Adding to the Beauty...WIL Sara Groves!

I wrote about Sara Groves almost a year ago and still she is my favorite Christian artist and I just wanted to add a few things to why I love her so much after watching her documentary from “nomad” entitled “Sara Groves: Just Showed Up For My Own Life.” The great thing about Sara is that she is real and she conveys through her music. She doesn’t put on a show, and she isn’t full of pretense. The reason that I relate to her music so much is that I can feel the emotion and pain and hope and glory and joy in her songs. They resonate with me because I know that she has lived these things she is singing about. It isn’t something she has thought would make a good point, or make a good song, these are struggles, sorrows, joys, and blessings she has faced, been afraid of, and found victory and rejoicing in. She seems so real to me and that is what touches me so deeply. In her documentary she talks about wanting all the wax to be used up and the wick burned all the way down when her journey is over. She doesn’t want her kid’s to see her hugging the wall, but running with her head thrown back. “…so this is grace, an invitation to be beautiful.” “…oh, the glory of God is man fully alive.” What does it mean to feel that, to be that?

She also says just to go…and what that means. Just to run to our neighbor in need. Quit asking where God is and start asking where God’s people are. Quoting Mother Teresa in saying, “That we can’t do great things, only small things with great love.”

Sara Groves favorite scripture is Isaiah 41: 9 & 10:

9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth,

And called from its farthest regions,

And said to you,

‘ You are My servant,

I have chosen you and have not cast you away:

10 Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Here is the remainder of what I posted nearly a year ago…

Thank you Sara for all that you do…

So, let's talk about her!!!! You all know how I feel about Todd Agnew, and I'm thankful to some of you for sharing that you picked up his CD because of what I said and that you are being blessed by him. Sara Groves is so personal to my heart it is even hard to write this post. Her music is the most profound I have heard in Christian music today. She speaks with heart and conviction and writes exactly where she is in life...her struggles, her fears...the power and subtly of her lyrics, the soft and rich voice that carries the lyrics straight to your soul, the brilliant soothing and moving music that infuses every song with feeling moves you beyond compare. Never, in my history of music has an artist moved me the way that she does. Oh many have come close...Caedmon's Call, Nichole Nordeman, Ginny Owens...and I'm amazed at each of their talents and how they can always seem to deliver to my soul. But, it as if Sara peels back the skin across my chest and peers right into my heart, way back in the back and sees what God sees and then shares it completely with me. She speaks right to that God Spot in my heart.

I have yet to see her in concert and it is absolutely my dream to do so, but it is also a little fear of mine, because if I got to talk to her I have no idea what I would say. How would I express what I would want to say so completely to her? How would I make it seep through? Would she feel how she has impacted my heart? Would she know?...I don't know.

Her latest album just released on October 4th, and to be honest I was a little cautious of it. Could she actually bring another layer of intimacy and newness to her work, a raw vulnerability that I haven't seen in many other artists’ work around...oh boy did she! Wow! I'm almost moved to tears!Since the first album I picked up off the shelf..."Conversations" which discussed the struggles of witnessing, how to stand on the word, letting go, hearing God's voice, generational sins, Living for God...no one else, talking with God, fear, learning how to deal with life not turning out the way we thought, revealing yourself to God, Heaven, Faithfulness of God, and fellowship...to "All Right Here" which discussed seeing beauty in tragedy, the fellowship with people, loving someone and how that strengthens a person, the sacrifice Christ made, the demands of life, who we are, true surrender, and the most profound song "Maybe There's a Loving God"...which resonates with my very spirit and reminded me of the wooing of the Romance within all of us, what peace feels like, those testy people in our lives, learning to make Christ the first thing, we cannot lose Christ's love, how beautiful Jesus is...to "The Other Side of Something" which discussed coming out of the darkness, leaping into the flames with a strong faith, being a slave to Christ, surrender in marriage, what we think we want and what we get...and how that is an eternal blessing, missions, the fight of life and Christian faith, the way a husband can be a refuge for who the woman truly is...revealing the beauty as Christ reveals the beauty in us, needs vs. wants, allowing change to come, ending with the hymn "Come Thou Fount"!

To her latest work..."Add To the Beauty"...

1. When It Was Over...how human love can reveal the grander scope of God's unending love and how love can wash over a multitude of things.

2. Just Showed Up For My Own Life...I'm going to leave the lyrics of this song in this post.

3. You are the Sun...a profound truth that we are the moon and He is the sun, and we can only shine when we turn our face to Him.

4. It's Going to be Alright...being there for someone in pain. (very profound for me to hear with Kyle!)

5. Add to the Beauty...that's what we all do.

6. Rewrite This Tragedy...things can be undone.

7. Something Changed...a reflection of how change comes into our lives and we sometimes don't realize it, she also reflects on the song in her previous album "Like a Skin" where she struggled with change...it shows her growth in her faith.

8. How Can I Tell...sharing your faith...the desperation of wanting someone to believe...and how we can screw it up.

9. To The Moon...how churches get stuck on the defensive, knowing that they are right, the world is wrong, and how they are going to worship how they want...on the defensive not the loving side of things.

10. Kingdom Comes...how everything we do displays God's Kingdom

11. Why It Matters...questioning, needing to know why what we believe matters.

12. Loving a Person...it's hard you know, but worth it!

13. When It Was Over (Reprise)...she combines all the songs on this album beautifully!

Just Showed Up for My Own Life


Spending my time sleep walking
Moving my mouth but not saying a thing
Hoping the changes would take by working their way from the outside in
I was in love with an idea
Preoccupied with how a life should appear
Spending my time at the surface repairing the holes in the shiny veneer
There are so many ways to hide
There are so many ways not to feel
There are so many ways to deny what is real
And I just showed up for my own life
And I'm standing here taking it in and it sure looks bright
I'm going to live my life inspired
Look for the holy in the common place
Open the windows and feel all that's honest and real until I'm truly amazed
I'm going to feel all my emotions
I'm going to look you in the eyes
I'm going to listen and hear until it's finally clear and it changes our lives
There are so many ways to hide
There are so many ways not to feel
There are so many ways to deny what is real
And I just showed up for my own life
And I'm standing here taking it in and it sure looks bright
Oh the glory of God is man fully alive
Oh the glory of God is man fully alive
There are so many ways to hide
There are so many ways not to feel
There are so many ways to deny what is real
And I just showed up for my own life
And I'm standing her taking it in and it sure looks bright.


So, I've wanted to share her with all of you for a while now, but like I said too personal...I hope you will be blessed and encouraged to see if she touches you the way she touched me. Also, there are, believe it or not, two albums of hers I don't have...an older work entitled "Past the Wishing" and an album for mothers "Station Wagon", so if anyone needs a Christmas idea there you have it. God bless you all!