About
Laura Story
GRAMMY®
award winning artist, speaker, songwriter, author and worship leader Laura
Story has a gift for penning songs that connect with people all around the
world. Among her successes as a solo artist with her smash hits “Mighty to Save”
and “Blessings,” Laura has also penned hit songs for other renowned artists
including Chris Tomlin’s “Indescribable.” Her solo artist music debut in 2008
with Great
God Who Saves led to four Dove nominations and the award for
“Inspirational Album of the Year.” In 2011, Laura released her sophomore
project Blessings.
The album and the emotionally powerful title was inspired by her real life
trials and adversities, primarily her husband Martin's diagnosis of a brain
tumor. The album resonated with a huge audience and led to whirlwind career
highlights for Laura, peaking at the No. 1 album spot for three consecutive
weeks on Billboard’s Contemporary Christian Overall chart, topping the iTunes®
Christian/Gospel Top Songs chart and holding the No. 1 spot for an impressive
28 consecutive weeks on the Christian charts. The success of the single
“Blessings,” which was certified RIAA Gold, includes the GRAMMY® Award for Best Contemporary Christian Song, the Billboard Music Award
for Top Christian Song and the Dove Awards for Song of the Year,
Pop/Contemporary Song of the Year, Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year and
Songwriter of the Year. The song inspired Laura's first book, “What If Your
Blessings Come Through Raindrops?” in 2012. God Of Every Story released in 2013 to much
acclaim, and her first ever Christmas project God With Us,
released in October of 2015. Laura recently released a new book and bible study
curriculum When God Doesn’t Fix It;
Lessons You Never Wanted to Learn, Truths You Can’t Live Without. She
has a graduate degree from Covenant Theological Seminary and has served as a
worship leader at Perimeter Church in Atlanta since 2005, but her greatest joy
is being a wife to Martin and the mother to Ben, Griffin and Josie.
| I was excited to get to review this CD. I listened to it most of the day on Saturday while cleaning house. There are a wide variety of worship songs in this CD. |
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Open Hands (feat. Mac Powell)
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For the Love of My King
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Awake My Soul (A 1000 Tongues)
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You can download Laura's songs from itunes
here. You may win a copy of this CD by leaving a comment for a chance to win. Tell me which song you'd love to hear. I'll draw a winner Sat. Mar. 25th. US residents only please.
OPEN HANDS
Throughout the Bible, there are countless stories of ordinary
people whole-heartedly attempting to live a life fully surrendered to God’s
unique calling on their lives. More than once, God asks people of faith to
relinquish control and simply trust Him. These days, singer/songwriter Laura
Story is discovering the beauty found in letting go. It’s this posture of
surrender that she’s striving for on her fifth studio album, Open Hands
(Fair Trade Services).
“We have this picture all the way through the Scriptures of all
these great leaders in this process of surrendering everything. What the Lord
is asking them is not, ‘You need to hold on tighter. You need to manage this
better.’ What the Lord asks us is to surrender,” she offers, “It’s about
learning to live with open hands, learning to live life in this constant state
of saying, ‘Lord, my life is Yours. My time is Yours. My resources are Yours.
All of this is Yours. Do what You will.’”
Story has built a life—and a career—around submission to her
calling. She’s led worship at Atlanta’s Perimeter Church for the past 12 years.
In addition to penning songs recorded by artists like Chris Tomlin, Story has
found success as a recording artist in her own right. Since the release of her
solo debut in 2008, Story has amassed a GRAMMY® Award, a Billboard Music Award,
multiple GMA Dove Awards and an RIAA Gold certification for her massive No. 1
hit “Blessings.” In addition, she’s also the author of two books, including the
latest "When God Doesn't Fix It - Lessons You Never Wanted to Learn,
Truths You Can't Live Without."
Open Hands is the follow-up to 2013’s critically-acclaimed
God of Every Story, and in the years that have passed since her last
release, Story has given birth to twins, making their brood a family of five.
Now, as a mom to three kids—Josie, Benjamin and Griffin—the posture of “open
hands” feels more necessary than ever before as she juggles ministry and
motherhood.
“We never get
to a point where we can do life apart from complete and total daily dependence
on Jesus,” Story admits. “The irony is the less control we have, the more peace
we have and the more, I would even say, success and joy we find. It’s a
contrary picture to what the world tells us, but it’s gaining through letting
go.”
Open Hands’ fresh collection of originals blends Story’s
signature congregational worship with intimate moments. “I wanted to make an album so that each
song I write would be just that seed of hope or that lifeline that someone
listens to during that tough moment and thinks, ‘I’m going to choose to trust
God, even during this,’” Story shares. “I pray that God would speak through me
in the midst of the music.”
