Through the Storm by HARD LOOK was a slight departure from the normal sound and was released as a single this year. Lyrically, the song is about my personal experience with leaving the Christian faith for several years in my teens and twenties and then returning to the faith stronger than ever.

The song begins explaining the feeling of being lost, living a faithless life. At my lowest, I knew I wanted more and knew that I needed to search for something, but really had no direction. Then the song explains seeing light through the dark and hearing a call from the Holy Spirit to follow Christ. This happened when I was still technically faithless, but I was listening to the Impending Doom album called "Nailed. Dead. Risen.", when it first came out. I was reading along with the lyrics and just started crying out of nowhere and felt tingles all throughout my body as I was reading along to

"Reach for the father who’s reaching for you!"

and I knew it had to have been a Holy Spirit moment. There were other biblical references in the lyrics of that album that lead me to reading the Bible for myself and eventually kept reading and praying and gave my life to Christ once again, as an adult this time. Since that experience, my faith has only been growing stronger and the power of Jesus Christ has turned my life around for the better. Recently, I’ve just wanted to share this amazing thing with everyone!

The song then explains my confidence with my faith and includes a verse from Proverbs 3:5-6, which was paraphrased for the same of lyrical fluidity.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

This passage really fits my experience and also the theme of the song. Following these theme of trusting the Lord to guide us, I included another verse from Proverbs 16:9, again paraphrased for lyrical fluidity.

"A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

The chorus is my jubilation of going from lost to found, in Christ. In the chorus, I also repeat "calling" because I am always trying to listen to God "calling" me to His will and to follow the path He has set for me in life. It is easy to do what WE want to do with our lives, but it is crucial to do what GOD wants us to do with our lives.

The breakdown at the end explain that even with being saved and having a strong Christian faith, there will inevitably be tribulation along the way. The waves crashing in represent these trials and hardships, but then the ship keeps pressing on, guided by Jesus. The ship is simply a metaphor for me being on my spiritual journey. The main thing I wanted others to take away from this song is that faith in Jesus Christ will do amazing things in a person’s life if He is truly allowed in.

Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.