Guestplaining 001: Sarah Kroger

[Music] welcome to godsplaining contemplative preachers contemporary age each week join the dominican friars as they consider all things catholic hello friends and welcome back to godsplaining my name is father patrick mary briscoe and i'm joined here today by father joseph anthony kress father joseph anthony you want to say hi to everyone howdy how how's everything going uh we're getting into with the later months of the year so how are things in providence are they getting cold yet or what's out there uh yeah we're kind of headed that way um i am most grateful for wrapping up the semester you know we've had our students here for the for the whole uh latter part of the semester like a lot of colleges we did a kind of two-week lockdown but we came back and we finished strong and i'm just so grateful to be able to be with them to be able to continue to celebrate our liturgies and to uh to be able to talk with people and encourage them has really been such a huge grace um so how did things how did things kind of how are things wrapping up in charlottesville i i have to say at the beginning of the semester the pessimist in me was like oh we'll be here for two weeks and then get shut down no that doesn't sound like you i know i know i know but um like there was a part of me that i really expected but like major shout out big ups to the student body of uaba they took the precautions very seriously there was a little blip there where we had to kind of tighten some of the restrictions but we we've gone through the entire um we've gone through the entire semester and everything's been really good and like you were we're finishing up strong and i think there's this um kind of just even this error eve of gratitude that hey you know looking back on such a uh how we began with so much uncertainty that things really worked themselves out we've seen god move in beautiful ways in our ministry the growth and the outreach and just uh really good things happened in uh some what was unknown what was uncertain and less than ideal so uh yeah looking back on everything kind of uh surprised but uh very grateful to be where we are right now nice amen thanks be to god so today's episode is um different than our regular gods planning episodes uh our dedicated listeners will know that last month we invited on a few friars from the hillbilly thomas to talk to us about their new album i still can't get over the fact that they named their new album just volume 2 after months of ag months months of agony like that's what the boys came up with volume yeah i mean just very much putting on display the creativity of the dominican life like the most we could come up with was volume two but today uh we have a different guest that we're very proud we're very happy to welcome to the show we would like to introduce you to our good friend sarah kroger so sarah would you say hi to everyone hi everyone it's good to be here nashville right nashville yep yep i'm so excited to have you on oh this is such a joy and uh just really really excited to have you kind of join us and have this discussion about um you know your work and your ministry and where that's drawing from so just thank you so much for carving out a little bit of time for us thanks for having me we were just talking about this before we started recording how i've done ministry with both of you individually separately but never together we're always joking about the other person without the other person present so now we can joke about everyone at the same time together you guys are joking about me behind my back oh no never never i was the one that introduced you guys and said you should be friends but i know that's fine it's okay no it's all good i'm just i'm glad to be with you both so thanks for having me today i appreciate it we're so excited to um share with our listeners sarah her gifts and her talents um and and really um to the extent that she's willing um parts of her journey because as a as an artist um sarah you know i'm just so encouraged by your work and by what you're about and what you're trying to accomplish for the lord um and i think part of that part you know part of that is just your own story your own biography so you can can you tell us um you know how you came to love music and how you first began to grow as a performer and what that was like yeah definitely so um i grew up in a very musical home both of my parents were involved in music ministry at catholic church from the time that i was a kid so actually from the time that i was before i was born so we were always at church always involved in children's choir always in piano lessons all of which i did not like growing up but now i'm eternally grateful for um so i always had music in my life but it wasn't until i was in high school that i really had this kind of deeper conversion to my faith i feel like before i i went to a student youth conference when i was in high school and before that time i had always been talk you know told about god and taught about god and but it was always just this like person up in the clouds somewhere like somewhere out there in the universe um and all these rules were just like these rules that i had to follow and i didn't really understand it and it was really through the worship music that i first encountered jesus in a very real and personal way um and the best way that i know how to describe it is hearing the worship music it was the first time that i'd ever really prayed with contemporary worship music and it was like hearing a language that i didn't know but was strangely familiar to me um and so it became this language through which i was able to have a relationship with god and and start to have these conversations with god and