1 of 3

As a longtime fan of Sara Groves, I was thrilled when Christian Music Today asked me to interview her about her new album, Tell Me What You Know. The new disc is so great—so musically inventive, so lyrically insightful, so inspired and inspiring—I had an actual physical reaction the first time I heard it, slamming my fist against the steering wheel and shouting "Whoa!" My conversation with Sara revealed a woman who has been forever changed by an awareness of pain and suffering around the world—not of a nameless humanity but of the particular living, breathing humans who populate her latest songs. Hearing their stories will break your heart, but it will encourage you too. The woman who challenged us to Add to the Beauty two years ago is now showing us how it's done.

Why did you call the album Tell Me What You Know?

Sara Groves Probably half of the songs are about people I've met over the past two or three years, people who made me wake up and realize that most of the world operates on a whole different playing field. I met people in Rwanda who had survived the genocide and who are now forgiving the perpetrators, and that was unbelievable to me—very difficult to comprehend, and yet so biblical. And I got to meet Elizabeth, who was trafficked [as a sex slave] at 15 and was a believer. She wrote Scripture on the walls of brothels to help her survive this horrific experience, and is now an incredible woman of faith.

I realized that the common denominator in all these people that have suffered so much is that they knew God in a way that I did not know him. And I want to know what they know. So a line in the song "In the Girl There's a Room" says, "Tell me what you know about God in the world in the human soul," because they've been stretched and pressed in ways that I can't even comprehend. The Bible says we'll know Christ by his suffering and that he cast his lot with the oppressed. So there's something they know about God, my God, that I don't even understand.

The result is an incredible album primarily about social justice. So why did you choose to start it with Song for My Sons?

Groves The song was inspired by an index card my great grandfather wrote. He was a pastor and he traveled abroad to speak in England, and he suffered a heart attack there. My grandmother and her sisters were young women here in the States. When he passed away, his wife, who was with him, wrote on an index card his final words—an exhortation to his kids to be faithful and true to Jesus always. The last time I was with my grandmother she showed me that card, and I got to see, in my great grandmother's handwriting, what Great Grandpa Wesley wanted to say to his kids at that last hour of his life.

I wondered how my kids would finish the statement, "My mother always said … " What would they say? Besides "You get what you get," "Don't throw a fit," and "That doesn't fit in your nose"? I would hope there was something that stood out as the message of my life.

Song for My Sons is based on Matthew 24:12-13, where Jesus tells the disciples that in the end times, there will be an increase of evil. He says, "The love of most will grow cold, but some will stand firm to the end and they'll be saved." I think my sons will face things that I can't even comprehend. And that evil, that darkness, that hurt will make them want to shut their hearts. Even now believers are shutting up their hearts and they're closing the windows and locking the doors. But Jesus says, "I want you to keep your door open in the face of terrorism, in the face of all the ills that the world has to offer. I want you to keep your heart open and love your God and love your neighbor."

next page... |  1 of 3