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."

Your last album, Add to the Beauty, seemed like the beginnings of a call to social justice, and Tell Me What You Know feels more like a play-by-play of what that might actually look like. What else have you seen that helped you create these songs?

Groves: I wrote Add to the Beauty before I knew what it meant. I was trying to cast this vision, paint this picture. It was like a piper's song, you know? And I had heard the song myself and had gone wandering out into the streets: What is that? Man, that is the kingdom of God. And so I was trying in Add to the Beauty to capture whatever I was feeling. I was excited and scared at the same time. I told [my husband] Troy, "Something big is happening, and I still don't think we really fully know what the chain reaction might be." The start was with Add to the Beauty, and I was really restless and hungry.

About that time, I was introduced to the work of International Justice Mission (IJM). I heard stories of these young girls [forced into prostitution in Southeast Asia] in these brothels. These things are illegal in these countries. IJM, led by Gary Haugen, realized we could use the laws that were on the books. God is a God of justice, and there are people who have a heart for justice and mercy and walk humbly with their God. IJM realized we could do something to intervene on behalf of these girls. And I cried and cried when I learned about their work and about these children. It just killed me.

I picked up Gary Haugen's book Terrify No More, which is about their work in Cambodia. They literally eradicated the trade of young children in this area of Cambodia that had been the number one place for child perpetrators to go when they wanted to abuse young girls. And now you cannot find a minor [in the sex trade] in that area!

That's phenomenal.

Groves: In Terrify No More Gary says "In the times of the crushing of the innocent, in times of great despair, I used to ask 'Where is God?' But now my plea has changed. I no longer ask 'Where is God?' but 'Where are God's people?' I remember reading that and jumping to my feet. I went to Troy and said, "We have not been the Good Samaritan. We've been the guy walking by. We have every excuse for why we're not entering into the lives of people who are suffering. The next time I see a neighbor on the side of the road hurt, I am going to run [to help], not walk. I want to be quick."

The next day, Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Troy and I were looking at each other, and we just said, "Lord, what do we do?" So we just tried to run, to put those things in action.

So where Add to the Beauty was this whole awakening to the flesh and bone of the gospel, this album is a clarification of terms: What does it mean to add to the beauty? How are you adding to the beauty? You cannot go out and sing these songs without rethinking how you live your life.

I love the fact that these new songs deal with huge global problems in terms of individuals, real flesh and blood people. "I Saw What I Saw" does that beautifully. Who are the people in the second verse of that song?

Groves: That one gets me every time. I have a hard time even talking about it, and I had to go gather myself many times when I was trying to do the vocals.

I heard the story of Nagaraj, a man who with his wife was enslaved in Southeast Asia. He was working sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. They had three young sons, and as they began to get older, they were being groomed to be slaves themselves. They were beaten. They had to work in the hot sun. They were not allowed to go to school.

Nagaraj watched the abuse of his family every single day, and he started to say, "This just can't be their future. I can't live with that." And so God made a way for him—through a miraculous set of circumstances—to connect with IJM. IJM conducted an investigation and ended up freeing all eighty people that were in that compound.

They applied for a grant, and now Nagaraj and these other eighty people own a brick co-op. Now the imprint on the brick is Nagaraj's initials, where it used to be the slave owner's initials. And he holds up this brick and he says, "This is my sons' legacy—it's freedom."

In that second verse of "I Saw What I Saw," I am singing about Nagaraj's young son. I was thinking about this little boy, and asking always the question in my heart: What was heavier that whole time—the weight of those bricks as he was being groomed to carry more and more weight? Or the weight of glory on that little boy's life as an image bearer of God, not a mere mortal? When you start seeing human beings like that, it changes the whole scenery.

Sara Groves visiting with children during her trip to Rwanda.

No kidding. But let's say there's a mom like me listening to this record and feeling this huge stirring in her heart, and realizing that to cast our lot with Christ is also to cast our lot with the oppressed. But she has a couple of kids and a job and all these obligations at church. What might my next step look like? Do I have to go to Africa?

Groves: I don't think everybody's going to go to Africa, although I do think people should go on missions trips. We did a Blood:Water Mission push one year, working on support for wells and clean water in Africa. A family with five kids heard about Blood:Water, and they were brainstorming what they could do. They read about how far a woman has to walk to get water, and they charted out that path in their neighborhood. They made up fliers that said, You live along this route. This is how far a woman would have to walk to get water that's unclean for her family, to feed her babies, and to cook the food. And they included statistics. They went along this route in their neighborhood with a bucket, and these kids raised enough money to dig one well. So there are definitely global things to be done!

I also think a lot of people miss the importance of education and advocacy. We want to do something. But you just cannot underestimate the power of educating yourself. Because the conversation becomes less scary, less about millions and more about the one, if you educate yourself about individuals and about the facts. People become more human, and your conversations with your friends change. Your worldview begins to shift, and you find yourself not being able to resist advocating for people around the world or in your own community.

So I see moms as a leading army. There's a reason why God keeps making new things clear to us. I think our ability to educate the next generation, and to rid ourselves of some stereotypes and generalizations about poverty and global things, is exciting. I'm excited about what our kids will do. And that's no small thing.

Visit our artist page for Sara Groves, read our review of Tell Me What You Know, and listen to song clips and buy the album at Christianbook.com.

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Carolyn Arends is an award-winning singer/songwriter, author of Wrestling with Angels (Harvest House, due in January), and a film critic for Christianity Today Movies.

© Carolyn Arends, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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