realize that god wasn't just this far distant person somewhere out there in the clouds just like this puppet master but he was real and wanted a real relationship with me and that changed everything for me um and up until that point i knew that i had a gift for music i knew that i had a love for it and but i was terrified to sing in front of people i mean absolutely terrified it was the last thing that i wanted to do and i think a big part of that was because i was bullied pretty heavily in elementary school um and so i almost feel like it was this gift that i knew that i had and i knew that it was precious and i wanted to protect it and i didn't want people to tear it down and so i just hit it for years and years and years and that same summer that i went on that steubenville youth conference i was on a trip to i went on a camp trip to cove crest life teens camp in georgia and there was a leader there that was giving a talk to the whole group but it was one of those moments that it was kind of like i don't know if you've either of you've experienced this i'm sure you have where you feel like this speaker is just talking directly to you like no one else is there in the world it was one of those moments for me where it was just tunnel visioned and he said if you have um a gift from god and you're not using it you're denying the glory of god within you and i was like i mean i was only probably 16 years old and i felt like so convicted it was one of those moments that was just piercing you know and so from that point on even though i was terrified i started volunteering uh to canter at my church and i would get up there and i would sweat from head to toe and i would shake and i my voice sounded like a dying donkey i mean it was terrible um it was absolutely terrible and i was terrified every single time i did it but slowly but surely i just i was convicted i was a woman convicted and when you're convicted by something in the lord there's no stopping it you know and so that was me and i just kept showing up and like little by little um time after time after time as the weeks went by and the months went by i just started gaining more and more courage and started singing at my youth group and then the youth group down the road would invite me and then it just kind of snowballed from there but i mean if you would have told me when i was in high school that i would be doing this full-time singing in front of crowds you know of upwards of 20 000 people from at times i would have said you're absolutely nuts um yeah but that's just the way the lord works right is he's crazy and wild and his plans are so much better than ours and so much more grandiose than anything we could come up for ourselves so that's a little bit of my background and how i got started but it's it's pretty wild yeah i love i love how you were talking about like that first time you prayed with worship music how it was like that unfamiliar language but at the same time you understood it and you knew what was happening it just that really reminds me of like c.s lewis in the chronicles narnia where aslan like sings creation into being and oh yeah and how like everybody kind of understands what's happening even though this is the first time they're seeing it and experiencing it is like it just kind of cuts to that core of um the beauty and how kind of uh music does something different to us and allows us to enter into beauty and there's a real uh it's a very powerful thing and to see like that's part of your experience but also now that you you allow that and help to lead others uh in that is is really uh just great to see thank you so much yeah i really feel like as a worship leader now as a songwriter of worship music um a big part of my job at least in my mind is to write songs of remembrance to write songs that help people to remember who they are in god and who god is because i feel like we so easily forget you know i so easily forget and so if i need that i'm sure that other people do i feel like that's really what worship is all about though is bringing people back to the truth and reminding them who they are yeah let's just stick with that for a little bit and uh you know if you don't mind if i could just ask you a couple more questions in that same vein right like you made sir you made an intentional decision right to style yourself as a catholic worship leader and a songwriter i mean for you this is vocational you could have been singing other kinds of music um you in fact moved to nashville to intentionally be pursuing um this this vision of your vocation um so can you talk about what that was like yeah i i have always felt called to music well not always but when i started my journey with um leading worship and realized that this could be something that i could do in my life i never ever felt called to do like secular music um and people ask me all the time why aren't you trying out for american idol why don't you try it for the voice and i was just always like i just i don't feel called to it like that was just the best way that i could describe it um is i always felt called to be i think because for me again that moment that i had in worship at that first stupid conference that i ever went to was so impactful for me that i felt like i wanted to be a part of creating those moments for other people and helping other people encounter the heart of god in a way that maybe they had never experienced before whether it was a teenager or a middle schooler or someone in their 50s or 60s you know like across the gamut like i just wanted to be a part of helping people encounter god and in the church i felt like i feel like there our catholic church is is mission territory in a lot of ways like so many people don't know the holy spirit so many people don't have that connection that personal connection with jesus so many people are just culturally catholic and so i felt like a part of my mission a part of my calling was to be a part of again helping to create those moments of encounter helping to create those environments of prayer where people could honestly maybe for the first time in their life encounter the holy spirit in a real way and hopefully change the way that they live their life you know um their day i see a lot with um any vocations really uh whether it's priesthood or uh religious life or you know a ministry in in that kind of sense we typically go back to where we had that first encounter you know and so and uh you know i say this a lot in the priesthood with guys who um you know came to their faith in high school you know they're very much drawn to they want to teach in high school they want to do high school youth ministry right uh other people who had a conversion in college like for them they had this like deep affinity in their they want to sacrifice themselves in campus ministry yeah they want to create that i think you said it the best like you want to create that experience that you had that first encounter that you had you want to do that for other people yeah and it it's it does not surprise me then that like because your first encounter with god was through worship music and you're like i have the talent then that's what you devote yourself to that's like i think a really beautiful thing is that like you have that opportunity to now uh hand on what you first received yeah thanks so much yeah i'm trying yeah i try as much as possible but yeah well great let's pause here for a second um we've sort of been grilling sarah about her her vocation and her personal call to music um but part of the reason why we we invited sarah on the show is to talk about her new album light um which has just been released um and is very beautiful so we're when we come back the second part of the show we're going to talk a little bit about sarah's hot discography about the new album light and some of the advent and christmas themes that we're all looking forward to um diving into and enriching in our own spiritual lives so sit tight and we'll be right back after this this is godsplaining get up to date on all our latest episodes at ope.org godsplaining all right welcome back everyone thanks for joining us thanks for tuning in i mean you're listening to the second part of the show so obviously you appreciated the first part uh father joseph anthony and i are so happy to have sarah kroger here with us today um the first part of the show sarah offered some so much insight on onto her own pursuit of her vocation and and a beautiful witness about what the lord has done in her life and how god directed her um to to really use and grow and unleash her her talents as a singer-songwriter um and we're so grateful for that um and that's coming to fruition right like we're seeing that now is you've produced your fourth album um so light just hit um the stores do we say stores anymore people don't go to stores buy cds people don't even buy cds anymore when's the last time you bought a cd i mean obviously yeah no way um dropped let's say dropped you know dropped her fourth album there you go i'll be more about it that's such a good way that's hilarious sarah what what animated light um you know where did where did it come from what was what was the impetus for the album yeah that's a that's a great question um i feel like the best way to describe it for me is writing for light allowed me to put into practice what my previous album bloom kind of set into motion okay so bloom was this process of really discovering rediscovering and rooting my identity as a beloved daughter of god which is something that i've always struggled with just self-confidence issues and identity issues and rooting my identity and lies that i believed and fears and all that kind of stuff so bloom was the process of discovering my identity as a beloved um rediscovering that rooting and light was kind of what comes next like showing up every day being who god made you to be living out of that truth of who you are with boldness because the thing is like we can't we can't radiate the light unless we accept it first you know so when we embrace who we are as the beloved then we allow the christ the light of christ to grow within us so much so that we can't help but radiate it to others and so that's really what light is all about it's about helping people hopefully to accept that light to stand in his light with vulnerability and um to live out who they are with boldness so yeah the the first single that dropped from um light was belovedness right it was standing in your light actually standing in your light which is my jam it's a fun one it is i'd i love that you kind of like open the entire album with that yeah like that was definitely intentional and and i could see that because the i i love the story that just the track list tells yeah uh and i think that sometimes that gets overlooked that because we're so used to just like playing songs on shuffle or playing songs uh in whatever kind of discover playlist that we find them and whatnot but i just want to encourage the listeners that like yes go listen to this album from start to finish without uh anything just put it on repeat because the story that you tell through the like kind of track list is really important and i love the fact that like you started with standing in the light as the title of the song but that's just it's a fun upbeat kind of uh dare i even say dance tune oh yeah i i dance to it like it's good it's fun but uh like just to start with like that much joy at the beginning um i think was just a brilliant move but beautiful move but kind of uh what else went into that kind of like story that you're telling with the sequence of the songs like what what went into that what were you trying to convey through that that well what's kind of crazy about this record actually is that more so than any other record i've ever done like in the past i've had a theme in mind i've had this is what i want to call it this is what i want to write about this record was very much this is the first record i've ever done with a label so i assigned to a label about a year ago and so it was a completely different process than what i'm i was used to um i wrote with every single writer that i wrote on this project with i had never met before which was a new experience for me and was definitely again like that this it was a vulnerable process for me it was it was kind of this um pushing me completely out of my comfort zone kind of process and i feel like that comes out in the songs for sure like not being afraid um and not being afraid to be who you are not being afraid to use your voice not being afraid to stand in the light which is probably the most vulnerable place to be because it's so easy to hide it's so easy to hide hide things whether it's your shame your sin or your talents like for me for so long again in my story like i hid everything because i was too afraid of what people would think or if people would tear it down or whatever and so um light from a writing standpoint and from a thematic standpoint is all about that it's all about letting go of those fears about embracing who god made you to be and standing in his light makes us incredibly vulnerable but it's also the place where love can do its greatest work um so yeah so and honestly tru truly like light i never anticipated releasing a record called light in a year that feels so dark right like in a year that feels like it is surrounded by and bathed in darkness and all that the darkness brings with it you know so it's definitely been one of those things where i've just had to kind of step back and realize that god knew and uh orchestrated the whole thing and has his hand in the whole thing and the timing of even songs like unbroken family um the timing of songs like belovedness the time the timing of these songs is not lost on me it i could not have planned for a better time for these songs to have been released and um so it's kind of crazy that's i i kind of wanted to ask because um this project and these songs were in process well before uh you know 2020 happened and that like just the beauty of kind of god's providence and him but also like your humility to kind of like work on that and allow this to kind of organically come together at a time that i think this album encourages so much hope uh in that dark place um and so what was that experience like when you're like kind of getting closer to the release date realizing how everything kind of pulled together um yeah what was that like yeah well what's crazy is i finished i was just talking about this with a friend of mine yesterday because um she was actually there with me the day that we finished recording this album recording vocals was the day that um president trump like shut down the country essentially like european flights were cut off and the nba canceled their season and everything just started crumbling around us and we were like wait wait wait wait wait what is happening that was the day that i finished recording this album and so it it's honestly been i think my saving grace throughout this whole time is being able to have something to like dive into and and a piece of work that i'm just so grateful that was finished before the craziness of covet hit so that we had the space to like be in the same room with each other and listen to the songs and figure out the arrangements and dream about it and uh as opposed to having to wear masks and literally record from computer screens and all that kind of stuff and so i i it's just been wild like i don't know how to say it other than that it's just been wild and like kind of i've it's just been crazy to see again like i was saying like the timing of these songs when they've released even down to the singles like when belovedness released that was the week that uh a ton of racial injustice was kind of this wave of awakening was happening in our country and it just happened to be at the time that we were releasing this song called belovedness and i just felt like again god's timing was not lost on me like this idea that we are all beloved no matter who we are no matter what our background is no matter what our skin color is like and also that that is an instruction not only that we are beloved but to be love right to each other and so like little things like that along the way that have just been again i i could not have planned for it um so kind of it's been one of those moments one of those times in my life where i've just had to kind of take a step back and realize how god's hand is in everything whether it's an album release or in my life you know like he's in the details and he's taking care of things that i don't even i don't even know how to plan for or ask for or pray for um and so it's definitely been a humbling process of like oh i thought that i knew all the things and i thought that i knew when this record was supposed to release and god was like actually i've got all of the plans you know um yeah which is again like in 2020 like i feel like it's been a year where i've i've realized in my life again yet again because i feel like i need to learn this lesson over and over again that control is an illusion like we may think we're in control but we're really not we're never in control it's an illusion you can't it's not possible and so the best