Like a gunshot in a woods of singing birds, the voice of one of God's singers has been stilled, and the forest went silent and empty for a time.
My soul connected to Dewayne at the Little Opry. I heard him sing and play guitar. He was a polished musician -- not polished to perform for stardom, though he could have done that; But, polished from a lifetime of expressing the joys and pains of his soul through the God given voice of music. He was a man who understood that God said sing, because it was good for us -- because he created us to sing. Dewayne not only knew how to sing, but he knew how to encourage others to make music together. It was obvious he got as much joy from making a way for others to find their talents as he did in expressing his own.
The only place I ever heard Dewayne sing was the Little Opry. The Little Opry is a grassroots gathering of the backbone citizens of Jackson County in Gainesboro: The farmers and and laborers who made up a community of the hardest working people I've ever known in my life. Who loved their kids enough to work their bodies into the ground in order to get their kids an education: Education to become doctors, lawyers, nuclear physicists who developed bomb that ended world War II the They were proud of their work and proud of how hard they could work. But they never saw it as hardship. And to celebrate -- they sang. They sang in the fields, they sang on the front porches, they sang at church. Dewayne carried the message of the spirit of the Hills of Jackson County, The message of the Spirit of God on the tapestry of the lives of those of us in the Upper Cumberland. Some might say Dewayne was a troubadour -- but we don't use that word in Jackson County -- we just say"He loves to sing, and it'll warm your heart to hear him."
I didn't really know him that well, yet I feel I knew his heart. He inspired others as a minister and preacher. He inspired musicians to find their voice. He baptized my friend's mother in the hospital when she was dying of cancer. People trusted him financially with their insurance decisions. Jamie Dailey said, "When he walked in the room, I just felt better". I didn't talk to him but a few times -- but even so, the connection of my soul to his music and the ripple effect of his life on the lives of people I love -- make me feel like he was a friend. He surely left the footprint of God in his own way wherever he walked.
But there must have been a dark and hurting place in his heart that he kept hidden. People are shocked to learn that he took his life. "he seemed so happy -- we had no clue". It shakes our faith when someone we think has it all together takes thier life. We wonder, "was all that love and happiness not real?", or "what could have made the apparent happiness of his rich life look so meaningless to him". Our speculative minds run rampant as we seek to understand.
But no matter what answers are found or speculated, it remains undeniable that God was able to speak through the life of Dewayne Chaffin. The hearts he touched and changed are a testimony to that. The ripples of his impact on our lives and the generations to follow will continue. Even in the darkness of his death, God's truth will speak. We have to remember that the Evil one walks around on this earth like a prowling lion, seeking to destroy the brightest stars in God's Kingdom. Satan be damned, we are all his brightest stars! And there is no sin, no darkness, no mistake, no pain, than can dampen the light of the breath of God in all of us. The music of God rang clear in the song of Dewayne's life. I heard it myself in his voice. And I hear it still in the lives of people I love.
And so the gap of silence from our shock, that stilled the music of the forest, is slowly being filled as we begin to sing again. For some the grief will cause us to be silent longer than others. But we will all sing again, for that is why we were created. And though Dewayne's voice is stilled, if you listen close, the echoes of his voice are still harmonizing with ours.
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