- [Narrator] The leadvoice of the popular band,

Tenth Avenue North,belongs to Mike Donehey,

songwriter and the band's founder.

As his lyrics attest, hethinks deeply about faith,

and the Christian life.

♪ So if I fall and if I fail ♪

♪ I will trust Your mercy ♪

♪ Is greater than all of this ♪

In his first book cleverly titled,

"Finding God's Life for My Will",

Mike uses humor and vulnerabilityto tackle the questions

we all have about God'splan for our lives.

- Well, joining me now is Mike Donehey,

it's great to have you here.

- It's great to be here.

- So tell me about this Tenth Avenue North

name for your band,where did that come from?

- Oh boy, I wish I had a good story.

We were fighting, we were in college,

me and my band mates werefighting over possible bands names

for weeks, and then wegot off the exit to our,

where our dorm room wasthat we were gonna practice.

- And there was the sign.

- There was the sign.

It was a sign.

- If you're lookingfor a sign, this is it.

- I go, "How about Tenth Avenue North?"

And everyone goes, "Yeah,we'll change it later."

- Yeah, yeah, be careful.

- Yeah exactly.

- But its, I like it you know?

It's very random but I like it.

- Yeah, thank you.

- You had no intentionof becoming a musician,

you really were an activeguy in all kinds of sports

and activities and thenyou had a car accident

and I was so stuck as Iwas reading your book,

by the fact that what we see as adversity,

God uses as opportunity.

Talk about that.

- Is that not the center of- Life.

- Christian life.

It boggles my mind when people

can't wrap their minds around,

this terrible thing is happening,

but God can actually makesomething beautiful out of it.

Because at the center ofour faith is the cross.

- Which is the most horrible thing

that's ever happened to anyone.

And yet we just sort of,

oh yeah that was a great day

of redemption for all of mankind,

and we're like no, that was awful.

And so for me yeah, I wasa senior in high school,

I was on the soccer team,

we were like first place in the state.

- Doing it all, yeah.

- Just feeling great.

And my buddy catches the edge of the road

and at 50 miles an hour Iget thrown out of the car

and broke my back in twoplaces broke my face.

You can see this scar still right here.

Can you guys see that scar?

(laughing)

They put makeup on me so Idon't know if you can see it.

- They're good.

- But I flat lined five timeson the way to the hospital

and I was mad, I was just angry at God.

You know you would go, whyweren't you grateful to be alive?

Well for the next twomonths of my senior year

I had to lay on my backwaiting for it to heal.

And I'm going, God why would you do this,

why would you let this happen to me?

And yet to pass the time,because I was bored,

I asked for a guitar.

- Unbelievable

- So the first time I'mever learning to play guitar

is 'cause of my broken back.

- Yeah, It's such a, its an amazing,

one of the amazing stories in your book,

"Finding God's Life For My Will".

Tell me about that title.

- Yeah that's, the title is unfortunately

when we ask the question,what's God's will for my life?

It's come to mean something,

that in scripture it doesn't mean.

- [Woman] Yes.

- In scripture, it's like,

oh what's God's will for your life?

Be joyful always.

Pray continually, givethanks in all circumstances.

What does the Lord require of you?

Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly.

It's like the state of your heart,

is God's will for your life.

But when we ask, what'sGods will for my life?

We're asking for a ten step,point by point, give me a plan.

- [Woman] The map.

- To the point where, thismight sound provocative,

but I would even say we'relike trying to black mail God.

Like God what's the secretprayer I have to pray,

what's the thing I have to do,

where you will give me what I want?

And God goes, well I wantyou to live a life of faith.

And if I'm going to giveyou a life of faith,

that means I can't giveyou all the answers.

Like, 'cause if you had all the answers,

you wouldn't get achance to use your faith.

- And we'd miss him inthe process, because we,

just in our flesh tend to getall caught up in the details

and there he is right infront of us, right within us.

And we don't get it.

- Yeah.

- You know, we're crazy.

One of the tough decisionsyou make in the book.

- We are crazy.

- As you were pursuingGod's will for your life,

was Mary and Kelly andI mean you talk about,

what a journey that was.

Because you were so afraidto make the wrong decision.

- Yeah.

- When we're looking for the wrong thing,

when we're looking for the thing,

as opposed to just being with God,

we can make wrong choices.

- Yeah, well absolutely.

And so you have to listen a little harder.

And when I was sitting there going,

'cause God never toldme, yes this is the one.

Some people get that, I wasnot one of those people.

I was like, God, is she theright one, is she the right one?

I mean yeah she's beautifuland she loves the elderly

and puppies and you know she's incredible

but what if she's tricking me

and we get five days into the honeymoon

and she rips the mask off?

- Or what if there are 12other people that are a choice.

- They're better.

- Yeah!

- Yes exactly!

And so I'm going God,is she the right one?

