NATALIE GRANT

The Miracle I Didn’t Expect

WHEN POWERHOUSE Christian vocalist Natalie Grant heard she had thyroid cancer in 2017, the doctors assured her, “If you’re going to get cancer, this is the kind to get.”

As Natalie breathed a sigh of relief that her diagnosis, though serious, could be treated, the doctor laid out the next piece of news: “There’s a tumor lying on your vocal chord. We’ll be able to remove it, but you may never sing again.”

Who am I going to be if the singing is gone?

“I had a real crisis in that moment,” Natalie says, “when I realized, Okay, I’m going to survive cancer. But who am I going to be if the singing is gone?”

Natalie’s whole life had been filled with music, starting as a young girl singing in church. Though praised for her range and style, she didn’t know there was anything special about her voice and made other plans for her life. She went to college and kept singing on the side.

But one night, Natalie attended a concert for the Christian music group Truth. She felt so drawn to their music that, on a whim, she decided to audition for the group after the show. Her big-voiced pop style with a tinge of gospel soul won over the group’s director. She soon found herself as an official member of Truth, performing over three hundred shows year.

After two years, Natalie made a move to Nashville, working at a church while pursuing music. Her self-titled debut album caught the ears of radio stations and listeners, and over the next twenty years, a slew of record sales and awards followed.

But that day in that doctor’s office in 2017, the roar of her success faded into silence as she contemplated the loss of something that had defined her for as long as she could remember. A Jesus Calling reader of many years, Natalie remembered a passage she’d just read in Jesus Always as she anxiously awaited the outcome of her surgery.

“I began to go, I can't see now how this could be working for my good. But I know He's promised to work all things together for my good.”

Post surgery, Natalie tentatively tested her voice— and found it was still there.

“The greatest miracle that came through that season of waiting was that I could honestly say, ‘My outcome does not determine God’s goodness.’ He is still faithful, He is still true. We can dare to step out in faith, knowing He’s already ahead of us and where we’re going.”

Natalie and her husband, pianist Bernie Herms, tour in Spring 2023. To find out where you can see them, visit nataliegrant.com.

THE NAME JIM SONEFELD —”Soni”—likely rings a bell for many. Drummer for the rock ‘n’ roll band Hootie & the Blowfish, Jim was part of the band’s meteoric rise in the 90s and early 2000s. Coastto-coast shows, sold-out stadiums, and multiple television appearances—Sonefeld became a familiar image with his shoulder-length blond hair cascading across his face from behind the drums.

Growing up in Naperville, Illinois, Sonefeld had two loves: sports and music. When he wasn’t banging on his drums, he was “chasing a ball.” As Sonefeld puts it, “My competitive spirit came alive when I could compete, and it was wonderful.”

When it came time to go to college, Sonefeld decided to attend the University of South CarolinaColumbia on a soccer scholarship. But sports weren’t everything to him, and he was soon part of several