Joel Smallbone: Already Loved | Sharing Hope

[Applause] welcome to sharing Hulk I'm your host Jamie George and our guest today is mr. Joel small bone he is with the band for king and country of all the interviews I've done I happen to know this one pretty well we've known each other for about 14 years when I first met Joey was driving around with an Oldsmobile and a bungee cord to show and gosh it's been beautiful to watch just how God has blessed you and and your brother in the band and family for Grammys later duet with Dolly Parton I called it a collaboration I guess a new project you're working on I know we can't really talk about it yet but hopefully in the next couple we can talk about a bit of it oh good but for King country has just kind of taken the world by storm and filling out arenas and they've done a film that working on another film a film called priceless perhaps you've seen that so much happening and and grateful for the way you are shining your light in the world welcome George thanks buddy that was that was real sweet I need to win to do these things more often to get those the glowing the glowing report Noah and I should return that by saying Jamie it's over a decade we've been longtime friends and cheerleaders and partners in crime he's come out on the road he's been very instrumental in our dynamic as a band and coming out and Road pastoring chorus and just given there's a lot of crossroads as you can imagine in band life and he has just been a great guide for me personally as well as for the for the band personally and spiritually so this is this is a treat that we've never done this I know we interview well Joel I mean I'm partnering with many Shearer and just appreciate their hearts so much at this time of Quarantine I love mediscare by the way and I have to it their their premise you have Wow in fact me to the performance there for a lot of their stuff I didn't get free health care outside it didn't happen you just need to contribute in the right ways yeah Here I am yes here and you're contributing now so thank you well I love their vision which is just basically been how do we give people hope I mean we're all dealing with levels of anxiety everybody I've talked to I mean there's questions financially I mean you're an entertainer I mean is what you do for a living and you've had yeah canceled you this is not an it's difficult this has not been an easy season for so many so let's start with how are you how are you coping how are you making it how's your son I'm Italian yeah this is very comfortable for me you know I'm a bit of an onion right now because there are certain aspects of this that are just better than ever like I don't know if you can hear in the background my wife's upstairs she's we have not had because we're both musicians we have not had this amount of time at home together since we were married seven years ago and so this is beautiful like we're learning to cook and learning to just have like normal home life like we get up we have the evenings gonna in the mornings together and we love it and we so look forward to it everyday and we we get up in about 9 or 10 o'clock we kiss each other goodbye for the day and she goes up the stairs and I stay down here work and we have lunch together and so that's been wonderful the the musician side is challenging because we have 30 40 people that are directly on some kind of payroll or per show basis for us and so there's a responsibility that I feel there we've had to cancel to to is so far or reschedule I should say we'll just reschedule them for the moment later in the year and and and there's this kind of little boring thing in the back of my brain speaking of touring and musicianship that the last thing to be reinstated after this whole we reopened his large group gatherings and so when and how and who's gonna come are people gonna be interested in coming to show and and not to mention the fact that there's been such a hit financially for people that the last thing to go is to go to a performance or a concert and that sort of thing there's there's layers to it and then they're probably the deepest saddest layer for me is where you know America's a great country and the Western world I think has handled this very aggressively and in a very focused and very organized fashion I've the further on we've gotten into it the more frightened I've gotten about the third world in thinking of the lack of resources the lack of health care the lack of physical actually distancing that they can create going to markets living in chat like all of these things that we kind of take for granted in this age of you know FaceTime and zoom calls and being able to connect and Amazon Prime sending groceries to your doorstep a lot of the world doesn't have that and so a lot of my my thoughts and prayers have often been kind of diverted to a lot of those countries going men God has sinned I pray God intervenes in some radically and I think we can be a part of his hands and feet in that yeah yeah I appreciate you bring light to that because it does feel like in the beginning we all kind of scrambling thinking about ourselves it kind of that primal like fight flight freeze you know how do I protect how do I care for yeah but I I hope now to i hate's one of you cynics I've had the sensation and we we've been through a thing in