way to live your life is in a surrendered state um trying to say yes to the lord trying to unite yourself to his will um in all time so that's definitely something i've been learning in this year big ups uh the i that's absolutely why why i like clapped onto belovedness because i remember like that moment and how it was coming out and what it what it means um and that the song that the song is about allowing yourself to be claimed by god right um and um so it was it was speaking to the need for belonging that i think was so widely felt and pronounced um and so the the album has so many great themes um that in their own ways dovetail with the themes of admins so like right so right now with release and where we're headed in the church and our own expectations for the graces of the coming christmas can you talk about um hope and expectation and those wonderful themes of advent that um the album can speak to and help listeners you know prepare their hearts for these coming great feasts yeah that's that's a i mean i know we're like weaving some things together here no totally i get it i feel like um this is something that i've been uh praying through in my own life the idea of hope and what that really means and expectation and what god's faithfulness actually means in my life like what does faithfulness mean it doesn't mean that everything is going to be answered in the way that i want it to be and in my timing it doesn't mean that um my life is gonna be amazing and everything's everything's great just because i believe in jesus now and like things like that like god is faithful to me even in the storms even in the midst of darkness even when i can't see it even when i don't see the road ahead and i don't i can't figure out where he's leading like um wow i am getting emotional about this but like god is faithful to me even in the dark when i can't see his hand reaching out to me and guiding me along the way you know and and advent is this time of of waiting of expectation and i've always asked myself in the midst of advent like am i waiting because we're all waiting for something you know like college students young you know teenagers uh adults people my age people older than us like we're all waiting for something in our life like the question is are we waiting in fear and anxiety and trying to take control or are we waiting with expectation with joyful expectation for a god who is faithful and is good and is working for our good that doesn't mean that it's always going to turn out the way that we want it to or expect it to or even in our mind how it would be good you know but are we do we trust that god is good do we trust that he's a good father do we trust that he loves us and that he wants what's best for us and that he's guiding us even when we can't see and so yeah that's what i'm diving into this advent i think in an even deeper way especially this year in a year where uh to be honest i've been grieving a lot of unexpected losses i feel like unexpected loss is almost hardest because you have no way of planning for it no way of anticipating it and so as i've been navigating through that i've been trying to figure out how do i hope in the midst of that how do i find hope how do i find light in the midst of all of that and so i'm hoping that this advent is a time where i can really again invite the light of christ to dwell within me and lead the way one of your thank you so much that was incredible one of your um themes sarah that i just love it and you you've said it repeatedly it's in the language you know around your album around your work is that love for the lord and faithfulness to him often just means continuing to show up and that's what that's so much what's at stake here in 2020 you know especially as we're getting ready for the holidays um to continue to show up to continue to believe that the lord is going to work through this to continue to believe that in this moment if i put myself out there that if i respond that the lord will be there that the lord will meet me in this moment and will continue to be at work um and so i've i've always considered hope um as a kind of ex as an expression of that as a confidence that if i do if i do something if i am responsive if i am open the lord will work in my life yeah um but it requires it requires that i show up right that i make that act of trust that i that i that i allow myself to be vulnerable right that i'm that i'm ready that i'm ready to wait um right so i appreciate that and i think that all of us as we as we work on preparing our hearts for the graces of these these christmas feasts you know when when we celebrate again the great mystery that god entered into our humanity and such humanity have we seen this year that god entered into all of this not a hypothetical humanity not an ideal humanity but this humanity that god took this flesh um this is like this is the mystery that we are preparing to celebrate yeah amen to that um sarah i got a kind of a quick question just yeah hard hitter you are a worship leader but you're also a songwriter and i know that you've worked really really hard um on that that skill and that trade of yours in um working with different songwriters and things like that but what what's your favorite lyric off this album oh gosh that's such a hard question i know i know because they all they're all personal they all mean a lot but like what what's that kind of one lyric that i i feel like it it switches from week to week to be honest um okay yeah but well this week what's the latest i'm gonna say i'm gonna say um because we're talking about advent a little bit and we're in the season of advent right now um it's from a song called i will say yes and um the beginning of the song the first verse has always hit