If you’ve read my memoirs, you know that Amy Grant’s music has been the sound track of my life since 1982. And forty-four years later, Amy’s new album falls on me like fresh rain in the desert. I will start with three reasons I believe her music is relevant.

She Sings to Reflects Jesus

From her first albums, she sang about her relationship with God. In the past few years, I have stopped listening to many beloved Christian artists who bowed their knee to the current American idol. I, and many of my friends, have reasoned that if they worship gold and power, and shut out those different from themselves, they surely can’t be singing about the same Jesus we know. But Amy continues to avoid Christian nationalism.

She Sings as Her Self

The beauty of Amy’s music is that her authentic style. She hasn’t allowed the music industry put her in a box. When she had her first pop hits, critics accused her of leaving her faith, but that was never true. When she got divorce, angry people wrote all kinds of things about her, but Amy stayed true to herself. Her fans appreciate that she is a real person who has struggled with relationships and pain. Her songs have definitely been Christian, but they’ve also been about romance, friendship, family, nostalgia, and justice.

She Sings About Justice

I remember the first time I heard her sing, “Lead Me On,” I was touched, but thought the United States was beyond such abuses. These days I’ve been proven wrong. As she sang this song in her concert to debut her new album at the Ryman Auditorium, it has never seemed more appropriate.

Here are my thoughts about Amy’s new songs:

I am not a musician, and I would never attempt to critique anyone’s music. But I am a writer, so here are a few of my emotional thoughts about Amy’s new album.

1 The Other Side Of Goodbye

This is simple song has such beautiful sentiment. Amy wrote it after her mother died. As someone wo recently lost her own mother, I find any song about the afterlife beautiful. No matter how we view what happens at death, most of us have read the Bible’s words that eye has not seen, or ear heard, what lies in store for us on the other side.

2 The Saint

I love the stories about women in the Bible who met Jesus and found healing. This song fits with those stories with a modern slant. If the Jesus we worship doesn’t provide hope for healing regardless when people have suffered, then we must not be reading the good book.

3 Til We Get It Right

This fun relationship song reminds us that it’s not so hard to admit we’ve been wrong—something that seems to be missing in many homes, churches, and across the internet.

4 Friend Like You

A heartfelt ode to the best of friendships. This is one of my favorites on the album. i was reminded of my former husband who is still one of the most loving people I know. And I had to call one of my best long time friends because this song reminds me of her. I feel rich to have a handful of friends like this. You know who you are.

5 Please Don’t Make Me Beg

A challenge to look through the eyes of another. How often we see only differences when we look at other people, but the truth is we all want the same things. This song is profound as it leads us to Jesus and his sacrifice for us.

6 (Nothing Like A) Sunny Day

A reminder to stop feeling sorry for myself. You gotta love a jazzy pep song for the sad times sung in true Amy style.

7 The 6th Of January (Yasgur’s Farm)

I’ve loved this song since it’s release earlier this year. I was too young to remember Woodstock, so I actually had to look up Yasgur’s Farm. The timely and nostalgic lyrics remind us of a time when people spoke and sang about loving each other. And how there have been not so proud moments in our history when we have fallen short. I especially like that someone immortalized January 6 in a song.

8 How Do We Get There From Here (Featuring Ruby Amanfu)

There is one problem that we can’t seem to solve in the Untied States. And that is the number of innocent people who die from mass shootings. This song doesn’t preach answers but opens the conversation.

9 Beautiful Lone Companion

I think this is my favorite song. There is nothing so intimate as a God who watches over us and leads us and comforts us in our pain. To know that there is an ultimate Being who cares for each of us beyond what any human has ever done is a gift for believers and those who have lost their ability to believe.

10 The Me That Remains

I saved the title song for last. That’s not to say it’s better than the last song about God loving us, but because the stage of life that I (and many of my friends) are is one of change and fear and the struggles to find out who we are in mid life and what type of legacy we want to leave behind someday. Who are we after we have been injured, or ill, or divorced, or disfellowshipped? This song reminds me that there is no shame in our pain and that our “Beautiful lone companion” is still walking beside us, holding us up as much as he did when we were children. He loves us as much as back then—even with silver hair. He does not look at the outside, but loves the inside—and that is the me that remains.

For some time I’ve wondered what my next project will be after I finish the last book in the Where Lost Dreams Awaken Trilogy. Now I know. The authenticity, warmth, hope, and passion of Amy’s songs in this album have inspired me to go back and finish my next memoir. I hope you give it a listen too and find yourself blessed.

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