by David Dodd 

When God opens doors, he blows the hinges right off the frame.  For Kevin Hugley, singer/guitarist/songwriter for Rush of Fools, the door of Christian music wasn’t even an option for him three years ago.  Then God stepped in.

Kevin sat down with Apostles That Rock to talk about God breathing through their music, the key factors of the church,  relying on a letter from Paul for their band name, and writing in weakness. 

You originally wanted to be a pastor. 

My dream come true!  It’s in my blood. 

I was a worship pastor and helped start a church plant in my college town. Once church planning gets a hold of you it’s like a disease, you just can’t get rid of it.  I love it and it’s my heart.  Church life is my thought process in everything I do, especially my songwriting, I’m thinking about the church life and about the Gospel.  It’s not that I’m some super spiritual dude; I just really have a passion to try to grasp. 

You know, Jesus came and died for the church and lived this incredible life and gave us an example.  How do we now try to live that out?  How do we live under the calling of Jesus?  We have to follow his characteristics.  It’s something I’m always thinking about. 

I think that mindset translates well to a band.   

We could have never formulated this, and we never actually thought that anything like this would ever happen.  For me, it really is like truly a calling, and I love it.  If a couple years ago you would have said to me, ‘you should be in a band,’ I would have said, ‘heck no!’  It wasn’t even a thought.  I was wired to church planning.  That’s what I want to do when I grow up.  We kind of joke by saying God opened the door and shoved us through at the same time and I think the neat sense of that is it gives God the glory for it.  It doesn’t reflect on five dudes that have done something incredible, it’s reflected on God has decided that in His providence and in His Sovereignty He would use five guys to bring glory to Himself.  It’s incredible that He uses us despite of our weaknesses and our shortcomings, it’s quite a humbling experience. 

And that’s very evident in your writing, because when you guys write, you’re very honest in revealing your weaknesses. 

Yea, it is.  We’ve found that exposing our weakness and trying to be vulnerable in our lyrics allows us to be relational with people who really grasp a song, and that wasn’t our intention.  Our intention behind it was simply that we would use our songs to not only encourage other people but to remind ourselves of the need for the Gospel. 

You know, we’re a worship band, and we write worship songs, that’s how we’re wired.  In our worship songs we’ve just got to be honest, we’ve got to be real so we can remind ourselves daily that we need the grace of God in our lives, we need the Gospel, and we are nothing special, there is nothing special about the five guys in Rush of Fools except for Jesus, that’s the only thing that makes us special.

Our live is no longer ours to live.  It’s not about our fame now, it’s about the glory of God, and it’s about Him working through us, and us giving Him all the glory.  That’s the heart of what we want to be known for.  

Going back to the southeast in the culture all of us were raised in, even in different denominations, the culture there in the southeast, so much of church life is based on religion, and it’s based on following the right rules and saying the right things and wearing the right t-shirt, and having the right bumper sticker for crying out loud, and that was the Christian life.

I mean, my youth group life was: don’t have sex, don’t drink beer, don’t smoke cigarettes, and hang out with Christian people and you’re doing good. 

Then you read the Bible and you say, wait a second, that’s not what it’s all about.  Jesus came and loved the sinner, He loved and hung out with people who were horrible and I think the heart of what we wanted to communicate with Undo is you know, I’ve put on a mask at church, I’ve worn the mask and put on this face of a person who just tries to pretend that everything’s ok.  I did that in college and all the campus ministries I was involved in as a worship leader.  I tried to pretend like everything is awesome and here I am struggling with lust, and here I am struggling with anger and frustration at the church but I wouldn’t expose that.  That’s not what the Christian life is about, the hiding and pretending that we’ve got it figured out, it’s about exposing the fact that we can show that we need the Gospel in our lives.

One of the cool things is that people can actually see that in Undo and see that in their home lives and that’s really been an encouragement for us. 

You went to First Corinthians for the inspiration of your name. 

Rush of Fools was a song that we played as an independent worship band.  The heart behind the song was just the heart of Paul writing that letter to his church.  Do you know about where Paul was when writing that?  He had pastored that church; it was a church plant he had started, and was there for about 18 months.  He didn’t get paid, but he loved those people and everything about them, but he just noticed stuff that he needed to address with them.

In the beginning of that letter he just shares with them where they’ve come from and where God’s brought them as His people, and one of the coolest reminders to me is that he says, consider your calling, and he reminds them there wasn’t really anything special about them before Jesus, they were normal people, their parents weren’t rich, they weren’t wealthy, they weren’t well known, they weren’t political leaders, they were just normal people from normal families.

And where we’ve translated it now, it’s Chapter One, Verse Twenty Seven: He says, 

And that just blows our minds.    It doesn’t make sense why God would do that, but that‘s what makes God, God.  You can’t figure it out, and for us that verse just resonates; it’s what we want to be known for.  We aren’t anything great; there’s nothing wonderful about us - we are a rush of fools - that had to be our name. 

And at first there was talk regarding the marketability and all that, but it doesn’t matter about being marketable, that’s us.  That is everything that encompasses what we are.

One of the most powerful songs on the record offers the craziness in our lives with a constant reminder of being still in the arms of God. 

When you’re still like that and able to hear from God and speak to God, there’s this immeasurable peace that comes with that.

It is an incredible journey to see the life of what the song has come to be because that song started two years ago.  We were doing this Christmas Tour and we were in Gatlinburg, Tennessee one morning after we finished our worship set we went back to the hotel.  We all had just read our daily devotionals and had our Bibles out.  A couple of us were in the Psalms and then someone had read Psalm 46:10  

From that we sparked with this little acoustic chorus.  The idea was writing from God’s perspective , the idea of God talking to His Children.