A parade of A-list songwriters, including Matt Redman, Matt
Maher, Mia Fieldes, Hank Bentley, Sarah Hart and Seth Mosley, among others,
pepper the album’s 11 tracks. Through writing sessions both alone and with
others, Story began to gradually see this common thread of surrender emerge.
“Rather than picking a theme and writing around it, a lot of
times, it takes me writing to be able to step back and see what the themes are,
not just of the record but of my life,” she says of her creative process. “It
was neat to step back and see that ‘open hands’ is a theme that ended up
presenting itself rather than me choosing it.”
The title track—already a chart-topper prior to the album’s
release—features guest vocals from Third Day’s Mac Powell, a fellow
Atlanta-native and Story’s longtime friend. “You Came Running” borrows imagery
from the biblical narrative of the Prodigal Son. In true Story fashion, several
selections (“Awake My Soul (1000 Tongues),” “For The Love of My King”)
reimagine timeless hymns, which she refreshes with an original chorus.
“I’m pretty sure that the theology that I learned as a kid was
from old hymns. It’s amazing, even now as an adult, how those hymns come back
and really provide that sturdy foundation for life. It reminds me of how
important it is for me to teach my kids those old hymns,” Story reflects,
adding, “As long as I am
singing, I will be singing hymns.”
Poignant piano ballad “Give You Faith” finds the singer pondering
the legacy she wants to leave her children. “The song is about releasing your kids into the hands of God,” she
explains. “The most important thing that we could possibly give our children is
to not just tell them about the faith that we have but to live out that faith
as a family. Sometimes that means not giving them everything they want but
showing them that the most important thing in my life isn’t even them—it’s
actually my faith in Jesus Christ—and just point them to Jesus.”
To that end, Story readily admits motherhood has impacted her
songwriting on all levels. Thinking specifically about her daughter, she says, “I’ve realized that these songs
form people’s theology, and they affect how this little girl is going to think
about herself in the future. They might affect decisions that she makes in the
future because of what she believes about God and what she believes about His
Word. I’ve changed as a songwriter with kids.”
Reflecting on the world her kids are growing up in, Story wrote
the album’s sparse closer, “Grace Abounds,” after weeks of turning on the
television only to continue to watch stories of terror attacks, extreme
injustice and racial tension make headlines day after day. “It’s easy to lose
heart, and the song is about just acknowledging the brokenness. First of all,
we can’t just pretend like it doesn’t exist,” she advises. “When it seemingly
doesn’t make sense, I’m choosing to believe that God’s grace is enough. God’s
grace is enough for any social injustice. God’s grace is enough for any loss
that we go through. God’s grace is enough for any loneliness that we
experience, for any relational strain and for any relational rejection.
“When it feels like hope can’t be found, when we don’t even know
how we’re going to put one foot in front of the other,” she continues,
“Scripture teaches us that’s when grace abounds.”
Story isn’t afraid to write about grace at work in the middle of
unexpected, unexplainable situations. She can only write from experience and
how she’s seen God redeem the darkest chapters of her own life. “My greatest
goal is always for my story to encourage listeners to believe that they, too,
can live out their faith in the midst of hard circumstances,” she says. “I
truly believe that the songs we sing and the songs we write act as the
soundtrack for people’s faith. So I want to give people the most substantial
tools that give them the clearest picture of who God is and who they are in
Christ.”
The life of a songwriter is a sacred calling and one Story
doesn’t take lightly whether she’s writing songs for her church, for a new
record or simply for herself as a cathartic release. “It’s not about my songs
or my story or even my artistry,” she asserts. “It really is about Him getting
the glory for the work that I believe He has chosen to do through songwriters
and through songs. It’s a unique work that He’s chosen to do there.”
She may lead others in worship through song on stages both big
and small, but on a daily basis, Story is intent on loosening her grip and
choosing to live with open hands as an ultimate act of praise.
“Worship at the very core of what it is is ‘worth-ship.’ It’s the
easiest definition I’ve ever heard of worship. It’s giving God worth, and
sometimes that means verbal adoration and praise. Sometimes that’s showing Him
worth with our calendars and our checking accounts. No matter what it is, it
always begins with open hands. It always begins with a willingness to say, ‘You
are worth whatever cost you call me to give,’” she maintains. “Worship in its
very core begins with surrender. That’s how we really show God that He’s worth
it all.”
I received a copy of this CD in exchange for this review and post by....
