July 24, 2003
Jim Callahan is a transplanted Bostonian who lives in Burkburnett, Texas. He just happens to have been born blind, but don't feel sorry for him. He managed to get a B. A. from Boston College and to become a virtuoso jazz pianist.

Jim gets my column via e-mail every week. He reads it with software that converts printed words into speech. Jim phoned to tell me he enjoyed the column and had an idea for it. "You remember Art Linkletter and 'Kids Say The Darndest Things,' don't you?" he asked. "Yes, I do." "Well, I've got some stories about what little kids say to blind people. Feel free to use them if you want," he offered. Then he proceeded to regale me with his stories, keeping me in stitches for the next ten minutes. I thought, "Burkburnett is a small West Texas town, so maybe I could stretch my jurisdiction to include it, especially since Jim has often come to Hamlin, Haskell, Abilene, and other area towns to perform his sacred piano concerts and to sing his original praise and worship songs."

Jim tells of a 4-year-old African-American boy. The child demanded, "How come you blind, man?" "I was born that way," Jim replied. The kid plowed on, "How come you born that way?" "I guess God wanted it that way," Jim rejoined. The child insisted, "You tell God you don't want it that way!"

Jim chuckled at his own story, caught his breath, and then said, "And, another kid asked me about my eyes, and I told him 'My eyes don't work.' Puzzled, the kid blurted out, 'You don't have any batteries?"

I was listening to the remarkable, self-deprecating humor of this great composer and musician, when I thought, "I wonder how big Burkburnett is?" So, I asked Jim. Without missing a beat, he quipped, "You know, I go past the population sign every morning, but I just somehow keep forgetting to look!"

I was totally blown away with Jim's humor and, listening, I could feel his indomitable spirit. To borrow a phrase, it really is "not the disability, but the ability that counts." I'm proud to say Jim has just released a new CD and has been given a scholarship to a huge gathering of musicians and songwriters this summer in Alabama. Look for Jim soon in a concert hall or church near you. Tell him you read about him here. He'll be glad to "see" you. (To be continued…)

August 1, 2003
How does a young boy, born blind, ever find his destiny?

Jim Callahan found delight in his heightened sense of sound and touch. He remembers loving music from his earliest days in Boston.

The radio was his special outlet to the music world. He says, "I even listened to some preachers in those days, although it was more out of wonderment than out of a desire to hear the Word." Jim continues, "I admired Ray Charles before I knew that he was blind, and before he became as well-known to white audiences as he later became."

Of his early years, Jim remembers, "…I was exposed to nearly every possible kind of music, ranging all the way from classical to country." He found rhythm and blues especially appealing.

His musical talent soon became apparent, and, like many boys, he joined a band and played school dances, parties, and the like. He said his usual pay was a coke and maybe ten bucks.

Jim was reluctant to consider music as a career. He said, "I didn't want to be put in the blind musician's box." Instead of music, he wanted to teach school. He graduated Boston College, but in those days schools did not often hire folks with disabilities like his. You could say Jim was left to pursue music because nothing else opened to him. He began to play in bands around Boston, then Cape Cod, and finally in California. It was there that he met Barbara, the woman who became his wife.

They met in a bar that catered to the military crowd in Fairfield, California. Jim had gone there, hoping to catch on with a band. After the first set, he took a seat and started pouring drinks down. Barbara came over to his table to meet him. She confesses that she too was drinking too much that night. Jim asked her for a dance when the band started up again, and they glided out onto the dance floor. It was rather dark and smoky in the room. Barbara had not yet caught on to the fact that Jim was blind. She asked him, "Are you in the Air Force?"

With his trademark humor, he answered, "If I am, the country's in a lot of trouble!"
Barbara's friend tried to tell her that Jim was blind, but she wouldn't believe it!

That was the first night of many that Jim and Barbara met and grew to admire each other.

As Barbara described how they fell in love, she said, "We could sit and talk all night long. It was wonderful!" Barbara and Jim were two lonely people looking for a good relationship, unaware that God would soon intervene in their lives.

NEXT WEEK: From Club to Church

August 7, 2003
How did blind musician Jim Callahan go from playing in clubs to ministering in churches?

He attended home Bible studies and became a convinced Christian, but therein lay a huge difficulty. How could he make a living at anything else? Before too long, he realized that he could no longer sing what he didn't believe. Jim thought he had found the way out when a Christian band offered him a spot on the program in a big musical evening at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. He no sooner agreed to do it than Bill, his manager, called him and said the band Jim was contracted with would be going to Arizona for an indefinite engagement in two days. He called the Christian band and backed out because of his contractual obligations.

Jim questioned God, "Lord, why would you put something like the San Francisco ministry opportunity in front of me, and then take it away?" Then, he went on to Arizona. He told Bill, "I'm not going to leave you high and dry in Arizona, but I want to give you notice that this is the last gig I'll do." The engagement ended in two weeks, and Jim was back in California, unemployed. He called his friends in the Christian group to wish them well on their upcoming performance in Candlestick. Jim was breathless when the leader of the band told him that they had all been praying for him and felt that they should leave a spot open for him. Still, Jim was worried over finances. Could he make it financially in music ministry?

