Being Spiritually Fed

There are some Sunday services that are nice and the Gospel topics taught are good refresher courses of the principles that we’ve learned over the years. And then, every once in a while, there is a Sunday service for which you feel extraordinarily blessed to have been in the congregation. Yesterday’s service was one of the latter. The speakers were very good and their talks had wonderful messages, but the highlight of the service was a musical number by Alex Boye’. Brother Boye' was in town to talk to the youth of our church about the effects of listening to popular music. We're not sure why, but our ward was privileged to hear him sing during our Sunday services. The bio in our Sunday service’s program read as follows:

In the late 90’s, Alex was a European heartthrob. His band “Awesome” shared the stage with big names like Smashing Pumpkins, Backstreet Boys, Missey Elliot, and George Michaels. Fans waited in long lines to get a glimpse of him. He explains, “I was climbing the ladder of success but when I got to the top, I found myself leaning on the wrong side of the wall.”

In 2000, Alex felt compelled to move to Utah to pursue a career in gospel music. Alex has found success in this arena as well with multiple awards, and has recently become a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, where he has been featured as a soloist.

“Before, I’ll be honest, I used my music to get girls interested, make money, and to be rich and famous. But I didn’t find much happiness in that.” He said.

Alex now finds much joy and purpose utilizing his personal experiences in the entertainment industry to educate and warn the youth through his powerful and engaging firesides on some of the dangers and perils of today’s media and entertainment, and how they can affect our thoughts, personalities, character and spirituality.

Brother Boye’ sang How Great Thou Art. To quote the speaker after the musical number, “I’ve always liked that song and now I like it even more.” What a moving rendition! And his accompanist was every bit as talented. His extraordinary piano playing is surely a gift from God. He used no printed music, and during the fourth verse, in which the lyrics tell of Christ’s second coming, we’re pretty sure that he left no piano key untouched. Between Alex Boye’s singing and the piano playing of his very talented accompanist, it was difficult to know where to focus one’s attention. There were very few dry eyes in the congregation.

What a wonderful Sabbath Day worship service, and a great way to start our week!