The Music of Christmas

Welcome to Family Policy Matters, an engaging and informative weekly radio show and podcast produced by the North Carolina Family Policy Council. Hi, this is John Rustin, President of NC Family and we're grateful to have you with us for this week's program. It's our prayer that you will be informed, encouraged, and inspired by what you hear on Family Policy Matters and that you will feel better equipped to be a voice of persuasion for family values in your community, state, and nation. And now here is our host of Family Policy Matters, Tracy Devitt Griggs.

Thanks for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. As we move into the celebration of Christmas, we wanted to do something a little different and fun on the show, so we have a special guest today. Dana Catherine is a young Christian singer and songwriter who hails from right here in North Carolina. Dana, who is a UNC Chapel Hill graduate and former youth minister, now travels throughout the country encouraging and inspiring others with her songs and witness.

She has released two albums and several singles, including for the first time this year a Christmas collection. We're going to discuss the important role of music in the lives of Christians and how it can help us conquer chaos and find that peace that sometimes seems so elusive, even for those of us who love and trust God. Dana Catherine, welcome to Family Policy Matters. Thank you. I'm very excited to be here. Your relationship with Christ is somewhat tied up with music, right?

Tell us about that. So yeah, my relationship with the Lord has definitely been tied to music my whole life. But especially in college, when I was away from my family, I really, really, really chose Christ for myself.

It was the first time I was able to, and college was definitely very hard. It made me fall deeper in love with the Lord because I was just running to him in the middle of confusion, in the middle of sadness, chaos, whatever it was. And it was kind of during that time, like from 18 to 21, where as I grew deeper with the Lord, I also felt this desire to write songs more and more and more. And I had received a guitar for Christmas the year before I got to college. And so I had this guitar. I was growing deeper and safe throughout my time at UNC Chapel Hill. And at the same exact time, I was writing these songs that became all about the Lord.

Because when you're a singer-songwriter, you generally want to be writing about what really matters to you most and what's going on in your life. And the biggest thing that was going on in my life was me finding the Lord more and more and more during those years. Was music an important part of your childhood and growing up as well?

It's kind of funny because now I actually live in Nashville. I'm surrounded by 24-7 by all these people that have grown up in really musical families. And so it makes sense that they're in music. But my family, really none of them played music, played an instrument, even sang.

But we did, for sure. We always went to concerts. And probably the most prevalent kinds of concerts we went to were actually Christian concerts. My parents were definitely very into that and loved exposing my brother and I to that often. And then I just remember always in the car when we'd be on road trips or whatever. My parents loved music and I remember I'd be singing certain songs just with my dad.

I would do the harmony and he would do the melody. And so we were definitely very into music. I really loved music.

And it gets that awakened back in me because I did have the natural gift. Did you choose Christian music specifically? Did you ever consider another genre?

Oh yeah, I definitely considered back when I was 18. It was my freshman year of college when I was really starting to write music. I remember I told the Lord in prayer, kind of, I said, hey God, if this works out, I'd love to do pop music and maybe I'll write some Christian music for you on the side or something. And then that didn't work out.

I still stayed in college, which was a good idea. But eventually it became a no brainer because, like I said, I just grew deeper, deeper, deeper in love with the Lord. And, you know, when you're an artist, you want to make music that matters generally. And for me, that the thing that matters the most and that can heal people the most and help them the most is the Lord, talking about the Lord. So, yeah, there's always going to be a sense of something about God and something about our faith in my music, I think, no matter what. Regarding the importance of music in the life of our faith and spiritual growth, do you think those should be or are tied up together for all believers?

Based on the people I've come across, and I've traveled so many places, I think some people are very surprised when they hear my music. People sometimes seem very surprised when the music really spoke to them and they felt closer to the Lord in that moment or the Lord kind of spoke something to them through the lyrics. And so that makes me, that's made me realize that maybe people haven't had the experience or all people haven't had the experience that I've had growing up, where music was always the way that the Lord was able to show that he was close to me through the melody, through the lyrics, whatever it was. And so I'm not sure it's something that happens for everybody or that every Christian thinks about. But I think it should be definitely a tool for every single Christian because the Lord wants to work through everything.

And I think almost now more than ever, sometimes when a lot of people, to arrive at the truth, sometimes people don't use reason, they don't use logic as much in our generation. In the world, the Lord can still point to himself through the good and the true and the beautiful, and that's always going to be found in music. So I think it's a beautiful tool for the Lord to use. You often sing about trust and surrender, so talk about those concepts. Why do they show up in your music and why is that an important message for us to be hearing right now? Yeah, I think it goes back to the foundation of my music and my career and my ministry because back, once again, back in college and then when I got out of college and I still didn't know what I was doing with music and I just said, hey God, you have to show me the next step.

I can't do this alone because I didn't know it was happening. I didn't know where I was going, but I just knew the Lord was calling me to give my gifts for him and he was going to do something great with it. But I just had to be kind of carried by him. And that takes the most amount of trust in the Lord and complete surrender of my plans to him that I've ever had to do. And so, yeah, I think every single person, whatever age you are, whatever state of life, whatever role you are in, in general, the Lord is calling all of us to trust and surrender.

