By Kayla DeKraker
Brad Arnold, frontman for the band 3 Doors Down, died from kidney cancer at the age of 47 last week, but the legacy of his faith in Christ shines bright.
A resurfaced video sees Arnold speaking to a crowd about the beginnings of the band, and how through the journey of being a musician, he found God.
“It comes with a story about when we started. You know, I said earlier, when we came out here that this was our second record and, you know, your second record is your first record that you write as a real band,” he joked, describing himself and the band as “a bunch of little rednecks [from] down south Mississippi that had jobs and were still just playing in a band.”
“Coming off of that first record, by the grace of God, and by the grace of you all, we had a lot of success on that record, and we had a lot of fun, and it lasted a long time. We’re all a bunch of young guys. I was only 20, 21 years old…”
Arnold explained that the second record brought the band “big old smiles on our faces and a little more money in our bank accounts, all this stuff.”
The rock singer continued, “But all of us, especially me, I know that I did…we had holes in our hearts. We had darkness inside us that was undeniable, and it was hard to have a smile. And you can tell a lot from a lot of these songs.”
Related: Rock Singer Puts Faith Over Fear in Stage 4 Cancer Battle
He guess that a lot of his fans could relate, saying we “walk around with smiles on our faces and holes in our hearts, so many times we don’t feel like there’s anybody that we can trust, so many times we don’t feel like we’re good enough.”
Hopelessness grows when you add on top of that the dangers of social media, which is “actually designed to make you feel like you’re not good enough.”
But Arnold shared the answer: the gospel of Jesus.
“God made you enough. For those times that we go through our lives, and we don’t know if anybody loves us, and we don’t know if we’ve got a soul on this planet that is truly beside us, my friends, you do,” he emphasized. “You’ve always been loved your entire life, and you’ve never been alone, because Jesus Christ loves you.”
He concluded, “He loves you enough to make you, and He loves you enough to die for you. Just remember that you are never alone, and you were always loved, always my friends. God bless you.”
People in the comment section of the post praised Arnold’s boldness.
“Awesome artist! Better human being! God bless you Brad!” one person said. Another fan added, “He’s with our Lord now in Paradise. He will be missed.”
Arnold announced his stage 4 cancer diagnosis last summer.
“I had been sick a couple of weeks ago and went to the hospital and got checked out, and actually got the diagnosis that I had clear cell renal carcinoma that had metastasized into my lung,” he said in an Instagram video at the time. “It’s Stage 4, and that’s not real good.”
But he trusted God.
“We serve a mighty God and he can overcome anything, so I have no fear,” Arnold said. “I really, sincerely am not scared of it at all.”
3 Doors Down said in a statement last Saturday that Arnold “passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, in his sleep after his courageous battle with cancer.”
Please keep Arnold’s family and friends in your prayers as they mourn his death.
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