As most of you know, it’s been a hard, hard road for me the last couple of years.
I began writing this record right after losing my first born son – the first few songs I wrote, “21 Years,” “Promised Land,” and a song called “Everything About You,” were just really sad songs, lamenting songs, which you kind of would expect.
At that point, I was just like, ‘Am I just going to live here? Is this my journey for the rest of my life?,’ and maybe it is sort of, but God began giving me glimpses, starting with “Help Is On the Way,” I started to really stand on that promise, and really believe that help is on the way. Where that journey sort of took me, and what I kind of landed on, was this thought: I wrote on a napkin one day, ‘you’re still the goodness in my life,’ and I started to believe that, and to see how God is good to me. That’s when I wrote “The Goodness,” and it felt like a celebration, because I began to think about how gracious God is, and how He gives us little glimpses of His goodness, even in the valley. Then I read a quote, and it led to a lot of the lyrics in this song, it said, ‘a saint is not someone who is good, but someone who experiences the goodness of God.’ I have experienced the goodness of God my whole life.
There is LIFE AFTER DEATH.
This record chronicles the journey I have been on over the last 2 years, and somehow through it all, I have experienced the goodness of God. “21 Years” is a song I wrote about the recent passing of my firstborn son, Truett Foster McKeehan. I loved him with all my heart. Until something in life hits you this hard, you never know how you will handle it. I am thankful that I have been surrounded by love, starting with God’s and extending to community near and far that have walked with us and carried us every day.
Writing this song felt like an honest confession of the questions, pain, anger, doubt, mercy and promise that describes the journey I’m probably only beginning. The rest is yet to come. One thing I know is that I am not alone. God didn’t promise us a life of no pain or even tragic death, but He did promise He would never leave us or forsake us. And I’m holding dearly to that promise for my son as well as myself.