Thursday, February 28, 2002

BACKSTAGE WITH RENÉE BONDI

By Ron Brackin

Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

Nashville, TN  (ANS) -- Renée Bondi loves Jesus. And Jesus loves Renée. Can anything better be said of any of us?

Their love story is told poignantly in Renée’s first book, “The Last Dance but Not the Last Song.” Its music fills the air as you listen to her albums. It sparkles in her smile and bubbles up in her easy laugh.

But Renée’s life is not about how she has coped since a bizarre accident 13 years ago that broke her neck and left her a quadriplegic. It’s about revealing God to the world.

“When people eye Renée, sitting in her wheelchair, smiling and singing,” wrote Joni Eareckson Tada in the introduction to the book, “I believe they’re thinking, how great her God must be to inspire such faith and confidence!”

Naturally then, when I met Renée Bondi in Nashville, I wanted to see her God. And I was not disappointed.

In our brief interview, she showed me a God big enough and powerful enough to carry her through mind-numbing tragedy – and loving and gentle enough to preserve her love and affection for Him.

While Renée is in awe of the really big answers to prayer – like husband Mike and son Daniel and like getting her voice back after doctors said it was impossible – it’s what she calls “Fed-X letters from Jesus” that are her constant delight.

Two of these letters arrived during the production of her forthcoming album, “Let It Rain.”

“There are two songs that I was really struggling with. One is called “Make Me Your Instrument.” The producers had read my book and taken a story out of it and put it to music.

“It was when I was lying on the floor. I had just broken my neck. My roommate had found me, and she was calling the paramedics. And as she left, I started praying, ‘Lord, Lord, I’m your instrument. I’m your tool. Use me. I’m your instrument. I’m your tool. Use me.’ Over and over. It was very strange that I was babbling these words in prayer, because ‘instrument’ and ‘tool’ were not words that I normally used in my prayer life. Well, they took those words and turned them into . . .”

Then Renée began to sing, as easily and naturally as if she were still talking.

“Make me your instrument.
    Make me your tool.
A voice for the weak,
    a motive that’s true
Create in me
    a heart you can use.
Make me your instrument.
    Make me your tool.”

She was still in the room, still sitting across from me. But she was in the presence of the Lord. And now, so was I. She continued her story, while we listened.

“Well, this particular day, I was supposed to record the song. And I just wasn’t sure. I went to my companion, Deborah, and one of my caregivers in my home, and I said ‘They want me to record this afternoon, and I really don’t like the third verse. Do you think this works?’

“So I sang it for them, and they really liked it. And Deborah said, ‘Wait, wait, we just got an email this morning. Maybe this is something you should read.’ And she handed it to me.

“The email read ‘I’d like to purchase five videos . . .’ and on and on, very businesslike. Then at the very end, it said, ‘P.S. Please pass on to Renée. Thank her so much for being such an instrument and a tool.’

“When I heard those two words, I couldn’t believe it. I just laughed and cried and said, ‘Well, I guess we’re recording that today.’

The other song was called “Be Still and Hear My Voice.” The lyrics were based on thoughts that Renée wanted to say to her son. The message is that children really have all the tools they need to make wise choices in life. This time, both Renée and her husband were having second thoughts.

“The refrain was going to be, ‘You hold the compass for each choice. Be still and hear my voice.’ Well, I was struggling with the word, ‘compass.’ I thought, what a metal word! I just pictured this metal thing on my dining room table, because Mike loves to backpack, and there are always backpacking things all over my house. So I didn’t have this warm, fuzzy about a compass. And I kept thinking that maybe a man would sing ‘compass,’ but a woman wouldn’t.

“At the same time, Mike was struggling with one of the lyrics that go . . .”

Again, Renée sang a cappella.

“All the seeds are within your heart
    when the winds of change start to blow’.
If you’re confused and begin to question
    things you already know,
be still, and hear my voice,
    and you’ll find the eye of the storm.

“Mike was struggling with the word, ‘seeds.’ I was struggling with the word, ‘compass.’

“That morning, I went again to Deborah and said, ‘I’m going to sing this. We put the words together last night, but I’ve got to record it today. Let me know what you think.”

“Well, by the end of the first chorus, she was sobbing. And when I got to the end of the song, she was bawling, ‘Oh, the seeds! The compass! That’s exactly what every mother wants to say to her child!’

“And I burst out laughing. The Lord smiled on me. And then I started crying. Deborah had no idea that Mike and I had been struggling with those two words. It was another of the Lord’s personal Fed-X messages, directly from Him to me.

“When He does little things like that, it’s so precious, and I just feel like I’m so much more in His presence. It makes me more open and very willing for Him to do whatever He chooses with my life.”

One “whatever” is Renée’s music, through which He smiles not only on Renée but on everyone who hears it. Her book is another “whatever.” Through it, He reveals Himself to us in the life of a woman who knows Him and loves Him so well.

“The Last Dance but Not the Last Song: My Story”
by Renée Bondi
Revell, A division of Baker Book House
$19.99
Cloth, 288 pp.
ISBN 0-8007-1808-9

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In addition to authoring her first book, “The Last Dance but Not the Last Song,” Renée is one of the top-selling independent Christian artists, having sold more than 100,000 copies of four albums: “Inner Voice: Songs of Strength and Hope,” “Strength for the Journey,” “Back On My Feet Again!” and “Surrender to Your Love” – all on Capo Recording. Her new album, “Let It Rain,” is due to be released this summer. Visit Renée at www.reneebondi.com.

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Ron Brackin is a freelance writer in Little Elm, Texas. He has more than a quarter of a century of experience ranging from journalist and congressional press secretary to marketing and public relations. He is the author of several nonfiction and fiction books, including “Sweet Persecution” (Bethany House 1999) and is currently available for fulltime employment or freelance projects. Resume and writing samples available upon request. Contact him directly at ronbrackin1@msn.com or call 972-294-2509. (Pictured: Dan Wooding (left) and Ron Brackin (right) at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Dallas, Feb. 2001).>

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