JJ Heller's newest album LOVED, released earlier this year on March 12th. JJ's soft voice and introspective lyrics first hit the spotlight in 2009 when her song "Your Hands" was featured on the hit show "So You Think You Can Dance?" and then eventually found a life of its own on radio across the country. JJ's trademark ability to be transparent and vulnerable resonates throughout LOVED. The 10 new songs serve as a reminder not to let go of hope, to step out of fear and into trust in spite of life's present struggles.

I'm one of JJ's newer fans and both Painted Red and When I'm With You have been in heavy rotation for me since they released. Naturally I've been interested in hearing her back catalog which blew me away once I heard how "Love Me" was re-recorded as "What Love Really Means." This album displays JJ's signature introspective emotional singer-songwriter style that paved the way for her current success, which is well-deserved. 

I had the opportunity to interview JJ and Dave Heller in-person after her performance at my church about their single "Redemption" and this is what they shared with me.
 
Please tell me the story behind the song.

Dave: This song is very much the more upbeat side of the same story we share in our song "Who You Are." In that song, we talk about the heavy season of life that we were experiencing and that even though we don't know why these things are happening, we still trust God's character. This song is addressing that same idea. The pain that we're experiencing now is temporary. There is a future that we're looking forward to that will make all the difference as we endure our present. It was one of the first songs we wrote for this album. After it was written, we recognized that this would be the theme for the entire album. For a while, we considered calling the album Redemption. We knew it was a theme that ran through the album. Then we decided that there were too many albums with that title.

There is a sermon that Tim Keller gives where he uses the analogy that there are two different men, either they are in prison together or they are working on some menial task and mind numbing task, and one person is given the promise that at the end of the year they will have ten million dollars. The other person is told that they will have ten thousand dollars. The guy who is promised the larger sum of money is working through the task with so much more hope. He is looking forward to knowing that after this is done, he's going to party. It is basically an analogy of the difference that hope makes. When you have something to look forward to, you are able to make your way through the misery of the present until the completion of your dream or your hope. That's a really powerful idea and we did our best to communicate that idea through our song.

Which Bible verses connect with the message of the song?

Revelation 21:3-5 (NIV): And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV): Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

1 John 4:4 (NKJV): "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."

What's the take-away message?

JJ: I recently read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. I tend to really live in fear when left to my own devices. It helped me change my perspective in living my life as a story and to think about what experiences I can have when I tell people about my life. It's a boring story to tell people to stay home, be safe and comfortable. I read the book at the time when I was pregnant with our second daughter, Nora, and thinking about touring on the bus with her when she was only ten weeks old. I was nervous about that, but to read the book and to learn that Donald Miller wants to tell a good story with his life helped me to see that my goal in life is not just to be safe and to avoid pain.

My goal in life is to have an adventure and embrace the opportunities that God gives me and to rejoice in that. Rather than look at my life and think about how everybody else can provide a stable life for their families and I'm so afraid that my kids will be messed up because I'm not always with them and we force them to travel on a tour bus with us, instead to see this as an amazing opportunity for our family and to see everything as an experience and adventure rather than something to dread.

Perspective changes everything. Knowing what we have to look forward to takes a lot of the fear out the equation. I'm a perfectionist and I don't want to fail and mess up and make bad choices and point to me and say I'm a really bad mom. To just know that no matter whether I mess up or not, God's grace will catch me, and He has a way of redeeming our mess-ups.

Lyrics:
When the dying's over 
When the last tear falls 
When the empty wells overflow 
To fill us all

Redemption 
We'll see it with our very own eyes 
Very own eyes and we'll realize 
We're alive for the very first time 
The very first time

Burdens we have carried 
Melt away like snow 
Loved ones gone before us 
Welcome us home

Redemption 
We'll see it with our very own eyes 
Very own eyes and we'll realize 
We're alive for the very first time 
The very first time

Someday we will remember how to fly 
Then we will rise like embers burning bright

Rarely has an album affected me this deeply as many of the songs cause me to physically feel the depth and sincerity of JJ's goose bump inducing emotional vocals. This is yet another one of those "gourmet" albums that only comes along when JJ Heller puts out a new album. I have to fight back tears while listening to several of the songs, including "Redemption."

This song is a great example of a biblical truth that all listeners can say, I agree, and Amen to. As JJ and Dave introduced this song to my church family, they jokingly said that this is as much of a rock song as they do. Christians are brand-new people on the inside. The Holy Spirit gives us new life and we don't have to live anymore with our guilt, fears, perfectionism or worries. We are new creations and we need to live as children of God. Too often we get wrapped up in our circumstances and have a "poor me" attitude. When you allow yourself to accept that "there are far more, better things than this" that's when you can start to really live "because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4)

"Redemption" is a great song celebrating the freedom we have in Christ when we are new creations in Christ. In today's culture, it is hard for people to accept that the entrance requirements for Heaven are repentance and spiritual rebirth. This song is a personal testimony to the power of redemption. This song celebrates the freedom we are promised in God's Holy Word, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Amen to that!

(Here's the lyric video.)