our family recently we had kind of had a health crisis with my wife and and we've been through it we're on the other side of it and kind of this sense of exhaling and going okay who else needs help right now like kind of this looking around and I hope we do that collectively how do we care for these there's you know we've been concerned about ourselves but boy I hope we're looking around going how do we help other people who who don't have as hard as it is for many of us as used as you've pointed out most of us we still have a general idea where food and water are coming from yes and there are a lot of folks who don't and a lot of safety in the the great health community and leaders on a governor state and national level that are kind of guiding us very yeah very clearly and honestly through this process at least I feel like most of the time and and so that you start wiping out all of these bits and pieces when you get to the third world and it does not make a pretty picture when you reassemble it yeah no it's good we hope collectively we give our attention that way all right so I have a question for you suppose every because I know you I mean I've known almost all I guess I've interviewed I guess but but I have a I have a personal question to ask you because I know how you're wired so I know how much you like to know how much you like efficiency I know how much you like to accomplish things I know how much you like to get done you have this massive capacity as a human being in the slowing and the not quote accomplishing getting things done has that been disruptive at all or is it just been purely peaceful no it's literally just a confession everyone I did I got off a therapy called right before this call actually had to bump this call to stay on that call because it was a little longer yeah yeah yeah I mean again there's a couple things that play in that like I'm in a family bed first of all so it's my brother and my dad manages us and and and my other brother is our general manager and our other brothers work on films or music videos with our other brothers our lighting so it's a family yeah so that's easy you know so that's that's fine and then there's this other layer from if I'm if there are any Enneagram enthusiasts out there I'm a three on the intagram Enneagram so I like achievement and and I also am a bit of a perfectionist which is a kind of a bad combination for this scenario because I like to come in and achieve like like this is a confession more than more than the celebration of this fact but I like to come in and go I've got the show let's show up we do the show and we push through and we do the mean green everyone's happy and we leave and like we've got the record to do we push and we make the record and then we get out and and I'd I thrive in those environments because there's a very defined beginning a middle and an end mmm-hmm there's not so much in pandemics and there's also not so much in a lot of the daily tasks right now so I've the greatest disruption has been actually how do I find a sense of peace without accomplishment mm-hmm because I'm not really accomplishing things right no I go okay are you good to just be jeweled yeah well and that's the frightful thing so I should say I should say we have accomplished a couple things and synonymously to those accomplishments I've had my best days like my happiest days which is actually in the name of self diagnosis has been the frightful thing as well because why am I so happy today and I realized it's because I accomplished something we did this night of Hope streaming show a couple weeks ago thank you and and we had a wonderful time but it was the first week so we were in Canada when everything kind of went sideways we were starting a tour we played two shows of that tour and then we had to postpone the rest that we came back to town and almost immediately went into prepping for this live kind of simulcast show set up from our respective homes all in natural playing together and I remember finishing that and when it aired and watching it that night and feeling like pretty proud week and then second yeah and then secondly we've just finished this track that we're rushing out for this time called together that's very apt for this time and I thought a similar thing like I had some really bad days last week where I just felt like what am i doing so the long short of it by we're by way of confession is I think that's that's a big stirring right now under God is how how do I be better not be better but how do I be , that's all is there such thing as being better maybe not maybe that's the point I'm trying to achieve being I'm trying to achieve peace just be another yeah if I could just be in this moment better than I would if I had those moments and you guys for all those that are performers you guys will hear me on that's like you you get into a moment and it's an awesome moment and then you you the moments gone and you're upset at yourself because you didn't experience the moment well yes they could even achieve the moment well enough so what if there was no measurement yeah well I don't think there is right now and you know you just leave you just are giul yeah and you can't actually be better than just who you are you know what and maybe this is maybe this is relevant to you guys maybe it's not at all so it's a switch