At the same time, his mom had an intuition that something was wrong at home. She drove to her house from work immediately. She was the last person Joseph wanted to see—she had suffered enough. But before he knew it, just as the cocaine overload began to attack his system, his mom walked in the door calling, “Joseph!”
“Mom!” Joseph cried out as he quickly moved toward her. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry that he had broken her heart, that he loved her and that he was so thankful for all she had done—but the words never made it from his mouth. A heart attack drove him to the ground. Suddenly he lay dying at her feet.
All he remembers next is hearing crying, sirens and his mother’s voice wailing, “God! You promised!”
The ambulance raced and squealed through the streets of Victoria on the way to the hospital. The back of the ambulance, where Joseph’s body lay, had its own deathly and dreadful sound; tubes dangling against the metal machines that hummed, the plastic along the walls of the ambulance that were being stressed to their limit, the faint sound of the siren above and Joseph’s mom whimpering in the dark. Joseph’s body was lost in a tangle of wires and straps as the poison continued its rampage through his veins. And there, in the weak strobes of consciousness that flashed on and off, Joseph found himself wanting to live. He remembered all that his mom had said, and with tubes in his throat making it impossible to speak, his heart called out, “God, I don’t know how to pray. I don’t know any Bible verse to recite to you. But if you look down and see something in me that you still want, please save me, and I will give you my life.”
It was then that God filled the ambulance with his presence and comforted him. In all of Joseph’s life, it was the most real feeling he had ever had. He thought to himself, I want to live for this feeling. For the first time, Joseph felt the love of a Father. For the first time, Joseph felt chosen.
*****
The room backstage is filled with a swarm of teens who are scared, crying and perhaps for the first time, hopeful. They have just told the God that Joseph said saved his life, that they want him to save their lives too. Joseph and his bandmates lead them in prayer one by one, and encourage them to read the Bible and find a church.
It is something that he does hundreds of times a year as the front man of the band that was formed for just this purpose. Thousands have responded to the invitation. He has even had the privilege to lead his own dad to Christ—he attended one of Joseph’s concerts nearly 30 years after leaving him.
Today his mother still cries, but only when Joseph calls from the road to tell her how many kids have been given new life in Jesus.
