#266 MORE TO THIS LIFE by Steven Curtis Chapman (1989)

MORE TO THIS LIFE by Steven Curtis Chapman
Sparrow Records - SPC 1201

Producer:
Phil Naish

File Under: CCM

Time Capsule-Worthy Track:

I Will Be Here

“Music is a very mysterious, powerful gift that God created and I think it’s even supernatural in the ways that it can access parts of our hearts that the spoken word could never get to.”

-Steven Curtis Chapman

It seems that by now the whole world has heard the horrific story of the 2008 accidental death of Maria, the young girl that Steven and Mary Beth Chapman had adopted in 2004. That event made international headlines and Chapman has recorded songs and given countless interviews about the tragedy, what it has taken for the family to be able to grapple with it, and their struggle to find peace and healing. Many of the songs on Chapman's 2009 release Beauty Will Rise were born of sorrow.

There were two very powerful songs, in particular, from much earlier in Chapman’s career that were also born of pain. True to the quote above, More to This Life and I Will Be Here from his 1989 More to This Life album touched the deeper places of our hearts, places where spoken words may not have always made a difference. They are songs that Chapman has been singing ever since.

Death always gets our attention. It often causes us to take inventory in our own lives and question what’s truly important, what really matters. Co-written by Phil Naish, the album's title track is said to have been inspired by Chapman’s own reflections on mortality as a result of some unexpected funerals. 

Today I watched in silence as people passed me by
And I strained to see if there was something hidden in their eyes
But they all looked back at me as if to say
Life just goes on

The old familiar story, told in different ways
Make the most of your own journey from the cradle to the grave
Dream your dreams tomorrow because today
Life must go on

For an album opener, it’s a very serious song. Certainly not a cheerleading anthem or a God-as-my-girlfriend tune...no, this song sets a somber tone right out of the gate. Clocking in at over 5 minutes (also unusual for a lead-off song), More to This Life sounds as though it was written by a young man who had begun to experience real life up-close-and-personal. 

In a 2002 interview with Barry Alfonso, Steven Curtis Chapman talked about the need for Christian artists to be real about the trials and struggles that all of us face. “Christian music has matured and moved away from this need to say, ‘We have it all figured out and we have all the answers,” Chapman said. “Not that Christian music ever really did that, but I think that there’s a perception that that’s what it was about. It’s matured into saying, ‘Let me express my own struggles and what I have come to learn.’ But it’s still anchored in the hope of the Gospel.”  That’s a good description of More to This Life.

Tonight he lies in silence, stepping into space
And looks for ways to make tomorrow better than today
But in the morning light it looks the same
Life just goes on

He takes care of his family, he takes care of his work
And every Sunday morning he takes his place at the church
And somehow he still feels a need to search
But life just goes on

So where do we start to find every part
Of what makes this life complete
If we turn our eyes to Jesus we’ll find
Life’s true beginning is there at the cross where He died

But there's more to this life than living and dying
More than just trying to make it through the day
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see
And there's more than this life alone can be

This adult-contemporary ballad was beautifully recorded and it struck a chord with audiences everywhere. “I’ve come to realize that all I can do is really be faithful with the gifts that God’s given me and, in the sense of the old saying, dance with the one who brought me,” Chapman said in The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music. “All I can do is write out of my own experience and be as honest and non-preachy as I can. That’s always the goal.”

In Paducah, Kentucky, in 1962, Steven Curtis Chapman was born into a home where music was always present. His Dad Herb was a songwriter and guitar teacher who owned a music store, so it was almost preordained that young Steven (and his brother Herb Jr.) would be musically talented as well. Steven went to college to study medicine but eventually dropped out of school to pursue a music career full-time. He performed at the Opryland amusement park in Nashville and eventually landed a deal as a songwriter with Sparrow Records. After writing songs that were recorded by The Imperials, Sandi Patty, Glen Campbell, the Cathedral Quartet and others, Steven Curtis Chapman (SCC) was offered his own record deal.

Performing at Opryland

Audiences responded favorably to this earnest kid who, as one writer put it, was “boyish in appearance” but came across as “morally straight and fun loving.” He was also described as “personally conservative yet reasonably hip.” Music journalist Barry Alfonso says there was a touch of small-town folksiness in Chapman that endeared him to Christian music listeners. 

In the book The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music, April Hefner opined that Chapman was highly effective because he was so good at just being himself, “a gifted communicator telling simple stories in simple ways.” His debut album and sophomore release both contained hits that put young SCC on the CCM map, paving the way for More to This Life, his third release on Sparrow.

Herb and Judy Chapman were successful at giving their son Steven a musical foundation upon which to build a long-lasting career, even as the foundation of the Chapman home was slowly crumbling. Sadly, Steven watched his parents’ relationship fall apart after some 30 years of marriage, causing anxiety and pain as divorces almost always do. Chapman said this event caused him to deconstruct much of the faith that he grew up with and start asking a lot of really tough questions. He has been quoted as saying that his parents’ divorce was a huge factor behind some of the songs on More to This Life. 

With his parents’ breakup happening not long after his own wedding, Chapman wanted to relieve his new bride of any insecurities that she might be feeling. In an interview with Today’s Christian Music, SCC said, “It felt like I needed to drive a stake in the ground and say to her, ‘No matter how I feel when I wake up tomorrow, no matter how disillusioned we may be at different points of this, I have made a commitment to you and I will be here when you wake up.’ Because I think there was this real fear in her that said, ‘Wow, if this happened in his parents’ lives, what assurance do we have that this won’t be our story as well?’”

And so he wrote a song.

I Will Be Here is arguably the best and most loved romantic love song in the history of Contemporary Christian Music. 

