Sitting backstage less than an hour from performing a scorching rock show focusing on His Rock, Kutless lead singer, Jon Micah Sumrall takes time to reflect on something which captures great meaning in his life.

       As we sit in a side room, away from the crowded confines of the backstage area, I hand him my Bible and ask Jon Micah about a specific passage that has not only changed his life, but has given him great confidence in the fact that no matter what we think our next move may be, God is always in control.

       Here’s a portion of the conversation . . .      

      Let’s spend a few minutes in Psalm 37.  Verses 4 – 7 mean a lot to you.

       Well, when I was in high school, I went to Bible study every Friday night.  It’s funny, looking back, because the study was at Jeff’s house, the drummer in the band, his parent’s house.   It was really cool because it was just a group of high schoolers and we’d hang out, get together, and have a Bible study.  Then afterwards we’d play video games and stuff.  It was cool. 

       I remember, one of the guys who was teaching that study, he went through a passage in Psalm 37 and the place where I was at during that time in my life, it hit me really hard and it became one of those studies that you keep going back to throughout the rest of your life. 

       That passage became multi-faceted when it comes to how it relates to my life because it’s this prescription, so to speak, of what to do when you either lack direction or you’re waiting upon where you’re supposed to go next, you’re seeking the Lord, like ‘Okay God, what’s around the bend, what am I supposed to do here?’

       And it’s difficult for us being dead in the flesh because we want, and expect, the answers right now. 

       Definitely, and I’ve found myself a lot of times in my life where I believe I knew where I was headed, but you know, God often will impress upon our hearts a calling or a desire for something but He doesn’t always fulfill that desire immediately, and so you’re waiting, ‘Okay, Lord, I think you called me to do this but how’s it going to work out?  I’m still sitting here, what’s going on?’

       And this passage here has been everything from my relationship with my wife now who at the time was my girlfriend, to my position with this band.   There’s just been so many ways that these verses have really carried me through a lot of those times of being in-between and thinking, ‘Okay, what am I doing?’  And so it’s a passage I go to when I’m feeling doubtful, starting at verse four:

       That little stretch right there, that little passage first of all says:      

       That’s the key verse for me because a lot of times I’m like, man, what’s going on?  I’ve got this desire, whether it be for music or for whatever, God will even call me in those directions, but why is it not happening?  I’ve really found that if I just delight myself in the Lord and continue to seek Him that He will bring those things to pass. If the desires are from Him, He’s put them there for a reason and He will make them happen. 

      If they’re not from Him and I continue to delight myself in Him, then He’ll change those desires, and those desires won’t be there anymore.

      That’s interesting because to me what that says is it takes our eyes and our sights off of our problems, our outcome, and what we’re thinking, and places it on the cross, which is where they’re supposed to be.

       Exactly, and you know the thing is if you’re delighting in Him, you’re going to be in sync with His will.  It’s easy for us to think, ‘Oh Lord, I want to be in a band, I want to get signed, I want to be on tour, but oftentimes it’s not what’s best for you but that’s what I want. 

       And so the thing is, when I really felt music was becoming a passion for me and something I was supposed to be going into, it was something where I was just like, ‘Okay, God, if this is something that you want, then open the doors and if not, change my heart,’ because I really had this burning desire to do what we’re doing now, and so that was a case where I just continued to trust in Him. 

      Then there’s the next thing, in verse five:

       Now you’re like, ‘Okay Lord, I’m delighting myself in you, what’s going on?’  And He says, ‘Commit.  Just keep dong what you’re doing, stay strong, and He will bring it to pass.’

       It’s a promise.  It’s a guarantee that if you’re delighting in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart if those are lined up with His will.  It says, Commit to that and He’ll bring it to pass, it’ll happen.

       That’s just a cool verse to me.  That displaying of, here’s your reward for being faithful and true, that He will bring that to light and bring it forward.

Verse seven is the hard one.  I like the previous verses because it’s like it’s going to happen, just keep trusting the Lord, here it is, everything’s great.  But verse seven says:   

       And it’s funny because I sit there sometimes and think why if I have this desire and passion, why are all these other people succeeding and why’s all this other stuff going on, I feel left out, you know, I’m just sitting here.  I think this is Your Will, God, but why am I left behind? But the first part of this verse says:

       That’s so hard for us to do - for me to do - and that’s a constant reminder to me that God’s time is not our time, and all throughout the Bible, you see guys that were called to something that was a huge impact of a ministry, guys that did amazing things.   

       For example David, in the Old Testament here, the author of many of these Psalms himself, he was at a place where he was anointed king at a fairly young age, but it was years until he actually took that kingship, and so he was called, he was anointed, he knew it was going to happen, but he went through years of running from the current king with his life in danger as an outcast, all this kind of stuff.  He had to have been wondering, ‘You know, God, I’ve been anointed by a prophet,’ it doesn’t get much more obvious than that, and what’s up?  I’m an outcast living in a cave.’ 

       He went on to do some great things and went on to be one of the greatest kings in all of Israel’s history, but he had to wait patiently for it. 

God’s timing is not our timing, you see it all throughout the Bible, you see it with Moses and the children of Israel; they were in the wilderness for 40 years living away as an outcast, once again.

       I think you’re right when you get to verse seven about waiting patiently and being still because they all went through a lot of difficulties and challenges, but I also think in our time, everything’s pulling at us far more these days.  But throughout the centuries, there is emphatically something brilliantly beautiful in being still. 

       How do you take that from the business standpoint of being in the band, with the things you need to do, a direction you need to go.  How do you take the band’s business plan to approach sponsors and reach more into the business community?  Do you reach after them on your own or do you wait and let sponsors approach you?  How do you distinguish between the two?   

