Steven Curtis Chapman knows what it’s like to face the unknown. The gospel music superstar endured an unthinkable tragedy in 2008, when his five-year-old daughter, Marie, was tragically killed in an accident at his family’s home. Steven admits he had a long, excruciating journey after losing his child, one in many ways that he still continues every day, but through it all he learned a powerful lesson about faith in uncertain times, something that he relies on especially now as much of the world grapples with fear surrounding COVID-19. It’s that crisis of faith that in many ways inspired his latest song, “Together (We’ll Get Through This).

“I’ve spoken about this before and it’s our story, so I’ll be telling it, I’m sure until the day I die,” Steven told Everything Nash. “12 years ago almost now, our family personally walked through the greatest devastation. I did not think we would survive on many days even with our faith. I related more than ever to the song, and I’m so thankful. Often we think of the Bible as just the Word, that place I go to get encouragement and get reminded of what God says about things and all of that.

“But what I’ve found is that there’s some incredible, comforting verses that allow us to just cry out to God, ‘I don’t get this and I don’t even know where You are, but I’m going to survive it,’ because that feeling is in the Psalms,” he continued. “‘How long, Lord? Are you going to forget me forever?’ are the verses that I read there. And suddenly that was for me such a comfort to know I’m not the first one to travel this path of just not knowing how I’m going to survive this, or if I’m even going to survive it.”

It is Steven’s grief over his little girl that makes him want to reach out to others, especially now, who are struggling.

“As my family and I walk and continue to walk through that –– because you don’t get over that, you carry it with you,” Steven noted. “I feel like I can say from a deeper place of experience than ever before, as we have held on to each other, that message of together realizing that I can’t do this alone. I need other people. I need to reach out to other people. I won’t survive it by myself.”

The 57-year-old offers words of wisdom, which he learned the hard way, for others who feel lost or afraid, especially now.

“God has not forgotten us,” Steven insisted. “We are not only on His radar, but we’re all in His hands. And it may not seem that way. I get it … We’re still breathing and we’re still believing and we’re still walking. And so I would just offer that as an encouragement to people from our own experience, that God is with us in this. And as hopeless as it may seem and feel, let that drive you to not go deeper inside yourself to all the questions and the fear and the doubt, but reach out to each other and realize that’s one of the places that I believe God shows up the most profoundly is just in each other.”

“Together (We’ll Get Through This)” features Brad Paisley, Lauren Alaina and Tasha Cobbs Leonard. Proceeds benefit the Opry Trust Fund and the Gospel Music Association to help those directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Adkins Publicity / Derrek Kupish