Any songwriter worth his stripes would admit that a "Best Of" collection is a downright scary proposition. To go back in time, to revisit the emotional landscape laid bare in dozens and dozens of songs, to line all your musical children up, from the scrawniest to the strongest to the most entertaining, and single them out as better than the rest is a heart-wrenching, seemingly impossible task. And there's a certain amount of disbelief that comes with the distance. Wow, was that really me at that moment? Yes. Yes, it was.

For Nichole Nordeman, after 10 years, 9 Dove Awards"including two for "Female Vocalist of the Year" rifling through the collection of songs she's written since even before her 1998 signing with Sparrow Records was akin to rediscovering the pages of an old journal, many years removed from today.

Bill Lurwick, host of NRT's weekly New Christian Music PodCast, spoke with Nicole earlier this year about the new "Best Of" project and what is around the corner for one of Christian music's most adored female artists.

You recently released your first "Best Of" collection earlier this year. Why now?

You know, it just felt like the right time. It's sort of a natural thing to do after 4 or 5 projects"it's a good transition for me. It allows me to regroup creatively and think about what's next. It was really fun to just sit down with a bunch of older songs and pick and choose some of the ones that have been the most important to me over the last 10 years.

You've got a couple new songs on the project. Can you talk about them?

Of course! "Sunrise" is the first single, and it's a song that I wrote about appreciating the mornings so much more when we have walked through the midnight of our lives. That's not exactly breaking any new theological ground but it's really true. I was in a pretty deep valley personally and was thinking about how easy it is for people to say to you: "God has a plan" and "things will get better" and "just trust Him." It's all these things that we say with such ease. However, it's hard to believe all these things when you're the one in the valley. So this song is about clinging to the belief that things will get better, even though it seems pretty ridiculous at the time.

It does. I told my pastor to trust in God just the other day, but how big is our own trust?

Right. Typically, when we're able to easily say
"Trust God," our circumstances in life are pretty good.

Absolutely. Well, I read that you did a few Women of Faith conferences last year. Do you have any more coming up?

Yes, many more. I've been with them for almost 4 years now, and I've so enjoyed that relationship. It's just such an awesome organization, and I really appreciate what they are doing for women. It's funny because I was the biggest skeptic of the whole "women's conference"� but I was totally surprised and really humbled by the depth of the event and how authentic these woman are. They really seek to enrich women's lives, so I'm thrilled to be on the team.

Let's talk about Amazing Grace. You've got a song on the Inspired By The Motion Picture album. I was reading that you found out a lot about modern day slavery while partnering on the project.

I was familiar with the story and was so inspired by what history says, but it was pretty embarrassing to me that I didn't know about the slavery. It was very eye-opening, with numbers in the millions of people that are still enslaved in this modern-day culture. It's just not something that has ever on my radar. I'd say the word "slavery" and I'd think civil war"years ago"not about today.

How did you end up with the song "Just As I Am" for the project? Was that pre-arranged or was that one that you got to pick?

I got to pick it, and I was so surprised that no one else had. It was my number one choice primarily because it was a song that was so close to the heart of the church. It's been so instrumental in so many ways in the evangelical world, and it's associated closely with accepting the invitation to receive Christ. I was really excited about the opportunity to do it in a different way. I also sat down and wrote some verses around the beautiful chorus that already exists.

Now that you're a mom, tell us what a typical day in the life of Nichole Nordeman is like these days.

A typical day is today. I am in my sweats with my second cup of coffee. I have a list of things to do as a mom and a wife: grocery shopping, vacuuming, and answering some e-mail. That's a typical day. It's all very, very glamorous.

It is! Maybe you can take out the garbage in there somewhere in between.

[Laughs] Yeah, I'll do that.

Any tour plans for all the Nichole Nordeman fans?

I don't know about tour plans. I probably won't tour again on a national level until I have a new studio project.

When can we look for that?

I'm not really sure? I am working on it, but I don't feel a lot of pressure. I'm going to enjoy my Women of Faith dates and when the time is right, I'll know when I need to jump back in the studio and dust off the old piano again for some new songs. For now, I'm just kind of enjoying the pace.

What are you listening to these days?

I'm very diverse in my musical tastes, so I love everything in the pop world to the Christian music world. This is embarrassing, but I'm also a huge talk radio fan so there are times when I just take a musical fast, because I sometimes feel a little bit inundated with so much music. That's kind of what I'm doing now.

Well, we appreciate you talking with us. Blessings to you and the new project Recollection, and I hope it is indeed a "Best Of" for you in the future.

Thanks Bill, I appreciate it.