You Are Not Forsaken Curtis Stephan	(Based on 1 vote)

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Artist Reflection

Do you ever have those moments when you're doing something for someone else, but later discover that unwittingly, somehow, you were given an even greater gift? It happened to me in the song "You Are Not Forsaken."

I had been on the phone with a friend and great songwriter who was frustrated and talking about quitting music entirely. For some reason that stirred me to write a song of encouragement for her just to say, "Don't give up, trust God's plans." It was one of those songs that everything seems to just roll out easily. I had verses, chorus, I was feeling this one . . . until I got to the bridge. I just didn't know what was going to go there and began to slip into this chorus idea that I had during a training run before my Half Ironman triathlon a few years before. You are not alone . . . I was SO excited, because I was finally using that idea. With a few tweaks, I had it done and it is one of my favorites.

After sending it to my friend as a little musical Get Well card, I started going through my own trials. Still adjusting to life after my good friend and mentor Kilian passed away, I hit a bad patch of feeling abandoned, isolated, and being on my own. It's just part of the grieving process, I suppose, but it's not a fun place. I was practicing piano and "You Are Not Forsaken," like an old friend, came along and gave me something encouraging to go on. It was as if Christ himself was sitting there saying, "You are not alone, I am always with you 'til the end of time." I must have sat and played that bridge 14 times in a row.

The thing about God is that he knows what we need, when we need it, and is ALWAYS there to lift you up when you are down. "It is in giving that we receive," and God gave me a much needed and very much unexpected gift when I needed it most.

- Curtis Stephan