This is one of the most special songs I've ever written partly because of the story behind it.
The last two weeks of May 2008 , my mother andI were fortunatee enough to get to go on Precept Ministries International's (Kay Arthur) Israel Study Tour. It was an incredible two weeks on so many levels, and if you ever have the opportunity to take the trip I highly recommend it.

The format of the trip was such that we toured sites with our Israeli guides and once or twice a day Kay or one of the Precept staff would do a 1-2 hour teaching, usually on a passage of scipture that was directly related to the site where we were. One day when Kay was teaching, she broke off for a minute and started talking personally about the power and importance of here time alone in the Word with God in her life. As she was speaking, I felt like she was dictating a song, and I scribbled down as much as I could get in the marginsof my New Inductive Study Bible.

On the second to the last day of the tour (the Sabbath) , we had some free time, and I went and sat in in the park next to our hotel which overlooked the Old City. It was a beautiful, clear afternoon, and all the Jews were in the park with their families (since they couldn't do anything else). I looked over the Old City and thought about how much had happended there and tried to take in the fact that I was in Jerusalem - what an incredible place to write a song about God.

WIthin about an hour, I wrote Nothing Else Compares - filling in what I thought Kay was trying to express. I pulled her aside the next morning and told her that I had a song I'd like to play for her if she got a free moment. She said instead "play it this morning before the final teaching."

I didn't know how serious she was - she could have been trying to be polite. We were tight on time, there was already other music planned, so I thought I'd take my guitar with me to the site and see what happened. Sure enough, as Kay walked up to the podium, she asked "Where's Julie?" And I know God was opening an incredible door for me to share the song with not only Kay (as we say overlooking Jerusalem from the Preomenada) but everyone else on the tour. I would have never asked for that honor, but in God's great mercy and plan, He gave me the deepest desire of my heart.

I doubt I'll ever forget that day. One of the members of the tour sent me this photo: