Photo by Iñaki del Olmo
American worship leader and songwriter Katy Nichole is a newcomer who released her self-titled EP last year. She also recently released her debut album, Jesus Changed My Life, a few weeks ago.
Also, check out my review of In Jesus Name (God of Possible).
Big Daddy Weave is an American Contemporary Christian artist whose name derives from his nickname “Big Daddy” (due to his…generousness) and “Weaver”, with the last character “r” dropped for flow.
Beginning with his career in 1998, he released ten albums, including:
- Neighborhoods (2001)
- One and Only (2002)
- Fields of Grace (2003)
- What I Was Made For (2005)
- Every Time I Breathe (2006)
- What Life Would Be Like (2008)
- Christ Is Come (2009)
- Love Come to Life (2012)
- Beautiful Offerings (2015)
- When the Light Comes (2019)
Big Daddy Weave received a GMA Dove Award for Christmas Album of the Year for his work on Christ Is Come in 2010.
Also, check out my reviews of I Know, Redeemed, and Jesus I Believe.
Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site! Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.
1. What message does the song communicate?
Nichole and Weave make several points:
- They were rescued from their former life of sin.
- God always keeps His promises.
- God’s power is manifest in weaknesses.
- We are instructed to hang onto unwavering faith in God.
While I initially thought that the pages of Nichole and Weave’s life were torn out and discarded, Verse 1 says they are “torn-up”, not torn-out. Also, Chorus’ “Even in the broken parts, He holds my heart, He never fails” evidences that forgetting is not their goal. Rather, it’s to place their brokenness into God’s hands and to allow Him to do what He wants with their torn life.
Score: 10/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
The entire song is basking in Scriptural delight.
Lyrics posted with permission.*
[Verse 1]
There’s torn-up pages in this book
Words that tell me I’m no good
Chapters that defined me for so long
But the hands of grace and endless love
Dusted off and picked me up
Told my heart that hope is never gone
The book represents Nichole and Weave’s life up to this moment. The pages and chapters are various moments/seasons of that life. The torn pages represent their lawbreaking that, through God’s forgiveness, is as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). God took their heart of stone and turned it into a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19, Ezekiel 36:26, Jeremiah 31:33, and Hebrews 8:10). Nichole and Weave are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17).
[Chorus]
God is in this story, God is in the details
Even in the broken parts, He holds my heart, He never fails
I’ve addressed this in the last paragraph of my commentary on Verse 1, except that God never fails. This is supported in Numbers 23:19, Joshua 21:45, Joshua 23:14, 1 Kings 8:56, Romans 4:21, 2 Corinthians 1:20, 1 Thessalonians 5:24, Hebrews 10:23, and 2 Peter 3:9.
When I’m at my weakest, I will trust in Jesus
His power is perfect in Nichole and Weave’s weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-11).
Always in the highs and lows, the One who goes before mе
God is in this story
Essentially repeats lines 1 and 2.
[Verse 2]
So if the storm you’re walkin’ through
Feels like it’s too much and you
Wondеr if He even cares at all
Well, hold on tight to what you know
He promised He won’t let you go
If you’re going through a trial, don’t waver from your faith (James 1:5-8). He promises to never leave nor forsake those who are His (Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:8-9, 1 Chronicles 28:20, Psalm 118:6, Lamentations 3:22-23, and Hebrews 13:5-6).
Your song of healing’s written in His scars
It was Christ on the cross that set you free from your former life of lawbreaking (Psalm 119:45, Isaiah 58:6, Isaiah 61:1, John 3:16-21, John 8:31-36, John 10:10, Acts 13:38-39, Romans 6:1-23, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 8:20-21, 1 Corinthians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 7:21-23, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians 2:4, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 3:22, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13, Colossians 1:21-23, Hebrews 2:14-15, and 1 Peter 2:16).
[Bridge]
If it reads like addiction, if it reads like disease
He’s the One who frees the prisoner, He’s the healer of all things
If it reads like depression, if it reads broken home
He’s the One who holds your sorrow, He won’t leave you here alone
Uses more book metaphors to provide examples of past issues that Jesus healed (see Verse 2, line 6).
Score: 10/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
Unbelievers will probably think it’s Christian. Chiefly, because Jesus is explicitly mentioned in the song, alongside God and grace. They will think that Christians left behind lies that were told to them, embracing a caring Jesus who doesn’t let go and always does what He says. This information contained in Verse 2 partially addresses a longstanding criticism I have concerning the God who never fails and how that coincides with unanswered prayer. He promises to be with them. However, it doesn’t address why God sometimes doesn’t answer prayer, which seems like failure on His part.