me pretty hard ever since we wrote it and it says i'm sorry lord for holding on too tight for thinking you won't endlessly supply i'm sorry for not seeing through your eyes you're open-handed with your mercy in your life you give with no conv conditions um your love is calling out to me i will say yes i will say yes yes to you my king and i i feel like something that again 2020 has taught me is that god is not a god of scarcity he is a god of abundance and we don't have to again try to control our life we don't have to be the ones orchestrating it all and making it all happen um i feel like again in advent we're invited into this this moment where we can echo mary's yes to the lord with trust and with surrender she had no idea what was going to happen you know i always just dumbfounded when i really read that story of mary with gabriel the angel gabriel and just like her yes her yes was just resounding and with trust and with surrender and with beauty and boldness and and that's what we're invited into you know that same yes to god to trust him to surrender to realize that again his plan is better for us than anything we could plan for ourselves and so uh i feel like that's my favorite lyric right now is diving into that that theme of yes i have to confess that's probably my favorite song off the internet so like that's why on this call i'm freaking out when you said like when you started singing that first one first because like that no joke the first time i heard that first verse i was just like oh this has me this just like has totally gripped me and i i just i really really love that song that's probably my favorite austin album so i'm a little giddy right now so i'm sorry go for it talk amongst yourself it's fine it needs a moment that's hilarious i'm glad i was able to to do that for you i'm serious we kind of wrap up here um do you have any concluding thoughts that you'd like to offer um words of encouragement to music ministers um words of hope as we prepare advent you know what what do you want to walk away from this interview having left yeah um i would say for for anyone who's feeling like i feel like something that i've seen a lot of this year is people saying oh could we just be done with this year already what a waste of a year blah blah blah like just 20 20 is the worst and i totally have echoed those sentiments multiple times in my own life um and maybe even online but i feel like what this year has been for me has been a season of planting and and if we honestly god never wastes anything right we don't believe that god wastes anything he doesn't waste time he doesn't this isn't a wait it hasn't been a waste of a year and so i would just encourage you i mean we have a few weeks left of this year um to really think of this season as a season of planting a season when god can plant new seeds in your life and planting isn't glamorous i don't know if any of any of you have gardened ever before but it's messy work it's not fun it's you're planting seeds deep down in the earth and you're drowning them and like it's it's violent if you think about it but the only way to get new fruit the only way to get new fruit in your life is to plant first right is to plant seeds is to work on yourself is to um really spend time investing in in the earth of your life you know so and tilling the soil that's very deep metaphor um but so that's something that i've been really searching through and figuring out how to do in my own life is how do i plant in this season this is not a wasted time if i want new fruit in my life for years or months or centuries to come then i believe that god can plant new seeds right now and how do i co-plant with him so just don't waste these next few weeks you've got a few weeks left of this year and 2021 isn't gonna just be magically better but it it also doesn't uh doesn't have to be just this cloud of darkness over us at all times so yeah to just have hope allow the light of christ to dwell in your life and to be born in you again amen amen amen thank no sarah thank you so much for being with us today we're so excited to have the opportunity to talk about the album to to share about it um we would encourage all of our listeners please support sarah by checking out the album take a listen to it you can buy it um again the album is light and it re it released in 2020 of all years we've been we've been we've been stuck on that um we want to we want to thank sarah again for her time for sharing about herself about her vocation as a music minister and we hope that um we hope that her music will help you especially in these coming advent days to prepare your heart to receive the graces of christmas amen well thanks everyone for listening to the show today um as you know we are grateful to you we continue to keep you in our prayers uh please like or share god's planning share this episode with people that you think need to need it people that need to be uplifted i think today's episode is really an episode about hope and has some really beautiful themes so so please like and share the show um and know as always that we keep you in our prayers god bless [Music] thanks for listening to god's plan a work of the dominican friars of the province of saint joseph visit us at opeeast.org

Channel: Godsplaining Podcast

Views: 657

Rating: 4.8823528 out of 5

Keywords: catholic, dominican friars, theology, philosophy, religion, faith, order of preachers, godsplaining, seekers, Truth, preaching, questions, searching, prayer, meditation, #sarahkroger, #music, #praiseandworship, #frpatrickbriscoe, #patrickbriscoe, #frjosephanthonykress, #josephanthonykress, #guestsplaining, #singer

Id: M0JDqHdBIIc

Length: 36min 33sec (2193 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 07 2020