“Lee Stevens |  Anchored in faith : Navigating the neurological maze”

“Lee Stevens |  Anchored in faith : Navigating the neurological maze”

Lee’s story :

As I’ve said before , my personal story is more depth than my bio reads. The task is how to encapsulate how my personal journey/walk with The Lord and my journey as an artist has walked hand in hand . So please allow me to try to explain it this way. As a guy also of Native American heritage ( i’m half Mohawk, my mother is full blood) the hair braid is very important in the culture , symbolizing strength and wisdom. My relationship with the Lord and my music journey are intertwined like that braid . They are not autonomous . I grew up in the church from the very beginning and always had an awareness of God . I was also born as my mother says , singing . Unfortunately, in addition to that i was born with a neurologically based disability to has affected all five of the major senses. Music and the arts in general were an integral part and the vehicle God used to bring healing and  direction into my life and teach me to trust Him implicitly and ultimately walk closer with Him. As it says, in the word,” draw near to me and I will draw near to you says the Lord.” I started taking voice lessons at 6 1/2 years old and then eventually singing specials or solos in the Pentecostal church when I was seven. Although I have ventured into many different avenues and genres, I never felt closer to Lord as when I’m singing Gospel or contemporary Christian music or praise music and it’s still at the root of who I am as a person and artist today. Those early days of my childhood were often very scary and uncertain, and the prognosis wasn’t all that great. The specialist and school psychologist felt that although I might be able to hold a regular 9 to 5 job in a grocery store, that I would never be able to pursue the passions that I was openly expressing such as being a singer  andactor someday. They feared with my extreme spatial issues and I might take a nasty spill Off of a stage. Early on , He rescued me from the hands of an emotionally abusive teacher that i subsequently suffered nightmares because of . The Lord would use a dear sister in the Lord who became a musical & spiritual mentor, Brenda Schultz to minister to me and He put me in the hands of a gifted special Ed teacher who is now a dear friend in my adult years , to change the trajectory of my path in many ways. Even at that tender age i was learning God’s promises of “ when you walk through waters I’ll be there and you won’t drown and when you walk through the fires you won’t be burned.” Even though i had a very supportive Christian voice coach , i had music teachers in school who were less than nurturing. One even told me to drop out because i was ruining the harmony on the song. Despite that , the Lord continued to advance me not only in my artistic journey, but in trusting Him more and more and that Hehad His hand on my life . Before I knew it , i was inducted as the youngest member of the adult choir in my church at 13. I should say before I go any further insharing my testimony and bringing things up to where they are today, that when I mention certain “highlights“ that they are not meant to focus so much on the musical journey as to illustrate the miracles, the Lord has done in my life,to glorify Him first and foremost and show how every time the enemy tried to rear his ugly head, The Lord was here to show how much greater He is, and that His plan from my life and for yours, cannot be stopped.Throughout the years, I became more immersed in the theater world. The Lord blessed me with the opportunity of having several featured roles, and He also drew me further into my church life. I was very involved with my youth group and got my first taste of leading worship during those meetings, it was during this time at 15 years old, they made my personal commitment and gave my life over to Jesus. The Lord had proven himself so faithful from very early on in my life and made himself very real. Again the enemy would throw many roadblocks my way, even before I got out of high school. But when I was undone, the Lord did ultimately be glorified. Well still in high school. The Lord showed how much she enjoys knocking down the odds when men stacks them up. He allowed me to define the expectations and the name of a music teacher who said it was a shame I couldn’t try out for  NYSMA ( New York State music Association)because in her estimation, I didn’t site read music according to her definition of doing so in the old strict conservatory style away. However, God showed me Hisgrace was sufficient, and that not only did he allow me to try out to be able to participate in NYSMA, but through his grace, mercy and his awesome hand. I was able to make Natalie Ari Allstate, but Allstate my senior year. And I was able to get high marks on site reading. When I was sudden done, he allowed me to graduate in the top 25% time of my class a The same music teacher and her colleague went to great length like calling in a meeting with my parents to dissuade me from auditioning for the performing arts program at my first choice University,before  i graduated , 2 inch my mother boldly stated “I thank you for your opinions and your advice but you don’t know our God“ or should I say mic drop. I want to assure any view that are reading this or hearing my testimony through this, that anytime the enemy says, can’t or won’t regarding you the Lord will be right there if you trust him, to say “ Noi  have the final say, he or she is my child” he only allowed me to go to my first choice, Niagara University, but in the face of not knowing how my parents were gonna pay for it, he allowed me to be awarded one of the main theater scholarships and three other scholarships I hadn’t even applied for. These miracles are indicative of what he has done all through my life and my journey with him and why the person you see before today is a miracle . During that time in college, the Lord was methodically, changing my heart and reshaping my focus with what I wanted to do and the performing arts. Initially, I was like many of my peers who entered the department with me at that time, and I had visions of Granger Lake seeing my name on a marquee. I didn’t necessarily want to be a popstar if you will, but I didn’t want to be a respected and well-known working performing artist. Sometimes the Lord