BONUS: The True Story of "Amazing Grace" (John Newton)

Everyone knows the legend: a brutal slave trader has a dramatic conversion in a storm, quits the trade, and writes "Amazing Grace" as a changed man. The truth is harder, and in the end more full of grace.

This is a bonus drop, the audio of my new long-form documentary on the real story of John Newton and the hymn he wrote. He went back to slaving after his conversion. He captained slave ships for years, after the storm, after "the hour I first believed." He left the trade because his health gave out, not his conscience, and he kept his money in it long after. He didn't take a public stand against slavery for about 40 years. And he wrote "Amazing Grace" at a desk in Olney for an ordinary New Year's service, not on a storm-tossed deck, and first titled it "Faith's Review and Expectation."

Because grace is not a light switch. It's slow, and patient, and willing to spend a lifetime. And that changes how we lead the songs we hand our people, and how we hold the slow, unfinished parts of our own walk.

Watch the full documentary with the visuals on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NiNJycHvdW4

Read the written companion: https://ryanloche.substack.com/p/you-are-not-too-slow-for-grace-to