My album is a story. And this story, despite the inherent weakness that I face due to my bare-boned human-ness, has a happy ending. I encourage you to listen to the story and apply it to your own circumstance. It begins with an act of humility. I need You. I don’t deserve You, but for some reason You brought me the Greatest Gift known to man. And You don’t leave. You’ll never leave even when I fail. I need You to help me conquer my demons. I need You because I want to be with You in the end and I can’t get there on my own. I find it funny that God makes me the strongest when I admit my utter weakness. Having the humility to accept this fact opened my eyes. The story continues with one of my favorite Bible verses, Isaiah 1:18 in which The Lord tells all people that sins, stains, blemishes, scars and everything of the sort can all be washed away by His unfathomable power to intentionally forget our past failures. I needed to know this truth to rid me of my guilt from my previous life where I struggled with sexual immorality, drugs, alcohol, and an emotionally abusive father that led me down a path of controlling and manipulating others. From there, God’s Love pitched a permanent tent in my heart and changed my life forever. His Life-Changing Love allowed me to become the man I am today, not to mention a future husband to the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met and known. True to Philippians 4, this story simply wouldn’t be the same without acknowledging and thanking the God who made and makes all things possible through His masterful authorship of our lives. Finally, I chose to end the story in what I believe is the most perfect of ways. Grace. When all else fails, God’s Grace is sufficient. No matter what kind of day we have – be it a day where all we can say is “I need You” but we still fail as a result of our many weaknesses, or a day where we need God’s Word to lift up our spirits as a result of our tarnished past, or a day where we exuberantly thank God for changing our lives for the better – we will always be defined by one of the most important things in our lives that we could never earn: grace. This free gift to us will never go away and is essentially the sole reason for which believers in Christ will spend eternity with God. I’ve always loved the joint play-on-words definition of mercy and grace: “Mercy is not receiving what we do deserve [punishment for sins], and grace is receiving what we don’t deserve [forgiveness of sins and therefore, eternity in heaven]”. I find it fitting to never fully end the story (hence the long fade of the final song) because when we reach the end of our assuredly sin-filled lives on this fallen earth, the Bible tells us that God will look at us with blameless eyes as a result of Jesus bearing the weight of our sins on His shoulders. This grace is the most precious gift I’ve been given. And it has no end. I pray that you, my lovely listener, may be blessed by these songs and the truth these songs speak to. I encourage prayer requests (naturally, you can find me on Facebook) and general comments and feedback of the album. If one life (besides my own, of course) can be influenced by the Holy Spirit’s work through this music, I will consider this album a complete success. I pray that life is yours, my friend. For the Sake of The Gospel, Daniel Howard