Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Hope At Midnight
Sometimes hope walks in with work boots on. We open the morning with a story that moved us deeply: TobyMac’s journey through back-to-back losses, the ache that followed, and the surprising spark he found in Psalm 98—“God rolled up His sleeves.” That single image shifted grief into grounded expectation and inspired a song that refuses to flinch in the dark.
Along the way, we talk about faith without the fine print—why Toby and Amanda said they follow God out of love, not leverage—and what it looks like to hold trust when timing hurts. The heartbeat here is “Help Is On The Way,” a track that leans on the tension we all know: it may be midnight or midday, and it’s never early, never late. We unpack how that lyric becomes a lifeline for anyone waiting on a breakthrough, a diagnosis, a phone call, or a turn in the road.
Whether you’re navigating a personal valley or standing with someone who is, these few minutes offer clear steps to wait well, name pain honestly, and lean toward the horizon with steady courage.
If this landed with you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a lift, and leave a quick review so more people can find a reason to start right tomorrow.
Here is the youtube link to Help is on the Way
https://youtu.be/aVgetIvEIAs
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. Toby Mack has been recording Christian music for a long time. He started back in 1987 with the group DC Talk. They were together until the year 2000 when they disbanded. In 2001, Toby Mack struck out on his own and has been a solo artist ever since, still creating great Christian songs, including a number of hits and receiving multiple awards. But for Toby Mack, whose real name is Toby McKeachin, the last years have been particularly hard. In October of twenty nineteen, his son Truett passed away as a result of a drug overdose. Truett had been working on his own musical career, and was having difficulty dealing with some of his own issues and struggles. As you can imagine, this totally devastated Toby Mac's family. But his fans rose up, and through all of the avenues of social media and directly to his website, fans sent messages of love and encouragement and prayers to him and to his family. Toby Mack and his family were so touched that they had to respond to all of this outpouring of love. So they did a tribute to Truitt, and all of his fans were invited to watch. Toby and his wife Amanda concluded that tribute by saying We want the world to know we don't follow God because we have some sort of under the table deal with him, like we'll follow you if you bless us. We follow God because we love him. It's our honor. He is the God of the hills and the valleys, and he is beautiful above all things. They're not going to let the loss of their son turn them against God or doubt their faith. Then the pandemic hit. And all of a sudden, as with all recording artists, their tours were cancelled, studio time was cancelled, and their incomes virtually disappeared. On the plus side, he was now able to spend more time with his wife and his four remaining children. Then in September of 2020, disaster struck again. His sister, Kristen, passed away. And everyone who knew him began to wonder how much can one man take. Toby continued to write songs. And he admitted the songs he wrote during that time were mostly sad songs. He says that he prayed, asking God to give him something to hold on to in the middle of the darkness. That's when he stumbled across Psalm 98, the first two verses. The message reads it this way Sing to God a brand new song. He's made a world of wonders. He rolled up his sleeves, he set things right. God made history with salvation. He showed the world what he could do. Toby said, I read that God rolls up his sleeves and thought, wow, what beautiful imagery. This picture turned me from just having hope to starting to yell at from the rooftops. The God of all creation is rolling up his sleeves on our behalf, and what a promise we are not forgotten, not at all. Toby was inspired to write again, so he sat down and began to create a new song. Only this time it wasn't going to be another sad song. This time the song was going to be full of hope. And the result was help is on the way. Since its release it has climbed as high as number two in the Christian music charts. The theme of God rolling up his sleeves occurs frequently within the song. The imagery is that of God getting ready to get down to business. It's time to get things done. Help is on the way. He declares several times that the timing is not up to us, the timing is up to God. But when God moves, he's going to move powerfully. It might be midnight or it might be midday, but he's never early and he's never late. But you need to know that help is on the way. The purpose of this song is to give us hope in those dark times. It came out of a very dark place in Toby Mack's life, but it helped him escape that dark place. It helped him to understand that God is pulling him out and moving him forward, and that there are new things and good things ahead for him and for his family. I really like this song, although it's hard to define its style, it's a little bit different than many things that you've heard before. But I really love the message of hope. Even though we don't know when that help is coming, it may be midnight, it may be midday, we can know for sure that it's never going to be early and it's never going to be late, but it is coming. Help is on the way, and we can trust that and put our faith in God for it. In your show notes today, I've put the link to help us on the way in YouTube. And I'm going to leave you with just a short clip of the song. I hope you enjoy it. Have a great day, my friends. We will talk to you tomorrow. Some features a lifetime of volunteers. But he's in the darkness, he's in the cold. Just like the morning, he always shows.