Is she the right one?

And then I felt like God kind of said,

hey um, what kind of husbandwould you be if she was?

- [Woman] Ouch.

- And suddenly like stringing her along

while I'm waiting for other options,

that didn't seem like themost loving thing I could do.

- Yeah.

- So I said, maybe I don't just need

to choose her on my wedding day.

Maybe I need to continue tochoose her every day after.

- Wow, yeah.

You have a lot of things inthe book that make us think,

you have one chapter called"Capitalistic Christianity",

talk about that.

- Yeah, yeah.

We don't even begin to realize

how much of our cultureshifts how we view God.

And one of the ethos thatany good business man

in America will tell you is,least amount of investment,

greatest amount of return, right?

- Right.

- And that can bleed overinto the way we treat people.

- [Woman] Yeah.

- That if you don't offer me,

even like a bigger platform in ministry,

then I have no reason to serve you.

- Yeah.

- But when I look atJesus, I go wait a second.

He had the greatest amount of investment,

for the least return.

- [Woman] Yes.

- 'Cause none of us are evergoing to return to Jesus

what he invested in us.

I mean He's the son of God.

I can't match that.

- [Woman] Where you'regoing with that, right.

- Right.

So then suddenly that frees me up to go,

oh I'm free to invest in peoplewho are a terrible return.

- [Woman] Yeah.

- Who may not ever even get it.

- [Woman] To forgive thosewho don't deserve it.

- And like even keep lovingand serving people that,

you know, maybe I can'tconvert to my way of thinking.

- Exactly, yeah.

To love them right where they're at.

Here's another provocativethought you talk about,

that God doesn't call us to be leaders.

Whoa.

- Well, so my springword for that thought is

Saint Agustin said "A mancan be no good bishop,

if he loves his titlemore than his task.".

- [Woman] Wow.

- Okay?

And I've seen a lot of people,

who are in love with their titles.

And it's not surprise that Paul,

in first Corinthians three and four,

there's this argumentabout who do you follow.

You follow Apollos or youfollow Paul, who's your guy?

And he says, don't call usleaders, call us servants.

And so we go, I got you Paul.

Servant leader.

- Yeah.

- And we throw leader onand I think we do that

because servant doesn't appealto our ego but leader does.

- Yeah, well and itdoesn't appeal to our ego

and the service of a servantdoesn't appeal to us either.

- And all the leadersin the new testament,

the Greek word is shepard.

And shepherds in that timewere like the scum of society.

- [Woman] In the field, yeah.

- I mean you ever tried to,we were talking earlier,

you ever tried to hug a shepard

after he's been with sheep all day?

They don't smell so great.

And that means I have to love the sheep,

more than my reputation.

- [Woman] Yes.

- And some of us, our desireto be seen as a leader

actually keeps us fromwalking the way Jesus did.

Because Jesus was knownas a drunk and a glutton.

Why?

Because he was not afraidto associate with people

that people don't understand.

- As I read your book Ithought of that picture

that we use to see years ago,

of all the fish swimming down stream

and then there's one colorfulone in the shape of ichthys

and it's going the other way.

- And the thing is, and here's the deal,

if you need to be called a leader,

then as soon as Jesus sayshey come follow me, right,

and you're following Jesus andthen what if Jesus asks you

to do something that makes you go,

I'm going to loos all of thesepeople who are following me.

Well suddenly you're notgoing to follow Jesus

because its more important toyou to be seen as a leader.

- [Woman] Wow.

- So I go, Just follow man, just follow.

- Thought provoking to say the least.

Well the band has produces seven albums,

22 singles, there's a new release out.

Lets take a look at one ofthe songs from that release.

♪ So if I fall and if I fail ♪

♪ I will trust Your mercy is ♪

♪ Greater than all of this ♪

♪ And if I bend and if I break ♪

♪ I'll trust the hands that hold me are ♪

♪ Greater than all my regrets ♪

♪ You are greater than all my regrets ♪

♪ You are, you are ♪

♪ Father, I know ♪

- "Greater Than All My Regrets",

what's the inspiration behind that, Mike?

- Oh, well we talked about,

I cut back the number ofshows we were doing, touring,

to be a more present father and husband

and the next year I actuallywas riddled with regret

that I hadn't made that decision sooner.

And I finally listened to the spirit

and he said hey man, I'mgreater than all your regrets.

Like I specialize in reweavingthe mistakes you've made

and turning them into redemptive stories.

- You know God is afterour hearts and so is Mike

with his book, "FindingGod's Life for My Will".

You're going to love it.

You heard a clip from the song"Greater Than All My Regrets"

its from Tenth Avenue Northslatest CD called "No Shame".

The book "Finding God's Life for My Will"

is available wherever books are sold.

Mike, thank you for sharing with us today.

- [Mike] Yeah thanks for having me.

- [Woman] Great to have you here.