For the first time in their decade long career, one of
Karen Peck & New River’s songs holds the No. 1 position on all three
Southern Gospel radio charts. Across the board, The Gospel Voice, The
Singing News, US Gospel News and countless radio stations have lifted “Four
Days Late” into constant rotation across the nations’ airwaves.
The rendition of Aaron Wilburn’s
hope-filled song as performed by Karen Peck & New River retells the story of Lazarus’
death and resurrection. At his lowest
point ever, one listener was contemplating suicide when he caught the song on
his car radio.
“You may be fighting a battle of fear;
You’ve cried to the Lord, I need You now,
But He has not appeared.”
“Four Days Late”
The words in this song reached out to this man and at that moment, he
decided that suicide was not the answer. Right there in his car, he gave
his heart to Christ and his life was forever changed.
God has a way of doing that – of taking an ordinary song with an
extraordinary message of hope and extending a taste of grace to each of us.
Aaron Wilburn received that message early one morning in the spring of
1994. Three months of pain that neither four doctors nor three specialists
were able to heal – unpaid bills, sleepless nights, and no hope. At three o
’clock that morning, Aaron picked up his Bible and read John 11 of Lazarus’
illness and verses 5 & 6 – “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister [Mary],
and Lazarus and He waited two more days in the place where He was.”
“I wept openly,” Aaron recalls. “I wasn’t the first to wonder when He was
coming or the first to ask, ‘Does He know how sick I am?’ As tears ran down
my face, little did I know that within two weeks, my physical and emotional
life would be back to normal; I would be laughing again, and hope would
again be living and breathing. That night, I did not hear Him say ‘I am
getting ready to heal you,’ no quiet whisper that everything was alright,
but, as surely as I sit here today, that night I did hear Him say ‘When I’m
four days late, I’m still on time.’ It would be over a year later before
the song would be written…but the song was true even before it was put on
paper.”
“But His way is God’s way,
Not yours or mine.
And isn’t it great,
When He’s four days late,
He’s still on time.”
“Four Days Late”
“Four Days Late” can be found on Karen Peck & New River’s second Spring
Hill Music album, A Taste of Grace. And, aside from the critical praise and
numerous awards, one thing will always remain true – the message of the
songs they sing. Mary and Martha knew it; Aaron learned it that lonely
morning; Karen Peck & New River testify to it every time they sing this
song – ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under
the heaven’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
