This time next month (January 2012) my new book “THE BLESSEDNESS OF BROKENNESS” is scheduled to be released. It is such an honor to finally share it with folks across America and I’m honored and humbled to have some AMAZING authors and friends who contributed to share their broken seasons. Intentionally or subliminally we think God uses only the flaw-less but truth be told He uses the FLAWED the most.

FACT: The folks whom have endured the most are often the ones that God uses the most. Those that have tasted dry seasons now eventually deliver fresh food, focus and fire for all later. The individual that has been in the darkest dungeon often shines the brightest Light. Truly, we find a blessing in our brokenness. It draws us closer to Christ and He appoints and annoints us to bring hope and healing to others. I believe it was Spurgeon whom said: “There is a special battallion of soldiers in the Lord’s Army that only the wounded can serve.”

REMEMBER THIS: A valley is just an upside down mountain. How ‘low’ you feel today may be a guage of how high you will fly tomorrow. Broken Seasons are PROMOTIONS not demotions. They are our friends not enemies. We tend to hear from God in the silence of the valley more than the applause on the mountain. By God’s grace, I have been to both but President Richard Nixon said it best: “You will never appreciate the highest mountain top unless you have first endured the lowest valley.” Thank you Mr. President.

It was my honor to interview Dove Award Winner MATTHEW WEST last year on “FRANKLY SPEAKING” airing on American Family Radio and its a JOY to share it with you this week on my blog (see video below). Its perfect timing because Matthew in our interview talks about having vocal chord surgery. That is not a great place to be for any artist. Ironically, when Matthew called in LIVE for our interview he was in Los Angeles after just ministering at the Crystal Cathedral and was heading to the airport to fly home to Nashville.

Matthew has a way with words. He is an amazing singer but also an anointed song-writer and story-teller. He shares how the Lord was near and spoke to him during his darkest days. Life was good for Matthew West. Having catapulted onto the Christian music scene in 2003 with his debut single, “More” — the most played Christian AC song of 2004—the multi-Dove Award nominee and sought-after songwriter had enjoyed two critically-acclaimed studio recordings, Happy (2003) and History (2005); been a mainstay at Christian radio with memorable hits like “Only Grace,” “History” and “Next Thing You Know”; and toured with such artists as tobyMac, Jeremy Camp and BarlowGirl.

But in April of 2007, with a new label home at Sparrow Records, concert dates on the books and plans to hit the studio with a fresh batch of songs for an album he’d already titled Something To Say, Matthew lost his voice. After one look at his vocal chords, doctors at the Vanderbilt Voice Center immediately put all his plans on hold. They discovered a vascular polyp and hemorrhaged blood vessels on Matthew’s vocal chord, making it impossible for him to sing. His doctors were convinced only two courses of treatment would work: complete silence and surgery.

“Everything came to a screeching halt,” Matthew says of the diagnosis and the news of surgery. “All of a sudden my calendar was completely cleared. My studio plans were postponed. My life shut down.” Even worse, he says, was the frustration of not being able to communicate with his wife, Emily, and 1-year-old daughter, Lulu. “I was armed with a dry erase board, unable to do the little things we take for granted everyday, like talking with my wife, or singing to my little girl before bed.” This season of silence wasn’t just a wake up call for the Wests, it was a dark, uncertain place. “I saw a side of Matthew that I had not yet really seen,” says Emily. “A more fearful side, vulnerable, less confident. But also, I saw in Matthew a determination to allow God to do a work in his life through this trial. I saw him commit time each day in prayer, and really seek God for some purpose to this season.”

Matthew recommitted himself to journaling his thoughts and prayers during his season of silence. “Solitude is an uncomfortable place, and silence is so unnatural for most of us,” he relates. “I found myself surrounded by questions like, ‘What if I can’t sing anymore? What if my voice doesn’t sound the same? What if I can’t provide for my family?’ It was foundation shattering. But over and over again, I felt this recurring message on my heart saying, ‘Cease striving…don’t even ask for answers, just be with Me. Be still. I am using your voice, even when you can’t hear it.’ The core message of the entire album, he says, is “no matter how many mistakes we ve made or trials we’ve faced, it’s the brokenness of our lives that God uses to give us something to say to the world. I was sitting in church one Sunday after my surgery when my pastor read a quote from C.S. Lewis: ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’

It’s easier to cover up the weakest moments in life, hoping no one sees, but that’s not God’s plan for us. ‘Offer it up to Me, let Me show you what new life is like, what I can do with your mistakes.’ He will amplify His voice through you in a huge way.” Ultimately, Matthew hopes to communicate the message that God is indeed at work in all our lives, in every circumstance, in every moment of our existence. And even in the silence—as Matthew well knows—there is still great Hope to be shared, a story to be told, and something to say.

One of my good friends is Robbie Robison and he is on pastoral staff of the great Peoples Church in Franklin, TN. Matthew sang Christmas Eve Service at his church this weekend. You can catch a glimpse of it here. For more info visit www.MatthewWest.com or wwwFrankShelton.com