About 8 years ago, I met a family from San Diego, the Goffs. The Dad was a lawyer, the mom was well, a mom, and the three kids were all in middle school at the time. Sounds pretty average, right? Yeah, it did to me, too.

This family is anything but average. They invited me to go with them on a trip to India, where the family had been interested in setting up an aftercare facility and program for girls rescued from the human trafficking ring thriving there. I was a little reluctant because I had never been to a third-world country and for sure had never been so immersed in poverty and injustice, but I went and I saw with my own eyes, and was changed.

I also saw how beautiful India’s culture is. This was just the beginning for me, to get my start on living a little outside of the proverbial box. Not long after the trip, I signed a record deal where I started my own adventure in music and ministry here in the U.S. and I’ve continued to visit foreign lands and cultures far different from mine, finding we’re all desperate for the same thing: the love of Jesus.

This family has been very involved in my journey. Mainly the dad, Bob Goff. Bob and I were sitting on some cliffs in Southern California, looking out over the expanse of the Pacific in the fall of 2007. We talked about goals and change and possibilities and how nothing is impossible when it’s a part of God’s economy. It was like we had just been given permission to dream as big as we wanted to dream.

Excited in the moment, even looking back on how far God had brought us even then, it was apparent that we weren’t alone on the journey. Who knew that during this journey, it would include unlikely people like a Chinese tour guide on the Great Wall of China, a homeless woman in Nashville, or a President in Uganda?

God had put us in the path of something unfamiliar, yet unforgettable. It was in that moment that Bob said, “What if we..., you fill in the blank.” I began to think about those people around me. What if we quit our jobs and served the poor? What if we don’t need all the things the world convinces us we do? What if we are exactly where we need to be right now? What if we aren’t? What if we trusted each other? What if we forgave a bitter enemy? What if we cried? What if we knew how much God loved us? I immediately began to think about this record that I was getting ready to make. I couldn’t think of a more inspiring thought. To open the door, I needed to reach for the good stuff.

This new record is very much a “WE” moment. Very talented and Godly people gave of themselves in different ways, all for the love of music and Jesus. I thought about those who would listen even as I was recording the final vocals. I’m grateful for the chance to say something important and to hopefully inspire others to do something worthwhile. Just can’t think of a time that I did something great on my own. It’s always been the moments when I’m surrounded by others that great things happen. This whole concept begs us to leave our eyes and our lives open, ready to move when we’re called.