Turning Over Control

Plumb expriences first-hand the power of a song…her song.

Christian artist Plumb has written or co-written many songs that have inspired and encouraged thousands of people. Her latest song, “Need You Now” is a great example, only this time she was one of those on the receiving end of that encouragement.

Plumb was very vulnerable when sharing her story of how the song spoke to her in a time of desparation. “Literally God used this song to carry me through a really difficult, dark time in my life. Last year when everything seemed to be falling apart in my life I didn’t think I’d even still get to be who I am as an artist. Even though I’ve grown up in the church and I know Jesus and I love Jesus, I fell in love with Jesus for the first time when all that happened last year.

What do I do now?

I remember kinda repeating over and over as things were kind of unraveling, ‘I don’t know what to do; what do I do, what do I do?’ It sounds good to say ‘turn to Jesus’ but that’s a verb. When you’re in a crisis you can’t make sense of truly what am I supposed to do right now. And he reminded me in ‘Need You Now’ there’s no punch-card with him, there’s no limit. He doesn’t grow tired of our need for him.We have to trust him, we have to surrender.

Giving up control is scary

It took me about six to eight weeks of being in the midst of this real terrifying time in my life and my marriage and my home and some other things, and he finally got through. He got me out of the way. He needed me to quit talking. He needed me to just be still. That didn’t feel proactive. I wanted to fix things and it was very clear that I was making things worse. I’m being prompted to just be still and be quiet, and that felt scary.

Peace finally returns

The more surrendered I became, the more control I felt him take, and the more joy and the more peace I found. No matter how this turns out, whether I like it or not, I have a quiet confidence that God is in control of this now. And you know, joy is birthed from sorrow. Whatever sorrow someone is going through, and they may hear this song or a Matthew West song or an Aaron Shust song or any other song that makes them feel hopeful, it’s real. Hope is real. God wants to give us joy and he does not leave us and He does not give us more than we can bear. He really does carry the added load.

We can always begin again

Believe it or not, there is beauty from your ashes if you’ll let him turn it into that. You can have a confidence that I am pleasing the Almighty and I can trust him to protect me and to provide for me and to love me. It’s not contingent on whether or not I did the right thing 5 years ago or 10 years ago or 10 minutes ago. His mercies are new every morning. It’s good to remember to really live in the now and be hopeful about what is to come. Right this second, it’s a brand new breath, begin again.God is the master of begin-agains!”

That is an excerpt from a recent conversation I had with the artist Plumb referring to her song, “Need You Now”.