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I... I will be here
If in the dark we lose sight of love
Hold my hand, and have no fear
‘Cause I... I will be here

I will be here when you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen and
I will be here when the laughter turns to cryin'
Through the winning, losing and tryin'
We'll be together 'cause I will be here

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
And the future is unclear
I... I will be here
As sure as seasons are made for change
Our lifetimes are made for years
So I... I will be here

I will be here and you can cry on my shoulder
When the mirror tells us we're older
I will hold you and
I will be here to watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here

It was tenderly written, beautifully orchestrated and recorded, and featured a flawless vocal performance by Chapman. I Will Be Here is a love song for the ages. Chances are you have not only heard the official version played countless times since 1989, but you’ve almost certainly heard it performed by a number of wedding singers. Heck...one of my brothers sang it at my other brother’s wedding...and I used it as the music bed for a video commemorating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. 

I Will Be Here could pass for a secular love song were it not for this section near the end of the song…

I will be true to the promise I have made
To you and to the One who gave you to me

Chapman has been candid over the years that he and his wife Mary Beth have had struggles in their marriage. In an interview with CBN, he said that they have learned first-hand the difficulty in trusting God when you wonder if the story is over, wonder if you can endure anymore, wonder if you can stand after so many years of marriage with its hurts and hard times that you have to walk through together - even some that you have put each other through - and be able to stand there, side by side, hold each other’s hands, and celebrate a grand-baby when it would’ve been easy so many times to just walk away. 

Waiting for Lightning is another keeper. The lyrics give us a glimpse into the thinking of a young man who is questioning his faith (perhaps, again, due to the breakup of his parents). It's a ballad that is powerful, respectful and real.

Standing on the edge of the truth
Looking out at the view of all you used to believe
From where you are, you can see you're far away from home

Echoes of the life you once knew
Call out to you from across the divide
And you know it's time to step back over the line

The song goes on to remind us that while we're sometimes waiting for lightning and listening for thunder, and allowing our feelings to lead the way, the Holy Spirit is quietly whispering in the depths of our hearts, providing a flicker of Light to dispel the darkness. 

Treasure Island was a fun song on side two, but the rest of the songs on this disc were basic, serviceable CCM that broke no new ground and are frankly not very memorable. More to This Life and I Will Be Here did the heavy lifting. They are rightfully considered to be among the best songs SCC has ever written. Author Mark Allan Powell calls them “Chapman’s first two great songs.”

Chapman sang lead and backing vocals, and played electric and acoustic guitars on this album. But More to This Life was certainly not a one-man show. SCC had help from such great players as guitarists Jon Goin and Don Potter, Mark O’Connor on violin and mandolin, keyboardist Phil Naish bassist Jackie Street, and drummer Mark Hammond. Don Wyrtzen arranged the strings and the Nashville String Machine played ‘em. Background vocals were supplied by veterans Chris Harris, Mark Heimermann, Chris Rodriguez and...newcomer Herb Chapman!  

Phil Naish produced it and Jeff Balding recorded it. Ronnie Brookshire, Carry Summers, Barry Ray Dixon, Steve Bashir and Howard Levy all served as engineers. More to This Life was recorded at quite a few studios: Omnisound, Quad Studios, The Pond, and Gold Mine Studios, all in the Nashville area, and also at Studio 55 in LA.

The album cover was designed by Brenda Whitehill, with art direction by Barbara Hearn and photos taken by Mark Tucker.

Chapman’s career trajectory went in an upward direction after this album (to say the least). Mark Allen Powell says that no artist represented the “meat and potatoes” of CCM in the 1990s better than SCC. The numbers are staggering: Over 20 albums recorded, a handful of books authored, advocate for several charitable foundations and causes, actor in the movie The Christmas Child, 5 Grammy awards, 58 Dove awards, 7-time GMA “Artist of the Year,” 10 million albums sold and 10 gold or platinum recordings. If mainstream CCM had a dynasty, it would be this guy. 

Of course, the unimaginable tragedy that befell the Chapman family when their adopted daughter Maria was accidentally killed (when struck by an SUV driven by their son) thrust the entire family into national headlines. While stating that the sadness and grief were completely unfixable and that “only in Heaven will this make sense,” at the end of the day Steven Curtis Chapman handled the event with grace and modeled faith and courage in the face of unspeakable horror. The whole experience of adopting Chinese orphans would lead the Chapmans to found a nonprofit called Show Hope, which provides information and resources to families considering adoption. Their goal is to help reduce the financial barrier of adoption, giving new hope and new lives to orphans from around the world. They have also opened Maria's Big House of Hope in Luoyang, China. It's a special needs orphanage where children are cared for and loved.

As wonderful as all of that is, it didn't happen overnight and it didn't happen without a lot of pain and hardship. "I want Maria back," Mary Beth Chapman said in an interview back in 2009, her emotions still very real and raw. "I want my son...not to have this as a chapter in his story. I want my children to be healthy, my family secure. I don't really care whose life has been touched or changed because of our loss."

Maria Sue Chunxi Chapman

Mary Beth has been candid when discussing those dark and confusing days in the aftermath of the accident (and beyond). She has described it as "a free fall of faith" but says that she and Steven have landed on a firm foundation. 

The lyrics to I Will Be Here obviously come to mind...

Tomorrow morning if you wake up and the sun does not appear...

If in the dark we lose sight of love, hold my hand and have no fear...

I will be here when you feel like being quiet, when you need to speak your mind I will listen...

I will be here when the laughter turns to cryin'...

Through the winning, losing and tryin'...

We'll be together.

Indeed.