       There’s a real difference here to me.  This is dealing with your real passion and your real desire.  That’s different than developing your craft and skill.  One of the things that Psalm 37 actually encourages, especially in verse five:  Committing your way to the Lord and trusting in Him. 

       I believe that we are, based upon the context of this verse and other verses throughout the Bible, we are supposed to be diligent in using the talents and the gifts that God has given us and developing and causing those to grow and become more and more part of us.  I feel that this encourages us to do that while we’re waiting for him to open the next door because for me, I mean honestly right now, we’re in a place in our career where we’re doing well, things are going great, but we’re not at the pinnacle by any means either, there’s a lot more places we can go. 

       Bands like U2 are one of the biggest bands in the world.  We’re a long, long, long way from that.  I would love to see our band continue to grow and continue to develop, but I’m in a place right now where I’ve got to do the best with what I have, with what God’s given me.  We do our best on stage every night, we write the best material that we can, and you know, from a business perspective we work with sponsorships and stuff like that, but we’re just doing the best we can with what we have.  We try to set ourselves up that if God opens the door to go onto bigger things that we’ve prepared ourselves for that.

       What I’ve found in my own life so many times, especially with this band, is there were times when I thought I was ready to go to the next step, and I’m sitting here, just like in this verse written 3,000 years ago, and I’m saying, ‘Okay, Lord, I’m delighting myself in You and this is my heart, this is where I think I need to go, I’m ready to go to that next step.’ 

       God’s just like, ‘Not yet,’ and I’m going, ‘But this is Your desire You’ve given me, so c’mon, let’s go.’

       And even a door would open, or I thought a door would open to take us to the next level, and then it wouldn’t work out.  It shut, and I would wonder why it happened, why it didn’t go.  I thought it was totally in line with what I desired, it says You’ll bring it forth and that was the door, and it just closed.

But now in hindsight, looking back, I look at some of those things that were potential open doors that the Lord shut and I’m so thankful that they didn’t work out.

       That’s such a beautiful part of all this.  I still have the flesh in me all the time that says let’s do this or let’s do that, but I just find that when I pull back and just be still, that’s when I realize where I’m wrong in this by thinking I can actually control it by taking the wheel.  It’s a great relief to let Him steer.

       It’s our tendency,  especially when God gives us a desire, oftentimes it’s a burning passion in your life and so it’s really easy for us to be like, ‘Alright, let’s go, this is God’s Will!’ and God’s going, ‘No, not that way.  That way’s not My will; My will’s over here.  Yeah, I want you to go that direction someday, but not right now, because I’m preparing you.’

I’ve seen so much growth in our band and so many changes that had we gone the way that we thought it should have gone, it would have been a disaster, so I just have to continue to trust and continue to wait patiently, and continue to delight myself in Him.

When that happens, and that door shuts, and I’m like, ’Lord, why did that shut, what’s going on?’  And the Lord’s just like, ‘I still have this for you in your life, it’s still a place I desire in your life, now is just not the time yet, just keep waiting patiently, stay committed, keep working and we’ll get there.’

You could easily go out and be a secular rock band, but you’re sticking with your faith, and that’s something commendable because U2 isn’t doing that.  Kutless has what it takes to do a Switchfoot, or to be a far more popular band by reaching a huge secular crowd if you tone down your lyrics for Jesus, but you refuse to do that, which is exactly where Psalm 37 is leading you. 

       For us, I believe that you know the music will bring forth what’s in us; so to speak, do you know what I mean?  If you’re writing from your heart, it’s going to show where your heart’s at, essentially, and so as things change, yeah I would say I’ve developed and grown as a writer, the topics I address on our latest record are very different than the topics I addressed on our first record, that’s just part of growing as a person and as a Christian, being on the road and meeting people. 

       But the thing is, I think things may be a little more poetic on the new record and a little deeper in some ways, which comes with just writing more.  But, you know, when you look at the heart of the issues of these songs, they really come back to where we’re at in our relationship with God.  It just keeps coming back to that.  I really believe that for us to separate our faith from our music would not be true to who we are because our faith is a part of who we are, and so it flows seamlessly that way.

       I also find that by listening to your music a lot, that it’s very easy for someone who doesn’t have the faith - or just wonders - to be attracted to the music.  It’s not going to turn them off, it pulls them in. There’s emptiness in us all.  If you don’t have Christ as your Savior, there’s an emptiness, whether we know it or not, and your songs address a lot of that emptiness.

       We really try to not be preachy, so to speak, if that makes sense.  There’s a lot of music out there that’s so overtly Christian, like, ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, God, God, God, Holy, Holy, Holy,’ that’s fine, there’s a place for that, but I do not feel that music is very evangelical.  For someone who doesn’t understand the Lord, they’re just like, what in the world? 

      Even the two original songs on Strong Tower, your worship record, are not overtly preachy at all.

       Yeah, and they’re worshipful, they’re worship songs. Strong Tower was a bit of a departure for us because that was a record designed and geared towards giving back to the church, and that was the focus of that record. 

       Granted, that record has reached non-Christian people as well, which is great, but the focus of that record was for Christians because non-Christians don’t get it when we’re all lifting our hands in worship.  They’re like, ‘What is up with these crazy people?’  But when you’re rocking out and having a great time and just going nuts, they’re like, ‘Yeah, a rock show, I get that.’  

       But then when you stop and they begin to think about the words, or they begin to think about their life, and you begin to address life issues and they go, ‘Man, that rings true and I feel alone.’ 

       And then you begin to show them love, they desperately want it and they desperately need it.  It’s so cool how people are drawn into that.  I really believe that the love of God is what really brings people to repentance.

       That’s our focus.  When we take the stage, if there’s one message we want to convey, we just want people to simply know that God loves them.