Singer Natalie Grant shares about her journey to finding her calling, and encourages women to live out their God-given passions in her new book, Finding Your Voice
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[SINGING] You're a
great God and we love you.
Award winning
artist Natalie Grant
is one of the most
recognized names
in contemporary Christian music.
But in 2004, she says
she found a purpose that
goes beyond her music career.
The irony is, it has very
little to do with singing.
Singing is what I do.
It's not who I am.
She says the journey to
discovering her passion
started while watching
the TV show Law and Order.
The episode was about
human trafficking.
I just remember that
TV show always saying
that they were ripped
from the headlines, right?
And I was thinking,
what headline is this?
They were literally
depicting kids
being sold out of the back
of a van in New York City.
Like, this is the most
innocent among us.
I just remember thinking,
if this is actually
happening somewhere in the
world, I need to know about it,
and a lot of other people
need to know about it too.
So she made plans
to travel to India,
the area many consider to be the
epicenter of human trafficking.
But two days before the
trip, one of her vocal cords
ruptured.
They're like, you
may never sing again.
You cannot speak, hum, whisper.
You can't utter a single
sound for at least 30 days.
And I was leaving to India.
Voiceless, she went anyway.
I'll never forget
meeting this girl who
was sold on her 12th
birthday by her own parents,
rescued when she was 21.
So for nine years,
she was trafficked.
She knew one thing that
she did know in English
that she could say to me
that I would understand.
She took my hands, and she
just said, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus.
She thought, OK, I can't go
into all of my story in English,
but when I say this
name, you're going
to know that everything's
been made right.
I came here trying to learn
how I could rescue them,
and these who have
so much brokenness
showed me that
Jesus does his best
work through our broken pieces.
When you can't make
a sound, then all
you can do is just
lean on God and listen.
It is amazing what happens.
In 2005, Natalie co-founded
the nonprofit Hope For Justice,
whose mission is to bring
an end to human trafficking
by rescuing victims, restoring
lives, and reforming society.
Hope For Justice-- which hard
to believe that just started
as a little dream off of
meeting those girls in India--
is now on three different
continents and four different
countries with six
different offices.
So it's amazing when
you use your voice
to do what God has
placed inside of you.
[SINGING] We can be the
change, be the hope, yes.
Now the artist, wife,
mother and businesswoman
hopes to help other
women find God's calling
in their own lives in her
book "Finding Your Voice."
In it, she shares
her own journey
through bulimia, infertility,
self-doubt, and depression
to find her identity in Christ
and God's purpose in her life.
And it starts with God's word.
And all throughout the
book, from start to finish,
it's full of my story, yes,
but more than that, it's
full of biblical examples.
Because the
foundation to finding
your voice is the word of God.
Natalie says ultimately, a
personal relationship with God
will give women the confidence
to live their passion out loud.
And my prayer is that every
person that reads the book,
when they put it down, their
take-away would be finding
their identity in who
Christ says that they are.
Discovering that personal
relationship with Jesus Christ,
and that his view, what
he sees, seeing ourselves
through the lens of Christ
and his grace over our life
begins to change every
aspect of our life.
It will strengthen our marriage.
It will strengthen
our ability to parent.
It will strengthen
our friendships.
It strengthens everything
about our life.
And when you can find your
voice in first understanding
his voice over your life, you
know, I think that's my prayer,
is that every
person who reads it
would have a greater
understanding of who
they are in Christ.
And I think that understanding
changes everything.