A Faulty Prediction

Friday June 11th, 2004
Nissan Stadium
Nashville, TN

It was the second day of our family vacation in Nashville, TN. The previous day we had ridden the General Jackson riverboat on the Tennessee River. Before our trip was over, we would go to the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry as well.

Yet, on this day, we walked on the streets of Nashville casually, with not much of an agenda. It wasn’t until we got close to Nissan Stadium that we discovered we were in town during the annual CMA Music Festival.

For those who do not know, CMA Music Festival is a four-day event that happens every summer in Nashville with all-day-long concerts by the very best country music bands and artists. Highlights of these shows have often aired on TV as well.

We got tickets for the Friday night show and got to see artists such as Trace Adkins, Martina McBride, Lonestar, and Brooks & Dunn. Of all the concerts I’ve ever been to, that night’s show was one of the very best.

As we left during Brooks & Dunn’s final set of the night, I looked back at the jumbotron and was shocked to see none other than Gretchen Wilson riding an ATV onto the stage to interrupt them with her song, “Redneck Woman.”

What I remember even more than this though, is a woman who held a Gretchen Wilson sign in the air, and screamed as we walked towards the bus to take us back to our hotel, the words…

“GRETCHEN WILSON IS GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD!”

Gretchen Wilson did go on to have a hit #1 song with “Redneck Woman.” Her debut album Here For The Party went on to sell over five million copies. In the years that followed, she received awards and toured for years. Yet, she really became just a female version of the one-hit-wonder Billy Ray Cyrus. She would never achieve the long-term success of another female artist who started the same time as her, a bold and brilliant girl from Texas named Miranda Lambert.

It may not be about Gretchen Wilson, but nowadays, conspiracy theories, debated conspiracy theories, prophecies, and predictions are quite popular. Be they about Qanon, the Illuminati, adrenochrome, aliens, the Mark of the Beast, or the Return of Christ, everyone has an opinion about what is going on and what the future holds.

While the Mark of the Beast will become reality one day, Jesus will return, and everything prophesied in the Bible will come to pass, many, including myself, have searched in places outside of Scripture to have hope and make sense of things.

I won’t start a debate on what I think is a conspiracy theory and what I think isn’t a conspiracy theory. Time will reveal what is really true. Yet, I will say this.

Nothing good comes from spending hours and hours reading the news and trying to make sense of what may happen. It is good to be aware of what’s going on. Yet, if we become too aware, we risk losing ourselves and our minds. That is exactly what the Enemy of our very souls most desires.

As someone who has worried and been paranoid over many things for years, I cannot even tell you how many times I worried about what I thought was going to happen, and then how time and time again, my little world and “the world didn’t end.”

We all have opinions of what tomorrow holds. In time, there may be at least some aspects of those that come true. Yet, instead of Gretchen Wilson, or who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, let’s place our hope in the One who holds the future and knows what tomorrow brings.

Until Next Time,

Jacob McGowen