
“My heart is full. I could not have any more goodness of God in my life if I tried,” Mulligan said. “So I don’t need to manipulate or claw or grind. I work hard because I always work hard, but it is amazing how free a man gets when he lets the ego go and when he lets the narcissism go.”
“The desperation of needing to be successful has given way to a deep love and affection for our audience, teams and families and we are no longer driven by what’s next but by making the most of what’s now,” We Are Messengers posted on Instagram, echoing Mulligan’s conversation. “Being present in the here and now and the ability to be fully engaged with people is our super power and God has changed everything.
Mulligan’s trust in Christ is an inspiration and a reminder of the way that we are called to delight in the Lord. While the world tells us that we can find freedom through money, fame, popularity, status, etc., the only place that we can truly find freedom is through Christ.
The band recently released their album “Where The Joy Is.”
“Too many people to thank in one post but every single person who touched this project has made this my favorite album we’ve ever put out. I hope it becomes the soundtrack for your walk towards joy in Jesus friends,” the band posted.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Darren Mulligan of We Are Messengers opened up about how a change in his relationship with God inspired his new album “Where the Joy Is.”
“Suffering is always the catalyst to great joy,” Mulligan told Annie F. Downs on her “That Sounds Fun” podcast.
“I got sick and tired of falling for the same old demons, returning to my old patterns of sin like a dog returns to its vomit. I returned to my sin, and I realized that me trying to be good, trying to be better,” he added. “I wasn’t changing anything. I realized that I had to fully cast my hope on Jesus, like I had to take him at his word. The number one records didn’t do it. The gold records didn’t do it, the having some money in the bank didn’t do it, being righteous didn’t do it.”
He continued: “One day I was sitting in a hotel room, and I was reading the Psalms, and all I could do was fall on the floor on my face, and I said, ‘God, I have sinned against you and against you alone.’ I am a man full of iniquity, you know. Could anybody love me, and Jesus has loved me really, really well.”
God taught him that he is a messenger to share the Good News with others.
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