I think throughout this year, it's been a really hard year and there's always going to be hard times in life. I think the more that we give to the Lord, the more we just throw ourselves in his arms, the more he can show us that he does provide. And even if we don't see it in the physical sometimes right away, he will always be happy, more than happy to provide peace for our hearts and joy and all the gifts and the fruits of the Spirit. And that almost means more than anything. So I'd encourage people, you know, if they want to see the Lord provide in spiritual or physical ways in any way whatsoever, we have to trust and surrender whatever we're holding on to, to give him the space to show that he's good and that he's powerful and that he's taking care of us. Here's an excerpt from Dana's song Emmanuel. So you also talk quite a bit about conquering chaos and finding peace.

That seems especially appropriate during not just this holiday season, but perhaps even more so in this 2020 year. Do you have any other strategies as far as ways to remind yourself, you know, not to worry or any other practical advice? Philippians 4, 6, it says you must not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with thanksgiving, by prayer and petition, because the Lord may give you a Christ alone to God and a peace that surpasses all understanding will guard you in Christ Jesus. And so I'd say often, you know, we're anxious about things that we can't really control or that we think we can control, but at least at the moment, we can't really do much to affect change, but we still worry all the time, especially this year, right? There's so many things we think about, we worry about, but what can we really do sometimes? And so the Lord has really told us through the scriptures to just give every single worry and request to him, and he will guard our hearts with his peace. There are so many other things that cause chaos to enter our hearts and a lack of peace, but I think the biggest thing this year is probably just all the things that have changed, all the things we can't control.

And I would say, you know what, take it as an invitation this year and even beyond to realize that we never had control anyway, even when we have this semblance of control in our lives, where we think we're on top of everything. I mean, everything can change in a minute, and so it kind of shows us that the Lord was always in control anyway, and if we truly do see ourselves as his sons and his daughters and he's a good father, he's always going to carry us. It's always going to be okay.

The end result is always going to be beautiful. So I'd say, yeah, Philippians 4, 6, just whenever you feel that worry, that anxiety, just give those things to the Lord and even just say, Lord, I don't feel the trust right now. I don't feel the peace that you're telling me you're going to give me, but help me to feel that peace.

Help me even to feel that trust. Even using your physical, you know, what God has given us physically with our bodies, we don't think about it sometimes. And so even breathing in slowly for four to six seconds, holding it for a second, and then letting that breath out for four to six seconds and doing that a few times over, that even slows down our heart rate. And sometimes we think we're very anxious, but then we can kind of take control of our breathing, and that'll give us some peace too as we're also praying, as we're also trying to dispel that anxiety. And then of course, I think the biggest thing I see, and I already talked about this, I mean with Scripture, but if we're not taking time to pray, I would dare to say like a lot of people's anxiety and worry, a lot of it would be dispelled.

If they're not praying, if they did start praying, even 15 to 30 minutes a day, that's going to really help usher in peace, because you're allowing the presence of the Lord to be with you, you know, in a new way. I love your example about physically working out some of this too. I know that in my own life, I can physically, on my knees, hand things over to Christ, you know, and just that act of laying them at His feet can be a huge help.

So sometimes you're right. If we can do things in our physical body, it really sends that message that we are trusting Him. So is there something specific that you would like people to go away with when they listen to your music or go to your concerts? One of the virtues the Lord has always given me pretty naturally as just such a gift is this feeling of hope. And so whenever people leave my concerts, whenever, even if right now, you know, we can't really have many concerts, whenever people are listening on Spotify, I want people to always come away with hope with whatever their situation is. Hope that the Lord is here, that He's not just here with them and close, but He's powerful, and He's working on their behalf. And the biggest, biggest thing with anything I do in life, so it's going to overflow into my music, is I want people to be convicted of wanting to get to know the Lord better. He's not just some idea.

He is a real person that wants to be with us every single day and wants us to fall in love with Him. And so I hope my music can kind of make people want to step into that love a little bit more and choose Him. So this year, as we mentioned in the opening, you've released your first Christmas songs. Was there a reason why you decided to do that this year?

So actually, it's pretty funny. A priest friend of mine, Father Eamon, he was the one, we actually do a Christmas or an Advent holy hour. Every year, we've been doing that for the past three or four years, where I go to, back to North Carolina, or when I lived in North Carolina, I would be there. And I would just play Christmas music during adoration, like very reverently. And his whole parish would always love it. We always loved it. It was so beautiful. And then everybody would always be saying, Hey, can you record some of this?

And I was just never able to do it. And then I had this song, Emmanuel, that I had written. And so they were like, we'd like to do that.

And I was like, I just don't have the needs to do that right now. And so Father Eamon found a way to work together with me this year. He just, it was really him. He was very excited to kind of put out this music that I had been playing at these holy hours. And so I picked three songs, including one of my own. And we just kind of made it happen. So I could have never done it without my friend, Father Ian. And honestly, I think it's the most well-received collection of songs that I've put out thus far in my career, which is very funny.

We are about out of time for this week. Before we go, Dana, where can our listeners go to find your music and follow your schedule of events? So you can go to DanaKatherineMusic.com. That's just my website.

Or I'm very active on social media. So Instagram, just look up Dana Katherine Music. Facebook, look up Dana Katherine Music.

YouTube, I have a bunch of videos that go along with my Christmas music, actually. So just look up Dana Katherine again. Yeah, basically anywhere you go, Dana Katherine Katherine Music. All right. Well, Dana Katherine, thank you so much for being with us today on Family Policy Matters.

But thank you for having me so much. You've been listening to Family Policy Matters. We hope you enjoyed the program and plan to tune in again next week. To listen to the show online and to learn more about NC Families work to inform, encourage and inspire families across North Carolina, go to our website at ncfamily.org. That's ncfamily.org. Thanks again for listening and may God bless you and your family.