Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / The 24-Year-Old Who Ditched Her Smartphone and Never Looked Back

Transcript

The 24-Year-Old Who Ditched Her Smartphone and Never Looked Back · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life audio.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Hey An, thanks for joining me absolutely, thanks for having
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: me and Wilson Award winning singer who has a new
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: book Rebel following Jesus When the World Walks the Other Way.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: I love that title. And you also have a deluxe
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: album edition of Stars except for release July the tenth,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: and you recently announced an extension of the Stars Tour
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: twenty five dates in September, October, November, and Wilson Official
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: dot com as the website, and let's heard of the book.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: You won a K level award of course this year
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: for Hey Girl. Congratulations for the congratulations for that. Now
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: you're releasing Rebel. Tell me the heart behind this book?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Of course, this is the same title as the album.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: But of course people will often have a negative connotation
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: of the word rebel. So why did you want to
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: write this book and what's the theme behind it?
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I think it is funny how people have a
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: negative connotation of that word. Obviously hear stuff about that
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: all the time, like kids that rebel and people that
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: are rebels, whatever. But I had this idea of writing
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a song called Rebel originally, which then got turned into
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: an album and then a book, and the whole overarching
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: theme between the song, album, and book is what it
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: means to be a Christian in today's world, following Jesus
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: from the world walk the other way? What does it
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: mean to stand for when you're faith and to be
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: bold and things that should believe in. So through the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: song that was written was the perspective of me being
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: bold in my faith in the country genre. Rebel was
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: my first debut country album, So I'm going to write
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: songs about my love for country, but I'm going to
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: stand term my faith. That was that perspective of being
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: a rebel. Then it was also my you know, looking
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: through scriptures and reading how Jesus was a rebel. Jesus
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: would go against the crowd, he would go against the grave,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: he would make his own way and do his own thing,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and he truly was a rebel in that time. And
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: so that inspired me to keep writing the record Rebel.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: And then as I was writing the record, I realized
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: there was a lot more to say. So that's how
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: he ended up with the book.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: What are those a lot more to say? Themes? So
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I know one of them is kind of standing out
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: instead of blending in in the culture in today's culture.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: What do you think it actually looks like. Then, for
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: a Christian to stand out in a way that reflects Jesus,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I think it means living.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Like Jesus stand and following Jesus, not just going to
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: church on Sunday checking it off your list, but truly
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: following Jesus, obeying him, walking in the ways in which
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: he walked. However, your relationship with them being the hands
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of meat of Jesus, loving people well, loving your neighbor
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: as yourself, all the things that were told to do
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to the Bible, like truly living that out. But the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: other part of that, I think is being bold and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: not backing down. I think in today's culture we are
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: so afraid to speak what we believe and to stand
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: firm for truths, not the world's version of truth, but
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: God's version of truth. And especially in the recent years
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of the elections and politics in America and all the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: things that we've kind of walked through as a country,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: I think that I feel like Christians have been almost
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: like feel like they've been silenced to the place that
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: they truly can't speak about how they believe because they
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: don't want it to cause conflict. They don't want to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: mess up the peace, and it's you know, Jesus was not.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: He didn't come to just bring peace. And Jesus was
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: not this like little peaceful guy that would walk in
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and like want everything to be good and happy. He
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: was like a warrior. He would walk in places and
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: fix what was broken and speak the truth of the
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: matter if people liked it or not. And so as
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: a Christian, that's what we are called to be. And
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I think that that's really what's going to make lasting
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: change is people that truly walk with Jesus and stand
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: for the things that he believed in.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Where does this boldness come from within you? Because I
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: know I think he grew up in a house of faith,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: but not everybody who grew up in a house of
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: faith has boldness. How did you gain that in your life?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I think it I grew up like my mom was
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: always bold and she always taught me and my sister
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: and my brother, like and my siblings to be bold.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: My mom always would speak her She's very opinionated, and
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: we joke about her all the time like she's sometimes
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: she's like her opinion or wrong, but she's like the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: kind that's like she walks in she's five feet toll,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: so me and my sister were all very short, and
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: she walks in and she's sassy and like she just
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: like speaks what she believes. And she's always taught us
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: to do that, you know, she always taught us that
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: we could do anything we set our mind to. That
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: just the power of the things that we speak and
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the power of the words that we say, and how
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: important it is to establish the things that we believe
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: in and to share them with others. And so I
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: think that watching my mom do that was really the
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: true inspiration of why I am the way that I
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: am today. That I am so bold and the things
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: that I speak because I watched my mom be bold
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: and what she believes in. So she's truly like the
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: inspiration behind why I can why I am that way.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: But I've also just I was born just very like headstrong,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: like independent type, a just kind of like if I'm
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: going to if I have something on my mind, I'm
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: going to do it and achieve it. So it's worked
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: out with my career. Like being able to have that
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: kind of mindset has has helped me a lot of ways.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: And then in other ways because I've been so bold.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: You know, there's opportunities I've missed out all and other
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: things in the industry. Of course that there's obviously when
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you're that bold for Christ, there's going to be a
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: worldly constant puts for it, you know, and a let
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: down from the world's perspective.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Let me ask you about this, this movement of God
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: among gen Z. I think you're a member of gen Z.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I always forget what the ages are for that, but
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: you're somewhere, you're a young adult. It's okay, you areting
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: gen Z. Do you sense a movement of God among
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: your generation? And I'm asking that as as we see.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: You know, thousands of college students gather in these arenas
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: for these unit ask movements. And I think there's data
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: back in this up as well. But what are you
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: seeing among your generation? Do you see a movement of God?
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I do, Yeah. I think it's been so powerful to
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: see how many people have who comes into the Lord
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: and my generation. I think people my generation are hungry,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: They're thirsty, they want the truth, they want something to
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: hold to you that's lasting. They're depressed, they're anxious, they're lonely.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: You know, suicide rates around all the time, and my generation. Obviously,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: phones and social media have a huge part and all that.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: So I think that my generation is finally getting to
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: that place of desperation like we all do as adults
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: later on a life most of the time, sometimes not
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: until your fifties or sixties, where you hear stories of
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: people finally reaching rock bottom and finally realizing I need
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: faith and I need God and I need to clean
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to Him. I think that it's happening just younger. I
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: think that these kids are really realizing how empty this
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: world is and this life is, and that they need Jesus.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: What impact have phones that social media had on that, though,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: because I think a lot of people are arguing that
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: that's been a major impact. Do you have any thoughts there?
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, I don't. So I'm like all against phones,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and I'm probably the only one of my generation that
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: talks about this because I'm twenty four, so I'm like
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: right at the heart of gen Z. But in twenty
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: twenty three, I got rid of all social media on
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: my phone. I still don't have a on to this day,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I have no social media on my phone. I basically
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: made my phone a dumb phone, which there's books about
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: this that have come out, But my pastor at the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: time at churching the City in Franklin to the Sea
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: just kind of started a sermon series on the digital
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: fast and he started sharing how it's so important to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: fast from your phone. So he did all this research
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and shared it and now it's in a book. You
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: can buy it. It was on which I highly recommend for people.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: But he talks about the effects of phones and how
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: they're affecting all generations, specifically GenZ, and how much of
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: a negative impact it's making on us. And so ended
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: up like having this revelation of just like I've got
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to get out my phone. So I ended up buying
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: a flip phone. And I had a flip phone for
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a year, which is crazy. No one else has done
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: that my generation. None of my friends did. They thought
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I was insane. And so, yeah, I don't like phones.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I mean the amount of anxiety I get just from
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: like a text, dinging on my phone or looking at
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: something on my phone, like social media wise, it's like
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: so anxiety inducing, and I think that they're having a
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: very negative effect. I think that there's some positive you know,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: social media, what you can do and share, but I
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: think that the overarching social media infos has is destroying
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: us flowly but surely. So I'm very against all of it.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I think that we're better off looking at each other
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: in the eyes and talking to each other, you know,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: and even over a zoom like world of difference, versus
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: being on your phone and even just like I think
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: gen Z struggles because you know, when you think about it,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: you're scrolling and you're looking at someone else's life and
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: what they have and what they're doing versus living in
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: your own life. And I think it's taught us to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: compare ourselves a lot and to never feel like we're
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: good enough. And so I think that that's like a
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: core issue in my generation of something that people need
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: to have, you know, back in the Lord there identity
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: placed back in gotten.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I need you to come talk to my fourteen
