Difference Maker

Album: Rivers In the Wasteland (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • Needtobreathe singer Bear Rinehart told Billboard magazine about this song: "It's really about walking that line of humility and how that really makes you a difference maker," he said. "Maybe none of us should be an authority on too many things. I don't think that's our place especially as musicians. I feel like we can easily get on our soapbox. I think we wrote that song really to ourselves."
  • The song is Rinehart's story of trying to understand his role in God's plan. He explained to New Release Tuesday: "We were on tour with a secular artist, Taylor Swift, playing to 20,000 and even 50,000 people per night. We felt like we were doing what we were supposed to be doing. Despite our efforts, I didn't feel like we were having the impact we are called to have."

    "I think God was asking us at this time, 'What are you doing this for? Are you doing it for Me?,' he continued. "And, I think that's where this song was birthed. That confusion is almost a good thing. The bridge says 'I am on the fence about nearly everything I've seen.' I meant that in how the whole band was going through a 'we surrender to God' kind of way."

    "We don't need to be concerned about what happens after we've given up this gift we have to God," Rinehart added. "That was really powerful for us. We had ambition and let that take too much of a priority in things that led us down a road that wasn't good. I think that in trying to re-prioritize, God wants us to sacrifice those things, those idols in our lives. Some idols for us were wondering what the outcome was going to be, that we had the upper hand or maybe we were the best band out there, or we thought we were the most clever at it."

    "I feel like the beginning of the song is us asking ourselves are we really difference makers," he concluded. "How valuable are we, really? Towards the end of the song it comes around that God makes us a part of what He does, which is so crazy. It starts with us realizing that we don't get to make the rules. We don't control it, and we don't get to say what the timing is. It's not because of our talents. He doesn't need that. He needs our willing hearts."

Comments: 2

  • Lauren from New YorkVery true. Love the song!
  • DudeBro is just rosting Taylor Swift
see more comments

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