for me I am first of all you know this Jamie I'm an on and off switch I'm not a fader I'm like I'm I'm going or I'm not going but the same applies between like work stuff and personal I literally to say to our management team the other day because they were like hey you like you're you doing okay and I said guys you don't see me most of the time when I'm not working I'm having a blast it's just when I show up here it's like we got a bit of good she asked me after this call when I leave and I put my iPad away in my phone upstairs and I go out for a walk with my wife I love it like I'm loving it the key the key is how do I actually bring that perspective into these other areas because once I'm switched off I'm there I'm available there's a few jitters here and there maybe that's just a lifetime for all of us right is learning how to how do we how do we accomplish how do we get things done but also be aware enough that we're getting them done so that like you said you don't go wait I think there was a moment there and I missed it and maybe that very large animal that lives in your home could teach you something I don't know I don't know what you're talking about the large land mammal yeah that's Meriwether that's a great name yeah but you know it's funny because I had my golden retriever with me today and I'm like you know Ranger he doesn't measure life a whole lot you know oh do you realize that this Panda has been the greatest thing for canines ever I you know what I heard I heard that New York ran out of animals to adopt no question because every country every state in America or most of them at least has this clause that you can go outside if you need to walk your dog or whatnot so I mean little Merryweather is tired of going for walks like she's got a limp I'm not joking she's got a limp because she's been for too many walks you know she's she's I mean this is the greatest you know dogs are going to you know figure out how to do another pandemic just there's more time look at this attention yeah totally yeah but I I learn a lot for my dog about just you know just being okay so here's my question I've been asking everybody this can you go back to the time in your life because we're all dealing with this uncertainty I'm not gonna tell you a joke there I'm gonna say you don't tell jokes I know I know but in this case I do okay so dogs in cats okay the dogs so dogs look at their masters and they go you feed me you walk me you pick up after me which is pretty healthy for her you pick up after me you must be God and and they treat you like that like love you upset at them you smite no let's go dogs yeah dogs do cats go you feed me we don't walk me that you you feed me you pick up after me you look after me I must be God okay anyway and you have a cat do so this is relevant for you oh yeah oh very very I see it every day yes and your cat is a diva 100% yeah devil and evil thank you yeah okay but do you have any more jokes I mean I don't want to miss the boat say do you got that's it another time in your life we went through this kind of or at least some similar sense of uncertainty and you had no idea what was gonna happen hmm and what was challenging about it how did you get through it and how are you different because of it it was actually right around the time we met so I I went to one year of conventional school in my life and the rest of my schooling education i homeschooled now sister is a singer Rebecca and James and we traveled dad needed cheap labor he managed Terry manages us and so he put us to work as a road crew and so we all travel eclis get like the Australian version of the Von Trapp family and got into my 20s didn't go to it didn't have a college education either and so naturally I love music I fell in love with music traveling with her and and Luke and I started working together we worked together for five years and he worked at a call center I did like some bits and pieces on the side and just to earn and lived at mum and dads like Jamie or and had a 19-7 Oldsmobile like Jamie mentioned and for the predominant years of my 20s from about 22 it was nothing like nothing even but rejection turned down by all the major record labels in this country you know no one wants to come to any performances we were an independent group by the name of John Luke at the time and I go to 27 it was I remember my birthday because I've met Mariah that's I mean I really wanted to marry her but I had no financial way to and I remember my 27th birthday were you there was wild ginger and it was a surprise I don't know that you were there no I don't think so and I came around the corner and I didn't know what genuine you know was happening ride throwing me surprised and and there was a group of people there my family and and whatnot and and I remember weeping that birthday because of this distinct feeling of failing and uncertainty I'm just going I've got nothing no matter how much I will this to change I I have I've got people that love me and I think that was part of the emotion of it was well it all came back to the central theme of love in that moment for me and I feel like in correlating that moment to this there's a lot of kind of connection points you wait you don't know like I can pretend to say when we're going to know the performance again but I didn't go back to now I could go back