It may be next to impossible for a generation of Christian music fans to imagine Steven Curtis Chapman in any other vocation than music, but the beloved musician has wondered time and again if it might be time to head on to his next great adventure.
“I’ve lived much of my life and journey with a microphone in one hand and with my other hand kind of holding the plug, getting ready to pull it out of the wall socket and turn the whole thing off!”
Despite his success, Steven strives to keep family first and often considers the influence his professional success has on his family.
“Because of the struggles of being in a vocation and a calling that takes me away from my home and my family. My wife raising our three children – and then we adopted our three daughters – and so then she became the mother of six, and I’m the dad of six. And as there are with every family, there is a nonstop need of dad being there, and of my wife feeling the loneliness.”
“We are constantly going, ‘OK. Is this too much? Can I even do this? Should I do this?’ Did God wire us to even be in a public platform of audiences cheering you on, and saying, “This is great! We love what you do!” And yet knowing that my family is at some level suffering with me being gone? So how do I walk that line?”
Steven has continually leaned on the wisdom and insight of those God has placed in his life to give him perspective.
“There have been many times that I’ve found myself sitting with pastors and counselors, saying, ‘Should I continue to do this? Can I keep doing this, and at what level?'”
“I wrestle with it to this day. I know that there’s great still loneliness that my wife has to deal with, and then I do as well. Even surrounded with many people out here on the road. People would look and say, ‘How could you ever feel lonely with what you do?'”
“But I think those are sometimes the greatest challenges. Kind of battling with that, and just trying to walk in a place of always saying, ‘God just because this has been ‘successful’, is this where I’m supposed to continue to be journeying now? And at any point that God says, ‘OK. I’ve got something different for you.’ I’d be willing and ready to receive that, and head in that direction.”
Steven Curtis Chapman is the beloved singer songwriter behind songs that helped define CCM music. He’s the most awarded artist in Christian music history & the author of the brand new book, .
On the Road with Steven Curtis Chapman