It was somewhat of a struggle for us because we had never attempted anything like that, but the concept of hearing our Father come and talk to us about being still and relaxing in the fact of knowing God is God and he always will be God, seemed awesome to us.

God has taken from that hotel room, a little acoustic chorus song and now a couple years later, there’s a symphony from Russia, the Prague Symphony Orchestra’s plays on the song, it’s a huge ballad that’s been an encouragement to troops, it’s been an encouragement to people who have gone through tragedies, we’ve heard form a lot of hurricane victims, people who have gone through a lot.

We were on the radio the morning of the Virginia Tech shooting and played that song. So much has happened with that song.  We give God the glory and all the credit for lives that have been encouraged by that.  That song holds a special place in our heart.    

It’s encouraging for us to know that other people are getting something from the music that God’s given us.  We give him the glory and the credit for it.

I cannot believe that God would Soverignly decide to use five guys from Alabama that are very normal, everyday dudes that just happen to love music and God, and do this for them full time.  It blows our minds.

written by Rush of Fools

“Undo” - This is the theme song of our lives.  We are hypocrites and prodigals. Countless times in our lives, we have said one way and walked another. Christ is truly the ONLY one that can turn us around, pick us up and put us back on our feet again. When we went to write this song, we simply didn’t. Our guitars were packed to leave that day and God literally dropped this song in our laps. He’s so much more powerful than we think.

“We All” – Excitement comes when we speak of God’s glory. And this song draws from that excitement. Starting the lyrical idea for this song came from Ephesians 1:5, where Paul explains that we were chosen by God before the foundation of the world. What an amazing fact to be told! This humbling truth drives us as God’s children to fall at Jesus’ feet and praise Him for what He has done for us. Though we are a broken and fallen people, God has redeemed us to be his own. We are His. By the beauty of our Savior, we are now drawn and enabled to engage God alone in our worship. He’s the only one worthy of it.

“When Our Hearts Sing” – The writing process for this song started with one phrase, “You are more than what we can sing.” It ended up making the cut as the opening line. This simple lyric remains the theme of the entire song, declaring the infinite beauty of our indescribable God. The title itself comes from the thought that our words can’t begin to explain how great God is, but that He is a God that sees our hearts, because He has made us what we are – His children who love Him. In our lives of worship, by the beauty of His grace, we are able to engage and embrace the King of existence when our hearts sing to Him.

“Your Love” – As believers, we often find ourselves living this song, being far away from where we need to be. As Rush Of Fools, we too often find this to be true in our personal spiritual journeys. Though we’re called to be holy, we find ourselves in need of much grace to make it through the day. But with that said, we must remember that we’ll never arrive to the standards of our calling. Thus, we live gripped by the humility of God’s grace to carry us through each and every day of our journey. Our only hope is found in the gospel, and even when we want to give up, God’s goodness and mercy brings us through.

“Fame” - This song really talks about how sinful we are. How we fail and stumble, but still continue to raise our hands and let go of false control, only by the beautiful Grace of God. The chorus depicts the hope of how even when we are sinners, God will still use us for his fame and glory, when we want to or not, or when we realize it or not.

“Peace Be Still” - This song was written to anyone who is weak and wounded, sick and sore. All of us, including me. As a people, we are so fast paced and never slow down enough to let God speak to us, so therefore, we never hear how God can heal us. “Please be still and know that I am God, and know that I am God.”

“All We Ever Needed” - Desperation and a thirst for Christ is the core behind this song. We get so spiritually run down and tired. When we are totally down and out, we still want to just rise up and worship God in His greatness.

“Can’t Get Away” – We are small. God is great. That sums up the idea of this cheerful chorus. Every path we take in our lives is a part of the divine providence of God. We are surprised by unexpected events, whether good or bad. God is not. That is a beautiful thing to know, and it gives us a security and a hope that everything will work out, just as Romans 8:28 explains. This song speaks of how being small makes us like the beggar, helpless on our own. We need God more than we’re willing to admit. No matter how far or how hard we try to run from God, we simply can’t get away from His irresistible grace.

“For Those” – A declaration of the beauty of God’s redemptive plan. In Matthew

9:13, Jesus spoke of how he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. And that is us. God saves sinners based on His grace, not our actions. Praise God for that! This song speaks of those whom the Lord has come for, and that His children recognize that God has drawn us to Himself. God sent His son for those who are unable to come on their own. The reality is we all fit that category, whether or not we're willing to admit it. Therefore, it is a song of humility, but at the same time, a song of hope. The inspiration to live by God's grace rather than our abilities gives God the glory, not us. And we want to live out Psalm 115:1 with our lives: "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!"

“Jesus Hurry” - This song is about our joy for the return of Christ. It speaks from a child-like perspective. There is so much beauty in the simplicity of our knowledge that we will be in the glory of heaven with our Savior one day! In writing this song, there was a specific desire to keep it to the point. Nothing will ever be better than the gift of our salvation, and because of that gift, we can look forward to the awesome fact that we will be in heaven one day with Jesus. So Jesus, hurry back to your children!
 

“Already” – The simplicity in our salvation is hard to grasp. God is saving for Himself a people. When we are awakened to this truth, our mission in life is to love God first and foremost, but also to love those who need the gospel. Generations before us, even in the early church years, have been deceived into believing the lie that work is somehow tied into salvation. Many times, though it’s hard to admit, we can find ourselves trying to impress God for believing this same lie. However, the gospel reminds us that we’ve already been redeemed, and God’s love for us can’t be worked for. The gospel is enough. Nothing more can be done.