I met Sandy at the Southern Christian Writers Guild. We were reading excerpts from our work. A resourceful writer enlisted Sandy to sing the musician’s part in her story. I thought an angel fell from heaven’s choir. I asked Sandy if she would share her spiritual journey with me. The vivacious blond with snappy blue eyes often broke into song as she told a story of tragedy and triumph.
Sandy had loved music as long as she could remember and dreamed of being a star. After she graduated from high school, she dated a race car driver. “The kind with the parachute on the back to stop the car,” she said. She often sang with the radio when they went on dates. One day, he asked Sandy if she would like to audition for his brother’s blues band.
Sandy grew up singing country but improvised a blues song. The band hired her on the spot. She traveled with them singing a mix of Janis Joplin and Carole King songs until work ran out. Sandy returned home and found work with The Good Life, which resulted in a national recording contact with Scepter Records. For the next three and a half years, she sang in five-star hotels. “We traveled to all kinds of wonderful places,” said Sandy, “a real nice career for a young woman starting out in show business.”
When the band broke up, Sandy returned to Florida to live with her mother. While lying on the beach, Sandy saw a Carnival Cruise ship sail by and wondered if there were rock bands on the ships. She called the cruise line, and the company hired her as a band leader. Sandy’s impromptu call, in search of a job, set her on a path to a dramatic encounter with God.
Linda, an employee on the ship’s entertainment staff, shared her faith with Sandy. Sandy was happy with her career choice and wasn’t interested in following Jesus. “My grandmother told me the entertainment industry was evil. She would turn over in her grave if she knew a jazz dancer told me about Jesus,” Sandy laughed.
Linda’s persistence met a brick wall of resistance. As a last resort, she gave Sandy The Way, a Bible written in everyday language that read like a novel. Sandy relented and began reading the Bible. About the same time, a Christian group chartered the ship. Sandy made a habit of talking to passengers, hoping to receive positive comments on the evaluation sheets they filled out at the end of the cruise. She was attracted to some men who were in a gospel singing group and made it a point to talk to them during her breaks. “Not because they were gospel,” said Sandy, “but because they liked me, and they were singers.”
One night, Sandy saw Pedro, her boyfriend who also worked on the ship, glaring at her as she talked to the singers. She didn’t understand his anger. Talking to passengers was part of her job. At the end of the cruise, Sandy was on the way to her cabin when a waitress told her Pedro had fought with one of the singers. When Pedro came to her cabin, she rebuked him for his jealousy. He became enraged and raised his fist. Sandy cried out in her heart, “God what do I do?” A still small voice said, “Act like you are not afraid.” Pedro’s fist whizzed by Sandy’s head and slammed into the wall. Sandy dared not move as Pedro repeatedly slammed his fist and head into the wall until he was exhausted.
The next morning, Pedro announced they needed a break from one another, but Sandy knew she needed more than a break. She feared Pedro would slam his fist into her face the next time his anger flared. She also knew severing her relationship with Pedro would be impossible as long as they worked on the same ship.
Sandy discussed her predicament with her band. They agreed to buy her equipment and finish her contract with the cruise line. Free to leave the ship, reality set in—no job, no place to go, no equipment to start over. Distressed, Sandy walked onto the promenade deck of the ship, and confessed to God that her sins had brought this disaster upon her.
Sandy’s chin quivered, and tears streamed down her face as she explained to me what happened next. “A rainbow dropped onto the bow of the ship and a supernatural feeling swept me. Then I heard God say, ‘I forgive you. I love you. Everything will be all right.’ It was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me.”
Sandy’s mother picked her up at the terminal. On their way home, Sandy told her mother what had happened on the deck of the cruise ship. Her mother exclaimed, “Sandy, you’ve been born again.” Sandy asked her mother what God expected her to do. “You stop sinning and go to church,” her mother affirmed.
Sandy attended church and sought God for direction. Direction came when Sandy met a friend for coffee to discuss whether she should return to her entertainment career. Her friend said, “Sandy, it doesn’t matter what you do. God will never leave you or forsake you.”
Longing to sing again, Sandy contacted Carnival to see if she could return. The company assigned her to a different ship as a principal entertainer and tripled her salary. Sandy was thrilled, except for the nagging guilt that returning to her career had offended God.
The first night on the ship, Sandy’s smile hid the torment raging within her as she introduced passengers at the captain’s cocktail party. Thoughts that she had willingly returned to a den of iniquity and was now headed for hell whipped her mercilessly until she panicked. Sandy looked down the line of passengers and spotted a woman whom she had seen at embarkation wearing a large cross. She walked quickly to the woman and asked, “Do you know Jesus?”
The guest looked at the distraught woman standing in front of her and smiled, “I sure do, Honey.” Mary put her arm around Sandy’s shoulder and steered her to the women’s restroom. She listened quietly as Sandy shared her born-again experience and fear that she had sinned when she returned to her career. “Meeting Mary was a divine appointment,” said Sandy. “She comforted me and assured me of God’s love.”
For the next five years, Sandy traveled to Hollywood in between tours on the cruise ship, seeking to become a star. “If I hadn’t been born again,” said Sandy, “Hollywood would have devoured me.” Sandy’s dream eluded her until the Hilton Hotel in New Orleans hired her jazz trio. “The gig at the Hilton lasted for eight years,” said Sandy. “A gig lasting that long is unheard of in show business.”
During her gig at the Hilton, her desire to open shows for famous entertainers found its fulfillment. Sandy opened for The Commodores, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, and then Bob Hope’s agent called Sandy’s agent. He needed a singer with a girl-next-door image to open for Bob Hope. Sandy had already prepared to be an opening act for a superstar by paying arrangers to write big-band charts for her alto voice. “If I had not already purchased the arrangements, I wouldn’t have been able to fulfill the gig with Bob Hope,” said Sandy.
When the big night arrived, Sandy was escorted to her dressing room and saw a star on the door. Her personal pianist and bass player accompanied her onto the stage where a forty-piece orchestra awaited her arrival. She smoothed her $500 gown, surveyed the audience of four thousand, and then began her fifteen-minute warm-up for Bob Hope. She sang for thirty minutes. Bob Hope was late. Sandy walked off the stage feeling God had showered his love upon her.
Overwhelmed with gratitude that God had made her a star, she returned to the empty auditorium clad in jeans and sneakers to savor her fame. Instead of recapturing the moment, she stood on a dark stage and felt loneliness. Sandy prayed, “God, is that all there is?”
The sweet voice of the Holy Spirit whispered, “That’s all there is. Will you let me be the superstar in your life Sandy?”
This time Sandy abandoned her entertainment career to seek the fulfillment in following Jesus and traveled as an evangelist for many years. God’s work in her life contrasted religion with the steady hand of God’s love. Religion is consumed with “touch not, taste not, handle not” and the ever-present threat of hell for the disobedient. Love patiently waits for us to discover the vanity of human ambition and then steps in to be our superstar.
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