When you watch those in a descending roller coaster screaming off the top of their heads, it's easy to snicker and sneer, "O ye of little faith."  But it's quite another story if you are one of those on the roller coaster.  It is one thing to read the unemployment statistic on a government bureaucratic report, but it's quite another if you are one of those numbers.  It is one thing to hear about Aunt May going for chemotherapy treatment from the church prayer letter, but it's quite another when chemotherapy is part of your to do list in your diary for next Tuesday.  And it's definitely one thing to sing the stories of others who have struggled, but it's quite another when it's a song that details a narrative you are going through.  For years since her 1999 Curb Records debut, Natalie Grant has been singing the stories of people who have suffered.  Who can forget the woman in her hit song "Held" who had to struggle with her baby who just died?  Or the sister who is at brink of breakdown only to find hope in God's "Better Hands"?  However, when it comes to her 9th studio album "Hurricane," Grant doesn't just sing about other people's stories.  Rather, co-penning 8 out of the 10 songs, now she sings about her own stories.

Based on her own real-life experiences, Grant voiced, for the first time, her struggles with post-partum depression after the birth of her third child.  On these 10 newly recorded songs helmed by her husband Bernie Helms, chronicles her struggles: her feelings of inadequacy when it comes to parenting; her feelings of guilt over the ceaseless balance of work, family, motherhood and faith. The lead single and title track "Hurricane" puts to description some of the whirlwinds she went through over the last few years.  Anyone has had a bout with depression will resonate with lines like: "You're spinning out of control again/Your life feels like a sinking ship/You're wondering how it came to this/Is it too late?/Is it too far?/For Him to reach you/And come to where you are." Yet, Grant does not leave us high and dry to be overwhelmed by the hurricane of trials.  Rather, with her patented fervor she urges us to call upon God who finds us in our hurricanes.  Inspired by 1 Kings 19:12-13 where God ministers to a discouraged prophet Elijah, the hook-laden pop shuffle "Whisper" reminds us that sometimes God's comfort is at the loudest when He whispers.   

Fans who have loved Grant's huge dramatic ballads "Held" and "Greatness of Our God" will once again be awed by "Burn Bright."  In times when we begin to dwindle into self-doubt and discouragement, this piano ballad is a lift to the heart as Grant reminds us that God has made us for more.  In a similar trajectory is "Born to Be."  Co-written by Bernie Helms, Grant and Brett James (Luke Bryan & Kenny Chesney), "Born to Be" finds Grant joining voices with Rascal Flatt's Gary LeVox in a gorgeous ode of celebration of our identity we have in Christ Jesus.  If the country music connection is hinted at on "Born to Be," "In the End" is a rootsy bluegrassy banjo romp that finds Grant going back to her southern roots.  "In the End" has an apocalyptic focus where Grant reminds that though we may not understand the reasons behind our sufferings but one day at our Master's return all our queries will be resolved.    

With the recent arrival of her third child, Grant shares with us her maternal heart with the lullaby-like "When I Leave the Room."  With fellow artist Nicole Nordeman, Grant and her hubby Bernie Helms have created one of the most touching prayers a parent can pray for his or her child when we hand over our children in utter surrender to the hands of Jesus.  Listening to these 10 tracks is never a mechanical chore.  As each track flows one into another, regardless of the tempo, we are engaged in the intricacies of the emotions of each song.  One of the reasons why these emotions are so raw, so palatable and so engaging is because they come from a woman who has had firsthand experience of what it means to call upon God in her hurricanes.  And now through these songs she testifies unashamedly of His greatness and love.