 Welcome to More Than a Song where you get a chance to experience great music in an intimate concert setting. You will also get a chance to go beyond the lyrics with the artist to get the God experience revealed in their journey. I'm Denise Graves and on today's show we will feature Andrew Greer. The Multiple Dove Award-nominated singer-songwriter and respected author is known for his old soul-styling. The native Texan and now Nashville resident's soulful folk gospel sound displays a deep affection for vintage spiritual songs. Let's join Andrew's first set today with accompaniment from Kyle Buchanan. I've been heard in my brother like there's no a response, building up in arsenal of stations like I'd need hate to fight him on mercy from completely outside of me, or taste not forgiveness. So teach me how you carry that cross, for in so many places I can't of judgment than picking up the pieces that I'll just pretend one single prayer. Bill and Susan Singer-songwriter where we come from in Nashville and she and I wrote a book together that released earlier this year and it took us about two years to write it. We're not book writers so it's a very loose term to call us authors but we did feel like we had something to say and we were asked to say it and say it in that form. So we took on the task, we took on the challenge of writing a book. I remember someone presented me with the question when we right after we signed this book deal and they asked us to write this book that by the way is based around the Old Testament and we are not seminarians nor are we theologians of any kind of refined sword. So a friend asked me, well what qualifies you to write this book? I thought that was a fantastic question and so I was meeting with my pastor a couple of days later and I said, you know what does qualify someone? Here you are a doctorate in some kind of theological degree and a deep in his seminary work, a very thoughtful Bible reader and steadier and he said the same thing that qualifies us all and that is the spirit living within us. And so he really encouraged me and then I encouraged Jenny that maybe in fact the words that we had to say and the words that we had to sing each and every day in our conversations whether it be in a book format in a song or just around the kitchen table are imbued and infused with great meaning because of who lives inside of us and my cousin one time said don't ever doubt God inside you because God is no small thing therefore what you do is no small thing and I think that's something that's very easy to forget and I think that's obvious we live out of a place a lot of times where it seems that we are saying God is maybe perhaps small. We wrote this book to try to it's called Transcending Mysteries and we wanted to try to discover who is God by looking at the Israelites journey throughout the Old Testament and then paralleling that or seeing if it was a parallel seeing if there was any relationship with their journey and our journey today as 21st century Christians and I wrote this chapter him for leaving around a song that I've written and it's about my grandad who we talked about earlier and so and also about my mother's experience in his death and grief and I wrote in the 21st century Western world we are pressed for time we pride ourselves on business and when it comes to warning our losses we run sure we go to the funeral we eulogize we create a touching Facebook post but we pack our calendar even tighter smile a little wider and with bleary eyes push our feelings down even deeper this passive reaction to heartbreak is fascinating considering that people of all different cultures throughout much of humanity's timeline have expressed a period of focused grieving to signify the void left by death whether physical or emotional last winter Cecil Gerard my mother's dad died just shy of 90 years old and at the end of a very full life grandad had been missing my grandmother his bride of nearly 60 years since she had made her passage to the other side over 10 years before his body and mind were beginning to deteriorate which as a former geologist and man who was always on top of the details must have felt like a living death sentence as a result he had been preparing his heart and mind for death for years and even more so in his final months two weeks before he died mom visited him as assisted living apartment in east texas when she walked in mom found granddad fully dressed sitting on top of his made-up bed and he was crying my mother has always been a good friend to her parents so she sat down beside him and held his hand he was confused a feeling he came to know well but never accustomed to he asked my mom why am I crying holding his hand my sweet mother replied I don't know you must be sad as if he was her child granddad asked my mother's permission do you think it would be okay if I asked Jesus to take me to heaven tonight two weeks later granddad went to sleep never to wake up on this side of life again after the news reached my mom's fellow teachers her congregants and friends she received plenty of condolences gracious gestures of kindness good-hearted sentiments that sounded something like this I'm glad he went peacefully or what a full life he lived you've heard the band-aid phrases the attempt to make sense of something so very unknowable when at a loss for words but feeling the need to say something I too have uttered these blasé statements it's as if even in our lack of knowing what to say we want the grieving to know that we identify with how bad that it hurts expressions like these remind us that we are loved by our community and by God but in our moments of loss grief is the soothing bomb when granddad made that mysterious passage from one life to the next my mom felt a sobering transition from being a daughter to becoming a matriarch for a brief period she was displaced out of sync with death comes a lot of not normal when we grieve our heart's sneaking suspicion is that death was not God's original design for life in the midnight of our confusions I went to adopt a posture of surrender I went to lay down my life not just my circumstances and begin to discover God all over again not simply as my disciplining father but as my compassionate friend we've known each goodbye makes with it stretched his arms so wide as he said hope you enjoyed the music and stories from Andrew Greer thank you for joining us for more than a song we would love to hear from you contact us at family at ctvn.org or call us for prayer and we will agree with you for God to move in your life until next time keep looking for the message behind the music and listen for the new song he sings over you I'm Denise graves and I'll see you next week cornerstone television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible