We Are Messengers Lead Singer Shares How God Uses Suffering for ‘Great Joy’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Darren Mulligan of We Are Messengers opened up about how a change in his relationship with God inspired his new album “Where the Joy Is.”
“Suffering is always the catalyst to great joy,” Mulligan told Annie F. Downs on her “That Sounds Fun” podcast.
“I got sick and tired of falling for the same old demons, returning to my old patterns of sin like a dog returns to its vomit. I returned to my sin, and I realized that me trying to be good, trying to be better,” he added. “I wasn’t changing anything. I realized that I had to fully cast my hope on Jesus, like I had to take him at his word. The number one records didn’t do it. The gold records didn’t do it, the having some money in the bank didn’t do it, being righteous didn’t do it.”
He continued: “One day I was sitting in a hotel room, and I was reading the Psalms, and all I could do was fall on the floor on my face, and I said, ‘God, I have sinned against you and against you alone.’ I am a man full of iniquity, you know. Could anybody love me, and Jesus has loved me really, really well.”
God taught him that he is a messenger to share the Good News with others.
“I have realized that I have a short time to let people know that you can change, you can turn around, you can make different choices, and at the end of those choices and the suffering and the hardship and the repentance is a joy that the world cannot take from you ever again,” he said.
Mulligan added that he wasn’t talking about happiness but about a joy that only God can give.
“Joy is that steady presence of God in the dead of night when the monsters come and he’s there, and he’s taken all my monsters back, and he’s kicking them in the head, and I’m having a party as he does it,” he described.
“Where The Joy Is” released on April 5.
“Do you know where the joy is? We believe that it’s only found in Jesus,” Mulligan said of the record, “and we want to share that with the world.”
“We Are Messengers’ upcoming endeavor boasts 10 pristine, arena-ready pop selections — all co-written by frontman Darren Mulligan alongside an array of the industry’s most respected songwriters, including Jeff Pardo, Jordan Sapp, Ethan Hulse, Hank Bentley, and Kyle Williams, among others. Moreover, the impending release features standout collaborations with newcomer Ben Fuller and We Are Messengers’ labelmate, Blanca. Overall, the band embraces gratitude and the simplicity of the Gospel on ‘Where The Joy Is,’ radiating as much exuberance as the title suggests,” a press release announced.
Movieguide® previously reported on Mulligan:
Darren Mulligan, lead vocalist of the Dove-nominated and K-LOVE Fan Award-winning band We Are Messengers, recently shared how God saved his life.
“It is a miracle that I’m alive, I’m a little sore but I walked out of that vehicle without a scratch,” Mulligan wrote in an Instagram post on Feb. 4.
After hitting an icy patch on a bridge on the 840 in Colorado, Mulligan faced a potentially fatal decision.
“My truck lost all traction, slid across both lanes, down through the verge separating east and west highways and began sliding towards another vehicle on the opposite side of the road,” he wrote. “I couldn’t bare the thought of someone being hurt so I did everything I could to flip my vehicle off the road and that’s what I did.”
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