RELATED: 'Beatitudes' Album Featuring Industry-Leading Artists Releases April 21
The song was inspired by today's meek - the marginalized, the displaced and people Garrard describes as "those we see as the other." The song is available Friday, March 24 for immediate download with pre-order of the Beatitudes album from iTunes. This album releases April 21 and is a part of The Beatitudes Project (#TheBeatitudesProject), which is also a book, Words From The Hill (An Invitation to the Unexpected) from NavPress releasing in April, and a documentary film, View From the Hill, currently in production. The project is meant to be a reset button in a world plagued with violence and division.
Stu Garrard says, "One of the first songs to be written and recorded [for Beatitudes] was 'Heaven Is Around Us' with John Mark McMillan. It was such a fantastic experience and an honor for me. It's one of the 'Meek' themed songs, and we explored the idea of the meek being those from whom power has been taken away. The bullied, the marginalized, the oppressed..."the other" and If that's you, then God is on your side. When John Mark started singing 'Lift your head up high' I knew this was one of the key moments and messages of #TheBeatitudesProject."