Some years ago, while getting ready for what seemed like just another ordinary day, a breakfast television interview caught my attention. Lisa Marie Presley was speaking about music, her struggle with addiction, and the memories she carried of her father, Elvis Presley.

Because Lisa Marie was born around the same time as I was, and my own father was born in the same year as Elvis, I suddenly became aware of how blessed I have been to still have my father in my life for so long.

I have a vivid memory from childhood. My mum, my younger brother and I had walked to our local shopping centre. While my brother and I stood waiting for Mum, my eyes fell on a newspaper headline at a kiosk announcing that Elvis Presley had died. I already knew who Elvis was because my older brother was a fan.

Since we migrated to Australia only a year later, and because Elvis seemed to be spoken of everywhere at that time, those two events have always remained strangely intertwined in my mind. The death of Elvis and our move to Australia became woven together in memory.

Lisa Marie had me completely captivated as she spoke. She talked about the darkness she had walked through, the pain she had carried, and how faith had come to matter deeply to her. But what moved me most was hearing her speak about her father singing gospel music. She recalled waking in the night to the sound of his voice filling the house with songs of faith. She said that was when he seemed most alive, most passionate, most at peace.

That touched me deeply. It revealed something tender and true about him. For all the fame, noise and spectacle that surrounded Elvis Presley, it seems gospel music remained the place where his soul could breathe. Beneath the public image and the crushing weight of celebrity, there was still a man who returned again and again to the music of faith, comfort and hope.

Years later, when Lisa Marie recorded a duet with her father on an album honouring his love of gospel music, I could hardly imagine anything more emotional. To sing alongside the voice of a father long gone must have been both beautiful and heartbreaking. Even as an outsider, listening to it stirs something deep within me.

There is such loneliness in this world, and there are seasons when that loneliness feels sharper than usual. Most of us know what it is to walk through dark places, to feel overwhelmed, to long for comfort, or to wish we could speak to someone we love just one more time. Lisa Marie spoke of that longing for her father, and it was impossible not to feel the ache of it.

Having a father to turn to brings such a deep sense of security. I only fully understood that when I nearly lost my own father in 2015. It made me realise just how much his presence has meant to me. But it also deepened my awareness of something else: in the hardest moments of life, I have learned to turn again and again to my Heavenly Father. There is hardly a day that passes when I do not cry out to Him for help in one way or another. To know that I am heard, that I am not abandoned, and that I do not carry life’s burdens alone, gives me comfort beyond words.

Just as gospel music seemed to sustain Elvis throughout his life, I know that the deep roots of faith have sustained me too. They have carried me through grief, fear, uncertainty and heartache, and I believe they will continue to carry me through whatever still lies ahead.

When Lisa Marie Presley died so young, it was another sobering reminder of how fragile life is. One moment a person is here, and the next they are gone. We all know this, and yet it still takes us by surprise every time. Life is precious, but it is also brief and uncertain.

And so my prayer remains simple: that God would hold my hand, and yours too, through all the joys and sorrows of this life, through every dark valley and every unknown road ahead, until the day we reach the other side. This world is not our final home. Until that day comes, I want my heart to keep singing, keep trusting, and keep carrying on with hope.