Becoming Who You Are by Seattle-based Kings Kaleidoscope was one of my Top 10 Worship Albums of 2014. This "gourmet" album is a great call to worship and is a fresh offering of praise for the Church to sing out with passion about the truth of the Word of God from Matthew 6:33 (NKJV): "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
 
What's especially cool is how this album stays true to that biblical description. A sincere desire for the presence of God and to see His Kingdom on earth is found in every song as lead singer Chad Gardner sings the eternity-minded lyrics with an engaging and worshipful alt-rock style. I had the chance to speak with Chad Gardner about their catchy and convicting song, "I Know."
 
Please tell me the personal story behind this song.

This year has been a very difficult year for me and my wife. We both ended up resigning from the church we had met at, got married at, helped plant and worked at. We both left our jobs. She got in a car accident about a week after that. A few weeks later, we learned that my wife's father had brain cancer out of nowhere, and he passed away 10 weeks later. Then, a couple months further down the road, we lost our first child, our son, to a stillbirth, which was brutal and hard.
 
All along, I'm trying to make this album, which is personal and about all of these things we were dealing with. We had this musical bed we were sitting on for this song, and I just really wanted to be able to sing a song with a very clear message, with a brash confidence in something that wasn't myself.
 
Basically, I was thinking about how in rap music, there's bragging about someone's own strength in many cases, but I wanted a song that was about boasting in Christ. So I was thinking, what is the most outlandish thing I can boast about? It's outlandish that I am going to live for eternity with God. That's crazy!
 
Even on a philosophical level, you can talk with friends about Jesus, and the miracle that He paid for the sins of the world.  Then you get to this idea that you're going to live forever with God in Heaven. Subconsciously, I wanted to be focusing on this idea as we faced two more family deaths and a total of four family member deaths over a 6 month period.
 
It's been hard, and only completely by God's grace He's given us faith that He's good and He loves us. I can't pin that on me or anything I did, like what I prayed or what I read in my Bible. God just gave us this gift of His grace. That's where this chorus came from. I wanted to sing joyful, triumphant, biblical truth to myself, based on situations and how I felt personally, and based on the musical bed I felt that was what this song is supposed to be about.
 
Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?
 
Philippians 2:14-16 (NIV): "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing."
 
Psalm 87:7 (VOICE): Those who sing and those who dance will say together, "All my fountains of joy are in You."
 
Acts 4:12 (NKJV): Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
 
Revelation 21:21 (VOICE): The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate expertly crafted from a single beautiful pearl. And the city street was pure gold, yet it was as transparent as glass.
 
What is the takeaway message?
 
I live in downtown Seattle, and I like to go on walks during the day. I would walk down to the water and listen to tracks for this album and talk with God and pray multiple times a day, literally when the sun was going down. I got addicted to sunsets. It felt like there's a relief and a sense of awe.
 
I was thinking about how to capture beauty in music, and I wasn't even coming close to a sunset, which lasts just 10 minutes. A sunset felt like every night God showed me a little bit of His beauty and let me know He was with me. Then it went away. It wasn't like God went away, but it was a reminder that I might not always see Him, but He's right here with me.
 
I started thinking about how there's so much beauty in that 10 minutes every day, and then it goes away. It got me thinking about how there's nothing really that will ever fully satisfy me here on Earth except the presence of God. That's where the verses came from. I'm chasing beauty. I'm chasing God. I want to see Him. I want to experience Him. I want to know Him, so bad while I'm on Earth, that I want to be in Heaven.
 
That C.S. Lewis quote became the pre-chorus and wove the rest of the song together about looking for beauty, looking for God, and knowing that the only place I can find that is in Jesus. I'm going to have Him 100% one day with no sin, and that's going to be amazing! Right now, I still have Him, but I'm fallen. I'm going to have that full relationship someday. The whole phrase "this I know" is what I am going to declare and what I can count on. That's what the song is about.
 
Lyrics:
Every day at dusk I chase the sunset
Looking for a glimpse of heaven's skies

I've been given a taste for something
That nothing in this world can satisfy
But I know that at time is coming
When I will be in glorious delight

I know I will run through heaven's brilliant streets of gold
Shouting, "Hallelujah, Christ alone"
I know I will dance and sing and bow before the throne
This I know oh

Every day at dawn I chase the sunrise
Looking for a hint of heaven's light
 

This incredible album has quickly become one of my top worship albums of the past year. I really enjoy the unique musical vibe, and the melodies and lyrics are all catchy and biblical. The musical vibe is at times reflective, ambient and exciting, always matching the tone of the worshipful lyrics with alternative rock sensibilities, displaying the musical talents of the ten band members.
 
I'm drawn to the stirring emotional vocals, hook-filled music and deep, prayerful lyrics throughout the album. This is a great collection of new songs about "becoming who you are," filled with a sincere desire to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness."
 
"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world," wrote C.S. Lewis in the book Mere Christianity. As Christians, we all need to remember that we are just "pilgrims" passing through. Earth isn't our permanent home. Freedom from the pain of this world will come when we enter the true rest that can only come from living eternally with Jesus Christ. As St. Augustine put it so perfectly, "our hearts are restless until they rest in You."
 
This song encourages me and is one of the most inspirational songs I've ever heard. What an exciting thought, that all suffering and hurt will be left behind and one day glory will be revealed in us through Christ. This song is a great reminder that one day "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."
 
You can sing this song at the top of your lungs to our Savior Jesus and know for a fact that "I know I will run through heaven's brilliant streets of gold, shouting, 'Hallelujah, Christ alone!' I know I will dance and sing and bow before the throne, this I know." Amen to that!
 
(Watch the lyric video here.)