“My parenting approach before these past couple of years was to pray for my kids to go to college, end up happily married with good jobs and a nice home. Now I focus more on wanting my kids to open their hearts and love God and love their neighbor. I’m excited to see what they do in their generation. I want them to be leaders, and I don’t want them to be afraid. I want them to believe in a God who is real and is bigger than all of this and has a plan for their lives. The way I parent them now is not about protecting them from everything, it’s about creating in them a sense of the story that they are a part of, and the idea of the good use of their lives.”
“There were several books that were instrumental in shaping this album: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder, Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin and We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch. Musically, I love Mindy Smith and Rosie Thomas. Also, I went to a Paul Simon concert on his 60th birthday and was blown away at his creativity. I was inspired by how inventive his new music was, and equally compelling compared to his older songs. It was exciting for me to realize with this album that I am more passionate today about what I’m saying and what I’m writing about than I was when I started. That’s a good feeling.”
“Brown has always just been so careful with these songs. At the beginning of making this CD, I was really shaky on my feet about everything. I felt like I was out in left field wanting to write about social justice and wondering how I was going to pull that off. I wanted to write to people like myself, soccer moms, and I wanted it to be palatable to them. Brown was just a great companion on that road to make that happen. He has such a great ability to communicate songs. It was really fun to work with him again.”
“It’s hard for me to have perspective on my own music. I don’t make big claims of doing something extremely different, but I do know that I approached these songs in a really different way. I can get in a real rut when I’m at the piano so I broke away from the piano. I bought an electric guitar, and I had a lot of fun playing on that. And I got together with a group of guys here at home who helped me flesh out ideas. I tried to come in through a whole different door. I’m excited—it feels like some of the most creative music I’ve written in a long time.”
“IJM is a team of lawyers and law enforcement officials who work around the globe to represent people who wouldn’t normally have access to that kind of intervention. In Southeast Asia they work mostly freeing young girls from brothels. Over a million women and children are trafficked every year, but IJM is leading the way in setting new precedents in the fight against human trafficking. In Africa, they represent the oppressed, and work to restore land to widows who have been robbed of their land. In South Asia they work to free families and groups of people from bonded slavery. Basically, they are public defenders for the least of these.”
There is a scene in the movie Dances with Wolves where the Sioux are on a much anticipated buffalo hunt. As they come up over a hill, they are shocked to see a field full of buffalo carcasses. The tragedy of that moment is that where the Sioux use every piece of the buffalo—the bladder holds water, the bone makes a tool, the skin is a covering for a tent- whoever has done this has taken the best part of the buffalo for himself and has left everything else to waste. There is no way to make good use of all that is lying in this field.
I was so convicted when I went to Africa that I am not using all of my spiritual buffalo. I have developed this one side of my personal relationship with God. I go to church, I have incredible worship, and I listen to incredible speakers. I have money to buy devotionals, and leisure time to do those devotionals. I have spent a lifetime grooming a personal faith in Christ, but have I been taking the best piece of the buffalo for myself? There has been a joy in discovering the good use of my life. There is a reciprocal redemption that happens when we enter into stories of helping our neighbor—not just around the world, but in our own communities. When I came home from Africa, instead of feeling guilty for my life, I began to hear God in a very clear way say, ‘that thing carries water, that thing makes a tool, that is covering for a tent.’ There is a beauty to the good use of a life, and to the acknowledgment that everything you have and do has a Kingdom purpose.