New album shares a message of hope

By Stephanie Wright

It’s quite rare to find a song out there today that can make me cry. It’s even rarer when an entire album does that to me. But that’s exactly the response The Story of Your Life causes. As a longtime fan of Matthew West, I was eager to preview his new album that debuted Oct. 5. But I didn’t expect that this music would have such an impact on my soul.

West’s last album, Something to Say,  encouraged his fans to allow God to speak through them.

“With this next record, I just began praying about what this album should be about, and I felt like God was pulling on my heart,” he said of his seventh album. “You know, I had just been telling people that they have something to say, and now it’s time to let them say it.”

So West asked his fans to send in stories about their own lives and would create an album centered on those letters. About 10,000 people wrote in from every state, as well as 20 countries around the globe. These letters carried an underlying theme of wounded spirits.

“People were very honest and vulnerable and sharing with me about these more broken chapters and the stories of their lives,” West said. “I had to really pray and figure out what to do with that. How do I communicate a message of hope with so many stories of heartbreak?”

Each song deals with a different issue or struggle people face in life. One song, called “Broken Girl,” was inspired by the countless letters West received that dealt with sexual abuse. Though he says it was a tough topic to write about, he had to live up to his word.

“I promised to write songs inspired by the stories that were sent to me, and if I ignored this topic, then I would have been deemed dishonest,” West said.

Though these songs were inspired by certain stories, West explained that he hopes people will relate to the music.

“The experiences were completely unique to themselves,” he said. “God created each of our lives in such a unique fashion. But there’s these internal, relatable things and elements to stories that you just can find yourself in when you hear someone else’s story.”

Yet with all the stories of pain and struggles, an underlying message can be found in each song — hope and healing. West says his desire for this album is for it to cause an uprising of people eager to let God use their lives.

“So to me, it’s about telling our story. It’s about lifting up our life to God and saying ’Okay God, I want you to use me, even those broken chapters that I’m not proud of. It’s all yours. Use me.’”

*Matthew West is currently touring for The Story of Your Life. For more information, check out www.matthewwest.com.