»To cast my lot with Christ is to cast my lot with others who are suffering.«

Interview with US singer-songwriter Sara Groves about her new songs

(Deutsche Übersetzung hier...)

Last month, Sara Groves released her seventh album, Tell Me What You Know. Her creative, playful and very radio-friendly pop songs tell about what she learned from people who have gone through great suffering. CCM-Rezis got the opportunity to do an online interview with Sara Groves and learned more about the true and beautiful stories of hope and grace behind these new songs ...

Monica Seidler: Sara, in Add To The Beauty you invited us to think about God's kingdom and the beauty of grace. The new record goes further into practice and deals a lot with social justice. What brought this big issue into your life? And what does social justice look like to you as a believer?

Sara Groves: Add to the Beauty was not even printed yet when I started asking myself in what ways I was genuinely taking part of this kind of beauty. It was during that time that I was reading about the work of International Justice Mission. IJM is a team of lawyers and law enforcement officials from many different countries who work to end injustice in its various forms and defend people who otherwise would have no one to defend them. In Africa they work to restore land to widows, in South Asia they free people from bonded slavery, and in Southeast Asia they work to free victims of human trafficking. At the end of Terrify No More which documents the work of IJM in Cambodia, IJM founder Gary Haugen basically says instead of asking where God is, he has begun to ask – where are God's people? This challenged me deeply. I had been asking God where he was in the face of so much hurt, but he told us we would be his hands and feet. I realized then that most of my efforts concerning faith were for myself. I had been grooming and grooming my personal faith, but to what end? Seeing these friends at IJM so inspired by God's heart for justice inspired me to take a second look at my life as a believer. To cast my lot with Christ is to cast my lot with others who are suffering.

Monica: In response to your album title Tell Me What You Know: What do you know about God and the world and the human soul?

Sara: Over half of this album was inspired by a girl I met in Washington DC named Elizabeth. She was kidnapped and trafficked when she was 15 years old. She prayed every night, but the other girls in the brothel mocked her and told her God could not hear her there. A few months later an IJM operative found her and rescued her. When the IJM staff went in to get her belongings they saw Psalm 27 written on the wall above her mattress, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" During a recent trip to Rwanda, I got to meet survivors of the genocide. They told me unbelievable stories of forgiveness. Elizabeth and these friends in Rwanda know my God in a way that I do not know Him. I am asking them what they know about Him, in recognition that for all of my spiritual 'grooming', I know very little.

Monica: I would love to hear more about the boy and the man in your song "In The Girl There's A Room" ...

Sara: Nagaraj was a husband, a father of three boys and a slave. He worked in a brick kiln for a particularly harsh man who made Nagaraj and his wife work sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. When Nagaraj saw his boys being trained for the life of a slave as well, he began to look for help. IJM conducted an investigation of the brick kiln and found 80 people enslaved there. They brought the information to the authorities, and they conducted a raid to free all 80 people. With the help of a grant, the freed slaves now own their own brick kiln, and work for themselves. C.S. Lewis said we have never met a mere mortal, that all humans bear the weight of Glory. I pictured Nagaraj's young boys being trained to carry more and more bricks and wondered, "What was heavier – the weight of those bricks, or the weight of Glory as image bearers of the Most High God?"

Monica: Many of your songs speak about turning our chairs toward each other. In All Right Here you sang: "Every heart has so much history. It is my favorite place to start. Sit down awhile and share your narrative with me. I'm not afraid of who you are"... But wasn't it scary hearing those stories about oppression, violence, suffering, and poverty?

Sara: Yes. At first the conversation was about my ability to handle the conversation. I hope I am not immune to the stories, but now that I am more familiar with the reality of them, I am thinking less about me and my ability to cope and more about what I have to learn, and what role I can play in being a small part of change.

Monica: I love the experimentations with rhythm, the colorful soundscape and the drive in your new songs. Your new record has more edge than Add To The Beauty. What fuels your creativity?

Sara: I was listening to Paul Simon's latest, Surprise, and was so inspired by how creative the sound was. He is 60 now and yet his new music is as creative as anything in his career. I try to write with creative people, I read a lot, and I listen to a lot of different kinds of music to try to shake new ideas loose. I also love what I do, and try as much as I can to keep it fresh and enjoyable.

Monica: What do you wish listeners to experience through your music?

Sara: There are several themes on this album that I would want a listener to take home. One is on the indestructibility of hope, and what we can learn from people who have suffered a great deal. Another would be the importance of the individual in the face of mass numbers concerning disease and poverty. Finally, I think it is time for honest conversations about where we are as believers in our personal lives, in our churches, and then ultimately in the role we play in our world.

Monica: Listening to your stories, your lyrics and your sound, I get the impression that you're even more compelled than after finding yourself on the other side of something in 2004 ...

Sara: Yes, this is all a continuation of that journey. In the song Like a Skin, I was asking if I could really change. While I still struggle with many things, I have changed and grown a lot in the last few years as well. I am so grateful that God continues to teach me.

Monica: Thank you so very much for sharing your thoughts with us, Sara!

For more information about Sara Groves please visit www.saragroves.com