will allow you to go through some not so nice things to put a politely in order for you to see what He wants you to see. He loved me to see the ugly underbelly of that industry away as the department was often rampant with favoritism and unfair politics so to speak although it was discouraging, he would not let this passion that he placed in my heart be extinguished. It was during this time also That I should explain that my father went home to be with the Lord a lot sooner than any of us ever imagined. Praise be to the Lord because he was a very godly man very godly example who’s influence is alive and well me today. Unfortunately, I went a little off track For a while in my 20s and I said and did some things I regret and I focused way too much on trying to “make it “. Thank you, Jesus, because he never gave up on me. After college, the Lord allowed me to meet the beautiful woman who eventually be my wife and who would go out of my life for a while. Gratefully in 2005 the Lord made it very clear to me that it was time to leave my home church and start going forward with what he had in mind for my life and with some nervousness I began my time at a new church. It was there under the 2 inch of an old friend who was the pastor of the church at the time, and I got involved with the worship team. The Lord used the music to bring me back to my senses, to begin to heal the scars leftover from my earlier years and some from my college years and he began to refocus my mind. I became one of the worship leaders there, and I also became an advisor working hand-in-hand with pastor.. My Heavenly Father definitely likes to use us in ways we we hadn’t imagined and working with the youthwas something I hadn’t imagined myself doing. I also ended up teaching Sunday school for a time. He also brought that lovely young lady, I mentioned previously, back in my life. He used that time as a worship leader to show me that He wasn’t done with my future in the performing arts  that I  had convinced myself was most likely over. I begin to realize that I had a lot of performing still left to me, but I wanted to do it for Him. My wife, Kara and I have been happily married for 16 1/2 years now and have a beautiful 12-year-old daughter. After I got married, I took many years off to be a hands husband and subsequent father. I relaunched my performing career in 2017 via a YouTube channel, focused on doing things his way, and doing material that would be pleasing in His sight . He opened unexpected opportunities to also start doing film work even though I’d always been a stage performer because I loved that contact and interaction with the audience. However, I must admit with regret that I stumbled a little bit thinking, and I needed to try and make something happen to get a break and I took a project here in there, I regretted doing because of the language. Once again, like the good father that he is with Hermes wide open and ready to take us back in, the Lord gently and loving me, showed me that wasn’t the way, to be still and know that he is God and he will open the doors and he wants to open. I don’t need to panic because I was a little bit older or worrying the clocks taken on me etc. is a recommitted my focus in my entire career, whatever that will be to him he opened opportunities to do more family, friendly material such as a TV pilot that we hope may someday get picked up for Netflix or something also showed me via the music of some of my biggest contemporary Christian heroes like Steven Curtis Chapman and Matthew West that he wanted me to revisit something that I had long kept in the shadows, my songwriting. In 2021 I was very unexpectedly blasted with what my family affectionately calls “a God thing“ when an independent Christian music label and production company saw some of my work on my YouTube channel. At the time I was just doing a lot of covers. I’ve been very blessed to be able to transition through and perform many different genres easily. I was slowly performing some of my own original material. They saw one of the covers and asked me if I had anything that I could submit to them, which I did. Long story short, they offered me a one off deal where they covered half of the reduction cost because they believed in the song so much and I ended up flying out to Nashville Tennessee to record my first original single, which you can find on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, etc., titled“ I’m Not Alone“. I had always secretly dreamed to be a song raider, but never had the courage to do it. You know in the word, the Lord promises that sometimes your enemies may be some of the members of your family. I found out the hard way as, even some of those related to me knocked me down a bit. One of them even said “if you could really do that, I would know because I know you”. One thing again and again is it doesn’t matter what man says you can or can’t do or achieve, it’s what God says about you and how he sees you and who he says you are. as a continue on these interwoven journeys, the Lord methodically shows me with each song that I write that his spirit inspires, but I write them as much myself as I do for those that I hope will be my listeners and I pray I’m able to minister to. My desire and my walk with the Lord before others, and it also spills into my music, is to show others, a realistic, portrayal of what it means to be a Jesus follower. This world’s already had enough of the overly polished types with the perfectly cuffed hair. They’re hungry for the real thing. I want them to know I’m as broken as they are, but, I know the savior who is always ready and willing to put my brokenness back together. I want them to know that I still stumble here and they’re like they do and sometimes I wrestle with the same doubts and questions that they do, but I want them to know that there is a heavenly father. Just like we earthly father stand there and wait with our arms open when their children fall and scrape their knees and come to us and say “oh daddy”, our heavenly father is waiting for us to come and do the same, as many times as we need to. Just reiterate, all these personal highlights I’ve shared throughout my journeys are to highlight how every time it was darkest the Lord showed up for me and he desires to show up for you in the same way if you’ll give them a chance. Thank you for letting me share this with you. God sincerely bless you. Lee Stevens.