The metaphors and language used in this song are mostly everyday and easy for them to comprehend.
Score: 8/10
4. What does this song glorify?
It glorifies Jesus that we are transformed people who held onto His promises and beautifies the ugly parts of us, repairing our past lives, and reminds us to cling onto Christ when life gets tough.
Score: 10/10
Closing Comments
Katy Nichole & Big Daddy Weave’s God Is In This Story is great. Christ makes us new creatures, with the past dead and gone, destroying it leaves us with a shallow testimony that omits how Christ changed us from the inside out. These glorify God. Unbelievers will likely understand this song’s message, even if they disagree that God never fails.
This song is more testimonial than corporate worship, as it speaks to the audience more than it proclaims to God His value and worth. However, it could be useful to remind people to stay the course when the storms of life take us to dark places.
Final Score: 9.5/10
Artist Info
Track: God Is In This Story (listen to the song)
Artist: Katy Nichole & Big Daddy Weave
EP: Katy Nichole
Genre: Rock
Release Year: 2022
Duration: 3:28
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
*Copyright © 2022 Centricity Songs (BMI) BrentHood Music (BMI) Meaux Mercy (BMI) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com), Be Essential Songs (BMI) / Hulse House Music (BMI) (admin at EssentialMusicPublishing.com). All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Updates:
01/24/2024 – Forgot to update section 4 rating after previous change. Thanks to Brett Michael Rocker for catching it. This did not affect the offerall score.
03/08/2023 – Caleb and Rick made excellent points that challenged my criticism of torn-up pages. After much prayer and consideration, I accepted their correction and removed my criticism of Verse 1, raising this song’s score from 8/10 to 9.5/10.
Comments
Brett Michael Rocker
Hey Vince,
Curious as to why your score for “4. What does this song glorify?” is 8 out of 10 when the wording in your answer implies a 10/10.
Vince Wright
Brett Michael Rocker,
Great catch! This was supposed to be 10/10.
When I get a chance, I’ll update the scoring.
-Vince Wright
Tyeisha
Vince. On your history of updates page, you have this update next to Phil Wickham‘s this is our God. Looks like you copied the 03/18/23 update but just put the wrong song and artist. Please tell me it’s this even makes sense. My apologies if it doesn’t. You had no issues with Phil Wickham’s This is Our God. Again, apologies if this doesn’t doesn’t make sense. You just need to put God is in This Story and the appropriate artists. God Bless
Vince Wright
Tyeisha,
Thank you for your compliments and correction! I fixed the History of Updates page to include both artists as separate entries for this update.
-Vince Wright
Rick
While I respect your opinion on the “torn-up pages” line, I would disagree. “Torn-up pages” in my view is referring to moments that we wish had never happened. Looking contextually, you can see that as it followed by “words that tell me I’m no good.” Those torn-up pages are probably referring to lies that others have told us rather than sin in our pre-Christian life that we’ll forget and act as though it never happened. It’s not that we are forgetting the past, it’s that there are parts of our story that are so broken, we wish we could forget them. This idea is further seen in the chorus with “always in the high and lows” and “even in the broken parts”. I hope this at least helps you to see there could be another perspective on this.
Vince Wright
Rick,
Thank you for your comments! Now that I’ve had a chance to reflect upon Caleb’s comments, I can see now that “broken parts” in Chorus is confirmation that the artist is not discarding their past. They are saying that God has it.
-Vince Wright
Caleb Reusser
I think you are misunderstanding their first line of the song. There is nothing about pages being torn out of the book and forgetten. But rather their life (the book) is damaged as seen by the state of the pages (torn-up). The pages are still there as evidenced by the pages telling them they are no good. But God dusts off the damaged book and handles it with care. When I hear that verse I picture one a book on my dad’s book shelf that held to gather by rubber bands. I had to be very careful when reading because the pages had tears and chunks missing around the edges. But every page was there and so was the complete story.
Vince Wright
Caleb,
Thank you for your comments!
This is an excellent point! I was reading “torn-up” as “torn-out”, which I can see now is not present in the lyrics. Your imagery of a tattered and damaged book, but not necessarily with pages missing, was vital to help me understand your perspective. Thank you for that! You’ve given me a lot to think about and pray on.
-Vince Wright