In his quiet time, Jim prayed, "Lord, make my way very clear to me. I don't want to miss you!" Shortly he got an invitation to return and do another performance at the California Youth Authority facility in Stockton. In a departure from past practices, the chaplain at Stockton volunteered to pay Jim's travel expenses from his allocated funds.

After the ministry time ended, a prison ministry worker invited Jim and Barbara out for breakfast. It was early Sunday morning. As they talked over breakfast, he invited them to go to his church with him. They agreed to go. Jim says, "His church turned out to be an old time Pentecostal church, complete with a bunch of ladies yelling 'Glory!' at
the top of their lungs. That was a bit much for Barbara, so she headed for the car!"
Jim was raised Catholic and Barbara, Lutheran. They were shocked by the seeming rowdiness of the worshippers, but more so by what happened next. The pastor had Jim sing and then took him up an offering. That offering, along with the money from the prison, was equal to what Jim made in a whole week playing in clubs!

NEXT WEEK: How Long Can A Musician's Marriage Last?

Country Lights August 14, 2003
Jim and Barbara Callahan's marriage has lasted thirty years now, although their lifestyle has undergone a revolution.

They no longer find their pleasures in the club scene, but in the church, especially in praise and worship music.

Jim gave his life over to Christ and Barbara did, too. It was a struggle, Jim admits, to leave the clubs, simply because a blind musician is limited to a very few opportunities for making a living. Jim enrolled in a Bible College in Sacramento, and learned more of the faith-life there. He began to play piano and sing gospel for jail and prison inmates, and he found that very satisfying. One day Jim was playing a set in a women's jail unit. He had developed a running gag to lighten things a bit. During his testimony time, Jim usually said, "I know I'm gonna be a star. The only difference between Ray Charles and me is the way we rock." Then Jim would demonstrate Charles' side to side motion, followed by his own back and forth movement on the piano bench. When the applause and laughter died down, Jim would say, "Ever been to Tonopah? If you ever get an invitation, turn it down!" The crowd would laugh, and Jim would start to play his gospel piano and sing.

Well, in this particular women's unit, one of the women later told the chaplain that God had spoken to her through Jim. She had been invited to take a job at a very seamy club in Tonopah upon her release from prison. When Jim said, "If you ever get an invitation, turn it down" in his stage routine, the woman took it as the gospel truth for her life!

Jim has been ministering the gospel in song now for many years. Barbara is his invaluable helper. He works some in a recording studio near his home. He helps lead praise and worship at Celebration Fellowship in Wichita Falls. And, he accepts a limited
number of musical engagements away. I have attended two of these events, and Jim Callahan is a great musician. More, he is a sharp gentleman with a puckish New England sense of humor and a warm love for people. His music flows from his innermost being out through his voice box and his fingertips.

Jim is no stranger to the chamber of private devotion. His songs show that he has often been there. God has taken the soul of a Ray Charles, the good humor of a Victor Borge, the lyricism of a Fanny Crosby, and the musical stylings of a Ray Boltz and poured it all through one man. Jim Callahan's music moves like surging rivers of joy and inspiration. An evening with Jim is a great musical experience.

NEXT WEEK: Reading Jim's Story in His Songs.

August 21, 2003
Did you ever stop to think how hard it is for a blind person to write songs and play the piano?

He has to learn the keys by touch, and the scale by ear. He has to have a fabulous memory, and, if he has never seen at all, he has to imagine what everyday objects look like. Understandably, blind poet John Milton (1608-74) once "murmured," "Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd?"

With all due respects to the devout Puritan poet, I must say that I have sought in vain to find even a hint of lamentation in anything Jim Callahan writes. I see instead a wild, unrestrained joy in living! He gives a humorous turn to just about everything he says.

I asked him about his life goal. He replied, "My life goal is to do whatever the Lord wants me to be doing, and to hear His directions accurately. On a much less spiritual level, I'd like to be able to make enough money to be able to tell the government
that I don't need any of theirs!"

I find his music both optimistic and compelling. Jim has not always had an easy time ministering, but he rejoices in it nonetheless.

He has, in fact, fought through bouts of depression from time to time. He says, "Sometimes when I'm depressed, I just sit at the piano, playing chords." Of a time like that, he said, "…I had just gotten back from doing a concert at a little church. I had thought that I had said what needed to be said, and that I had been an encouragement to the people." Jim continued, "In spite of that I was depressed, realizing we had more bills to pay than money…."

Then, Jim felt God's spiritual muse urging him on, and pouring lyrics through him: "Come on soul, you must rejoice./Lift up your voice, and don't you fear./Circumstances have shaken you,/ But I have not forsaken you…."

Jim wrote another song that came to him when Barbara took their car in to have the timing belt replaced. The mechanic said that the belt was holding together "only by the grace of God." At first, Jim laughed. Then it went deeper. He began to see his own life, like that worn out belt, held together only by the grace of God.

He wrote, "Only by the Grace of God my life's held together./Only by the Grace of God, a Grace that lasts forever./I know your Spirit will not always strive with man,/Then Lord, I hear you say you'll forgive me once again…." Jim titled his song, "Only By the Grace of God."

Throughout, it is his personal testimony of God's grace. He sings, "Lord, you give me dreams and visions for my life./Then call me by your Spirit to pursue them./And I cry out, that's too hard for me./Then I realize you've given me/All the strength I need to do them…"

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