Focus on the Family Magazine - October/November 2022

TRUSTING GOD / FAITH & INSPIRATION
Luke and his family (l to r):
Front row: Phoenix, Leo, Jude
Back row: Luke, Courtney, Evie
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LUKE SMALLBONE
professionally as Rebecca St. James, released
her first major Christian music album with
ForeFront Records. Rebecca’s musical success
paved the way for her younger brothers, Luke
and Joel. The brothers sang background vocals
and ran the lights for their sister’s concerts until
they decided, in 2007, to begin their own musical
duo, eventually named For King & Country.
By 2013, For King & Country had earned
several Dove Award nominations and even
appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”
But later that year, Luke became seriously ill,
and the brothers wondered if their dreams
would survive his illness—or if Luke himself
would survive.
Accepting grace
Joel Smallbone was on his honeymoon with
his wife, Moriah, that July when his phone lit
up with a text message—news that Luke had to
stop touring.
Luke had struggled for some time with ulcerative
colitis, a digestive disorder that eventually
withered his 6-foot-4-inch-tall body from 185
pounds to 125 pounds.
“I looked like a concentration camp survivor,”
Luke says. He was extremely weak—too weak to
even hold his 6-month-old son, Jude.
As Luke fought for his life, Courtney—whom
Luke had married in 2010—struggled to nurse
her 26-year-old husband back to health. She
kept a journal of everything he ate and held his
arm whenever he attempted to get some exercise.
For Luke, one lap around their cul-de-sac
each day was all he could handle.
Meanwhile, as he lay in bed exhausted, Luke
struggled with God.
“I made a decision to follow Jesus when I was
8, and man, has that held me in good stead for
life,” he says. “But there are moments in life
that it becomes more real than at other times.”
One night in particular, he remembers crying
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2022 FOCUS ON THE FAMILY 29