Jonathan Helser sings "Raise A Hallelujah" a worship anthem whose genesis is the desperation and anguish Jonathan felt when praying for his friend's two-year-old son, Jaxon Taylor, during a fight for Jaxon's life...
JUST A FEW DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS...
Janie Taylor sat in her kitchen with her two-year old son, Jaxon, baking a cake. It was a special mommy-son moment with no real foreshadowing of the events to come. What follows is their story. I remember it myself as I was one of thousands, maybe millions, who sought the Lord in prayer for Jaxon and his family. Prayers the family so desperately needed...
A HELICOPTER RIDE TO SACRAMENTO, CA
On the same day they baked the cake together, Jaxon became severely ill. Janie and her husband, Joel Taylor (CEO, Bethel Music) rushed their son to the emergency room. Janie remembers a phone call she had with Jaxon's doctor as they were trying to figure out what was going on: "He said, 'I'm real concerned that he might have E.coli.'"
Things progressed rapidly and soon they were advised that the best choice they could make to save Jaxon's life was to send him by helicopter to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California - immediately. They flew out that night. Later they found out that what started as an E. Coli infection, soon progressed to HUS (Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome) which then developed into life-threatening kidney failure. With her son's life at risk Janie was struck with the knowledge that Jaxon might not survive...
"I was just flooded with this sense that I might never know my boy growing up to be a man. It might be this week I loose my son," Janie said.
And then, things got even worse. Janie recalls her son being rushed to the Pediatric ICU where a neurosurgeon was called in. Little Jaxon wasn't responding to anyone or anything. His dad's strength was drained...
"There's a time when you've said every prayer you can say, and you don't have the strength to praise and worship anymore. And, you haven't slept for weeks ... you're just kind of undone. And, that was the moment for me when I was undone. The flip side of that is I feel like that was the moment that I really began to feel the prayers, around the world." ~Joel, Jaxon's dad
For the miraculous outcome, and more on the genesis of the song "Raise A Hallelujah," watch this touching re-telling of Jaxon's story:
A WORSHIP ANTHEM FORGED FROM ANGUISH - WHERE HOPE IS IGNITED BY PRAISE!
"The melody just erupted out of my heart: I RAISE A HALLELUJAH - IN THE PRESENCE OF MY ENEMIES." ~Jonathan Helser, Songwriter/Worship Leader
A MELODY RISES UP IN SOPHIA, NC
Meanwhile, more than 2,500 miles away, in North Carolina, the Helser family waited to hear how Jaxon was doing. When they got the news that things weren't going well they were stunned, but not defeated...
"I remember the night we got the text that they didn't think he was gonna make it through the night," Melissa Helser recalls. "Those moments, even though they're really hard, something within us rises up that only moments of trauma and intensity can actually call forth ... for us the only option is - we just have to worship."
Bereft of hope and battling the fear that Jaxon would not survive, Melissa's husband, Jonathan Helser, sought the Lord and says, "There was something inside of me that was like 'No!' And, the melody just erupted out of my heart." That melody, "I raise a hallelujah, in the presence of my enemies" would play over Jaxon for the rest of his month long hospital stay...
"He [Jonathan] sent me a song," Joel says. "Their community had prayed for Jaxon and in a spontaneous moment they came up with a song. And so they just, you know, recorded it and so they sent it to me. I took that song over my phone and I played it over my son, over and over again. 'I raise a hallelujah, in the presence of my enemies. I raise a hallelujah, my weapon is a melody.' And, that's exactly what I was doing. I was fighting warfare and it wasn't just me. I wasn't alone ... it still humbles me and baffles me the power of global prayer, the power of community, the power of believing together."