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: year old kids because they have they have a GA,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: they have a gab phone, and they always back and
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: for an iPhone. So let me ask you and do
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: you so I'm assuming you have a smartphone without the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: social media? Is that kind of what we're talking about? Okay? Okay,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: because if lip phone's difficult to navigate, you've got to
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: press the butte.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah, so I recommend there's also a phone
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: called the light phone, and it still takes pictures, like
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: it has maps calculator. You can text and call, but
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: you can't FaceTime, or maybe you can on the new one,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: but there's no social media ask for Fari. So basically
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the idea is like you make your phone to do
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: what it actually needs to do, which is called text,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: maps calculator, and then, like everything else, you put on
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: your laptop and you schedule times to check social media,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: You schedule times to check your email and to FaceTime
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: people versus it being and to search stuff on Safari
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: versus it being all on your phone.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it would sell, but I would.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I would plead with you to write a book about this.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: I mean we need that in that we need a
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: famous person to write about this and that generation. You're
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the person. Maybe let me ask you before we close here,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: let me ask you about your music. Of course, your
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: your country songs have a faith theme and they don't
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: shy shy away about talking about Jesus from talking about Jesus.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Question for you, have you found that country music audiences
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: are more open to faith centered songs than people might assume.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: It seems like a natural fit to me.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely think that people in the country space
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: are talking about their faith more and realizing how much
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: of a connection there is there between sharing faith and
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: also having love for country. But I think that there's
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: a boldness that these artists are wanting to share more
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: about what they believe in, which has been awesome and
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I love getting to see that.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, these collaborations, it seems like there's a collaboration in
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: every You've had some, of course, and Brandon at Lake
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: has had some. And what's going on there? I mean,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: has this been is there a movement there or has
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: this been there all along? Or is it a little
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: bit of both. I'm just trying to figure out why,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden is everybody talking about Jesus in
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: the country realm.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: I think there's been a movement. I think people finally
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: are like, oh my gosh, I can share what I
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: believe in and I can express this part of my
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: faith that I never had before. I think there's a
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: fear that maybe these country artists have felt that they
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: can't share, and then they're seeing Christian artists to it
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and cross over into country and then being like, oh wait,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: maybe I can share my faith and I'll be okay.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: And so I think sometimes country artists that I've worked
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: with in the past have viewed collabing on a song
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: with me as an opportunity to share their faith that
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: they normally wouldn't share on one of their records. At
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: least that's how it's been explain to me by some
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of them. So it's cool to see that they're feeling
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: like this urge to want to share their faith, which
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I think is I think it's the Lord working.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: It's awesome to see final question for you as we
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: close here, you sing the national anthem at the launch
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: of Artemis two. I was watching that and belongs of
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: course that day. I was. I'm a big astronomy and
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: space fan. I know you wanted to be an astronaut
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: when you were growing up, So tell me your emotions
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: that day and not just singing the anthem but also
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: watching this historic event.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: It was so special. So that's just a real moment
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: for me. Yeah, I mean, it was like probably top
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: top favorite moment of my whole career because of just
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: getting to be in that room movie with those people
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: in such a historic day for our country. Obviously wanted
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: to be an astronaut, so I have this part of
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: my story. And then it's the timing of it too,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: record Stars and our two word that I put out.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I was on the Stars tour in the spring when
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: all this happened. So God, and it was also crazy insane,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: But ten years to the exact day that I went
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: to visit NASA when I was fourteen years old, was
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: on April first of twenty sixteen, And when we were
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: on the way to NASA, eight like popped in my head.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I was like, Mom, check your camera roll and see
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: when we were last at NASA, and it was April
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: first of twenty sixteen. We went to NASA. We were
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: finishing up a spring break trip and that's when we
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: went and visited and talked to them about what it
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: would look like to work for them. So it's like,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: so God, you know, to do all of that for me,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: it felt like just like such a little gift for
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: me and my family, and it was a really special
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: day that I'll never forget.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: If you enjoyed today's interview, please make sure to subscribe
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: and share the episode with a friend. A big thanks
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: to the team at Live Audio for their partnership with
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: us on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: you will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: their network.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: See you next time.