By: Zach Collins At a young age, John Newton was involved in the slave trade. He didn’t have many skills, but he was skilled in the depravity of selling created beings for monetary gain. In 1745, at the age of 20, his life changed. Aboard a slave ship, he was captured, and, in one of life’s unexpected turns, the slave trader became enslaved. Subsequently, he would be rescued, but not before he got a taste for the life he had perpetuated through his transgressions. Yet, after his rescue, he returned to the atrocity of the slave trade. However, not so soon afterward, his life would change forever. In 1748, as they journeyed from Africa to Liverpool, the slave ship came upon a ferocious storm off the coast of Ireland. Though he was a skilled seaman, a professed atheist cried out to God for mercy and survived to live another day. Perhaps this wretch was given a second chance from a life lived in the brutality of slavery. If he had not been at sea during this violent storm, John Newton might never have become known for his most famous feat. Years later, inspired by this violent storm, he would pen the lyrics to the most popular hymn in most church hymnals. The lyrics went like this:  “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I’m found Was blind, but now I see.”  It is hard to imagine such beautiful lyrics …