Chapman encouraged the students that they can glorify God in their callings in a variety of ways, including by creating “a musical composition [or] a worship song, but it can [also] be a love song.” Chapman shared that he “just released today, actually, a new song I wrote for my bride of 40 years.” He played that song, titled “Forever the Love of My Life,” later that evening.
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Chapman encouraged the students to offer up their gifts to God. “I have been one who has experienced firsthand just the ways that when we offer up the gifts that God has entrusted to us,” Chapman said, “musical or otherwise, whatever those gifts are, and we really recognize those as something that God has entrusted to us to be used for his glory, amazing things can happen.”
Sometimes the amazing results are winning a Grammy Award, but “more often than not, they’re not that kind of, you know, what the world might call amazing success,” said Chapman, “but it’s something that you are a part of creating that touches the life of someone, encouraging them in a way that only you could…So that’s one of the things that I really hope I could encourage you all with.”
Chapman related his advice to the biblical Parable of the Talents, saying, “People used to always tell me, ‘You’ve got a talent. You should use that for the Lord.’”
The musician went on to share part of his story, including how his father taught him to play the guitar, how God “transformed” his family, and how Chapman came to be mentored by Bill and Gloria Gaither. Chapman even told the story of a “nightmare” live performance he had early in his career where he crashed and burned in front of the head of his record label. “It was terrible,” he said.
“That’s kind of where in many ways the story began,” said Chapman, explaining that he kept “just showing up and…showing up” and that he was “terrified half the time, especially at the beginning, and then, God, just [opened] doors that I could never have imagined.”
Yet Chapman continued to keep the lesson of the Parable of the Talents in mind. “Really, at the heartbeat of it is saying, ‘Lord, I want to use the gifts you’ve given me so that whatever it looks like, you would say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, that you have used what I have entrusted to you.’”
“A lot of people ask me, how do you get to that big stage?” Chapman said. “How do you make it? And my one bit of advice has always been, just…bloom where you’re planted.”
“Wherever God has you at that moment,” he said, “that’s the most important place for you to be. Be faithful with what God’s given you, to dig in, to use the opportunities, the skills he’s given you and hone those, work hard at it.”