for just a second because you were feeling yeah everything there for just a moment yeah when you walked in and you didn't quote have anything to bring to the table professionally you didn't yet achieve any year hopes or dreams but you walked in and were immersed in love yeah kind of feels a little bit like the I'm not accomplished in accomplishing anything but yet here I am and I'm totally loved yeah oh and that's why I uh Glee cried I I wept like it wasn't just the like shed a tear it was like the the more in screwed on and the whole you know the whole thing and that's why I think it imprinted in my mind so vividly I mean there was eight or nine years ago of just this and I don't think I think we all face this I think men face there's a lot as well like we find such plays I mean we all do I think women are many women are including this also but with such pleasure in in the the job and the thing yeah and such identity in it that when it's robbed you do have to recalibrate and get what is what is the most important thing and I think that's a similar there is a similar thing to this moment in life as well of going what is and the world is really asking it because no one there's no people group that has been exempt from this you know maybe other than infants interestingly enough but but everyone's everyone's susceptible to contracting this disease everyone has been hit in some way shape or form financially every lifestyle has been changed in some way shape everyone relationally has been changed in some way shape or form and I mean I see it's it's it's tragic on one hand but then I see everyone I we joke about people walking their dogs but I see people out walking this spring more than ever and I'm reconnecting with the planet in a way that maybe you never have to care for the planet look after the planet maybe in any way I see people holding hands and Riaan family members and parents both parents with their kids and again I I know this is contrasted by services many of you therefore watching that are single parents will many better single and are isolated and many that are in an abusive relationship or an abusive household like there's there's a lot of layers that are very negative to this as well but it has in every every circumstance worldwide I think going it similarly to my 27th year and now pushed us back to the central theme of nothing is certain no matter who you are or what your job is nothing is certain and the only great the only thing that will last and outlast everything is is love you know in faith hope and love but the greatest of these is love when you go back to that moment being here you are full of uncertainty you haven't accomplished anything and yet immersed in love were you able to we I love that word you said I was imprinted in that moment was that has that provided kind of a sustaining almost a sustaining energy for you as you're then career didn't wind up taking off as it was launched and here you go did you go hey I don't have to get lost in my career because love sustains me or do you get distracted often and forget about the beauty of that love no I think both okay you know I know what this is like what the band thing is and I know it more now than ever and you enough had many conversations about it's like it's not a never forever thing like I don't want to be an old grandfather to knock on wood takes like doing this still like it's a everyone in music music capital M music is this wonderful soul earth to heaven heaven connecting thing and we just get to tap into it for a period of time and so I'm very I think and I think part of it is those hard moments of great loss and even this one where I go I I'm okay when I think I will be okay when the time comes and it's like all right it's it's time yeah it's time to move on that's not to say that I'm not you know I might just hop scotch my way over to the next thing to find my some of my identity and that next thing but but I do think things like my family being involved my wife that desperate moment in 27 of feeling loved and feeling like an utter failure some simultaneously the great loss that we've suffered at points in our career not not necessarily success wise but of illness of Luke being very ill addiction we faced cancer you know we faced hospitalizations and and so on that has once again held us in good stead and and pointed me back to this realization that man in the Western world we are so good at celebrating even in Christendom in the Western world celebrating the achievement and the accolade and the ascent achievement accolade in a sense we love it I love it and yet when you get back to the Galilean accent of Christianity and Jesus Christ it was much more about blessed out of the porn spirit and it was much more about he was a man of suffering sorrows and and and you sit back and you go we'll hang on so am I just a sack cloth and ashes or no I think it's a it's a it's a it's a through road you go through these you go through the suffering through the struggle and then you ascend but we just conveniently want to skip yes the suffering and and the sorrow and and just go straight from point A to B a sense and I think I've been fortunate at least in varying degrees to not have skipped that process when you highly yeah when you get when you get distracted and you forget about the love that surrounds you