Steven: Very cool. It was on "See the Glory." It's called "The Gameboy Song." It was actually sort of a derivative story from [pastor] Scotty Smith. [He] was in Alaska riding on a train through the Alaskan glaciers, just incredible scenery. He was trying to take it all in and getting whiplash trying to look out all the windows, his senses overloading. He looks beside him and there's this little kid with a Gameboy, with his nose plastered to the Gameboy. He said, "I just wanted to knock it out of his hand and say, 'What are you thinking?!' You're in Alaska. Look at this!'" He said, "You know, that's exactly what we do with the Gospel."

We take this incredible thing that should just make us amazed and astonished and we trivialize it. We'd rather play Gameboy. C.S. Lewis' wonderful quote is "We're far too easily pleased, content to make mud pies in the slums, unable to understand or comprehend that we've been offered a holiday at the sea." It's so funny. Shaohannah does the same thing.

We're taking her to the beach and we kept going, "Shoie, let's go to the beach." And she finds a little bitty puddle of water that's dirty and grimy from cars driving through it and a little bit of sand and she is just like splashing in the water and having a big time. We keep going, "No Shoie." And she even cries when we pull her away from it. She's like, "My beach." Then finally we get over the wall and she sees it and it's like, "Okay, now I see it." That's what we do.

I wanted a song that said that because that's what I do. For me, one of the most awesome sights I've ever seen in my life is the first time I stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Tears were in my eyes and I just couldn't believe this incredible scenery. To think of a kid sitting there with a Gameboy while you could be looking out at this…The chorus talks about playing Gameboy in the middle of the Grand Canyon, eating candy sitting at a gourmet feast. I've eaten at Emeril's several times, in Emeril's Kitchen, and the idea of sitting there in Emeril's Kitchen and stuffing myself on a Snickers bar, that's about how ridiculous it is. Or playing in a puddle when it could be swimming in the ocean. "What's wrong with me? Wake up and see the glory." That's the point of the song.

I had this song going and the idea was to use Gameboy sounds in it and everything, which my keyboard player sampled some Gameboy effects and then turns it into the song. There's this one segment in the middle of the song where you've got a Gameboy playing and a 70-piece orchestra, the London Symphony, comes in with the Gameboy. So you've got this little guy sitting in the middle of this playing his little Gameboy with this huge orchestra around him, like "Wake up. Listen to this music instead of this." So we stuffed it but most people will probably never catch on. They're like, "What in the world? Why did he do that? What is that sound?" It's a concept. It's an idea. Go with me here. It's all right. We're creating art.

I heard Caleb one day playing this really cool guitar riff and I went downstairs and said, "Hey, what are you doing? Show me what you just did. Man, that's cool. Can we put that in the Gameboy song?" [He said,] "Yeah, that'd be cool. Do I get any money for it?" I said, "No, not a penny. It all goes into the old college education account so you'll never see it till college." [laughs] It's pretty cool.

FamilyChristian.com: Let's talk a little bit about Shaohannah?

Steven: Shao means laughter. In Chinese it would be spelled Xiao [pronounced like "chow."] But we thought, boy if we try that in her name, she'll hate us forever. Hannah is a name we've always loved. It's, of course, not Chinese, it's Greek, for "gift of God's grace." So laughter and God's grace kind of put together for us and she's all of the above.

FamilyChristian.com: Did you name her?

Steven: We named her. We gave her that name. Her name in China was Chang Yan Yan. They gave her that name at the orphanage. So now her whole name is Shaohannah Hope Yan Chapman.

FamilyChristian.com: So what does Yan mean?

Steven: It depends on who you ask. There's about 400 different [meanings]. They'd say, "Oh, Yan, that means 'little.'" "Yan…" we like this one, "that means 'very beautiful' or 'adorable.'" And they put two of them together to mean "adorable, adorable." Doubly adorable.

FamilyChristian.com: Tell me about "When Love Takes You In" and where that came from.

Steven: It's such a sacred thing for us, that whole adoption thing. I didn't want to just rush off and write a song about it. And I didn't know if I would ever write a specific song because I just didn't want to do that. It was like the first time I visited prison with Chuck Colson. It was so powerful and impacted me so much I knew I would write a song about it but I didn't want to rush to it because I thought, "This is too important." And "Free" off of Signs of Life eventually came out of that. But it just took several years to kind of grow and then it was natural.

When I saw my wife take Shaohannah and take her into her arms, and it really was like that scene in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." It's like your heart just [show heart expanding]. And you can see it happen. You can see her go from an hour before, crying, saying, "What if I can't love her as much as I do my other children? What if? What if? What if? What if?" and put her in her arms and it's just like, "This is my daughter. This is flesh of my flesh. It's part of me." And God just does this miraculous thing. Our whole family, it's like we took her in, our love for her took her in but love took us or she took us in too. Our love for her—we were taken in as well.

I say in the song, "Like the rain that falls into the sea, in a moment, what has been is lost in what will be." It's like just as soon as that drop of rain hits the sea, it will never be a drop of rain again. Now it's become a part of something so much bigger. I thought, "That's what happens for us in Christ." and if we really understand that, that He says, "I won't leave you as orphans. I've come for you." Love has come and love has taken us in. I was so thankful when I began to work on it that I felt like I captured, without trying to force something, and it's one of two songs on the record that as I wrote it, I cried.

It doesn't happen that often. I may cry when I get the initial inspiration, like "That would be powerful." But as I'm writing it and I got to that chorus and I said, "You drift off to a distant dream when love takes you in." And everything changes. Miracles start, just like in your dream. The wildest dream would be that love would take me in and that I would have a home and I would actually be a part of a family. That would just be a dream I couldn't imagine. And yet that's what's happened.

FamilyChristian.com: Another major inspiration in your life is the book, Through The Gates of Splendor. Tell me about that.

Steven: Through the Gates of Splendor is the story of Jim Elliot and the five missionaries who were martyred in the 1950s in Ecuador. I have always thought about writing a song about this but didn't really want to force it out. So I started writing a song called "No Greater Love." In the process of writing this song, some things happened that resurfaced this story in my life. I began thinking that someone needs to make the movie of this story so that it can impact people the way Chariots of Fire and The Hiding Place impact people still.

That lead to me looking on the Internet to find out what happened to the family members of the people involved. There was a pilot who flew the missionaries into the area. Steve Saint was the son of that pilot and was now writing books about the continuing work with the people group who killed the missionaries because. [Jim's wife] Elizabeth Elliot and Steve's sister Rachel Saint who had gone in and worked with that people group. I began to find out that Steve is still involved in working with the people group teaching them about knowing God.

I found him on the Internet and began to talk back and forth with him. I found out that he was going around in America with Minkai who is one of the tribe members and was one of the six men who killed Nate Saint and Jim Elliot. He is now in America speaking in his native tongue talking about God's grace and His power.

I found out that he has been impacted by a song of mine, "My Redeemer is Faithful and True." I actually heard a recording of him chanting in the background along with a man who is singing my song. So I can't believe this is happening, and can't believe that I have a tiny part in this story and I am getting to have a front row seat in what God is doing in all of this. Long story short… Steve Saint and Minkai came to town and I had this idea of having Minkai actually sing with me on the album. God let that happen and that dream became a reality. Minkai sat in The Laundry Room and sang for me of God's mercy and grace and his journey to know and become a God follower. It is an amazing thing

Declaration by Steven Curtis Chapman

FamilyChristian.com: What is Minkai like?

Steven: Minkai is really a Stone Age warrior. He comes from having no knowledge of our culture to being dropped in the middle of the Miami airport with Steve Saint. He knows three words in English: DQ, ice cream and okay. Whenever he is speaking—and he speaks in his native tongue—he speaks with such passion. Steve is there to translate but you can just tell from the way he is speaking. And this comes from a man who has speared to death probably hundreds of people and now God has just changed him. As he talks he gets going and going and Steve will have to stand up behind him and say "It is time to go to DQ and get some ice cream" and the next sentence will be "And that is all I have to say." There are some amazing stories that Steve can tell about Minkai's first experiences in America. I really hope that we can find a way for everyone to hear these stories and know what is happening in all of this.

FamilyChristian.com: What is the most important thing you want readers to know about you?

Steven: The most important thing that I would want them to know about me is that God is God. That God is faithful. About me, I say in this record, the last song on the record is that I'm a man who needs a Savior and a Savior has come and we have a Savior in Christ. I guess if I said, "What do I want people to know about Steven Curtis Chapman?" He's a man who has found a Savior in Christ. I want to communicate that and I'll sing about it if God lets me sing about it again. I'll talk about it, I'll write songs about it. I'd say that's the most important thing.

Jen Abbas, a writer in Grand Rapids, Mich., originally conducted this interview for Family Christian Stores' All Access music catalog.

< Previous Page

Click Here To Read More Interviews

Corporate Informations:
About Family Christian Stores® |  Jobs
Information / Official Logos For Business Partners / Suppliers

© 2008 Family Christian Stores®, Inc.