the love of God the love a family yeah is there a practice that you use that helps recalibrate you yes i I think I understand Claire better actually even in the last month CREB better now than than ever and have actively pursued it now more than ever and not just like you know walking around kind of praying at all points but actually at you kind of actively sitting and you've encouraged me a lot with this but actively sitting and meditating and and slowing enough to let all the other voices and the activity halt even for a moment just to hear the whisper you know isn't that the the irony again it's like you know wasn't a lightning oh yeah yeah that great story all right with a lighter yeah tastic so I think quietness inevitably has been beating I love Aquinas I love this little cottage but I just kind of sit at points and I'll and other than Merriweather snoring I'll just be like this is this is this is perfect and and I feel really connected I'm so fighting fighting for that has been big and the other side of it for me has actually been confession I think I skipped by confession for a lot of years in life just like no no I'm good like I'm fine that's without like I had they had the conversion thing and so confession I don't need that and and and and realizing that confession is not someone said recently which they struck me like often we're not punished for our sins were punished by our sins so true what we do is the confession is not like I will smite you if you don't confess right now like no heat it was powerful enough that act what we just celebrated it Easter was actually powerful enough to redeem and and to do its job effectively without us having the reigns the whole time needed well I apologize and and okay you good again okay you good again no no it was actually I think the whole points of it which is so relieving is actually so we don't live in our own version of some kind of hell while we're on earth like we don't have hell on earth that we're able to actually go to no I'm gonna release this thing and I picked it up again today I'm gonna release it again we've what's that Bible verse we were set free so we can be free we were we were freed so we can be set free yeah free on the wrong way freedom yeah yeah yeah that's the nature of freedom yeah so I I think the combination of quietness in confession are the two hallmarks recently of kind of settling vacuum and then if there was a third I would tag on it would be community so it'd be quietness confession and community I love that yeah and I think referencing Easter and referencing that passage it was for freedom that you've been set there you go I think I think where you're going yeah and it it's for freedom in your right we tend to live it or we think it's like it was for being burdened down we play set free I'm supposed to beat my I've been beating myself up so please give me freedom no no it's actually for freedom you've been set free yeah that's so well said Jonah yeah you and I've talked about Bernie Browns research on shame and and in the temptation just get lost in what we're not doing right well I'm a I'm a I'm a component for that I can list off I won't but I can't stuff you know 45 things today those are the first things that come up right yeah yeah I can tell you what I'm not doing right it to just lean into the fact that I'm already loved I actually think that's partly why why the design of my life was to become a musician because if I would have actually and I still do make a great Pharisee at points in my life but but I like accomplishing like I said I like accomplishing life but the fact is with musicianship you're never done there's always wasn't that the song too right there's always a better song to write and now in the age of social media like tick-tock waiting tick-tock so you're telling me I've got to keep up with YouTube and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and tick-tock I just heard this week the tick tock or which maybe this happened some time ago I just heard it the tick tock is now to be Facebook for how many users it asked really yeah you're failing completely so how does it deal with your own treatment I mean everyone i've never enough yeah I actually got to get off this call because I got to post something get a bit of a dopamine yes thank you thank you no no I've still got a few minutes okay so but we do actually have to wrap up I wanted to ask you this how much can you tell us about the new thing that's happening I know something's coming out in a couple weeks and yeah can you tell us anything about it I can I can tell you parts of it so it's a song called together it's the first original song we've released in a year and a half so since our last record we've got a handful of or even a more than a handful of special guests because we got a whole gospel choir actually two gospel choirs but but if we've got I Kirk Franklin kind of the Godfather of God

Channel: Medi-Share

Views: 24,216

Keywords: Medi-Share, Joel Smallbone, For King & Country, For King and Country, Christian artist, Christian singer, Christian music, letting go of perfectionism, coping with uncertainty, overcoming fear, embracing love, Christian videos, videos about hope, stories of hope, hope, Sharing Hope

Id: 3jQF9r4E4J0

Length: 33min 10sec (1990 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2020