
How TobyMac’s Latest Single Offers Hope for the Brokenhearted
By Movieguide® Contributor
TobyMac’s new song just dropped on Jan. 10, and it’s all about how God lifts up the brokenhearted.
“Where some choose to see happenstance…I choose to see God’s hand,” shared TobyMac, whose real name is Kevin Michael McKeehan. “I hope this one meets you right where you are…”
Some of the song’s lyrics read:
There’s no way around
Some things you can’t explain away
Too good for me to doubt
Said nobody but God did it
(God did it)
Showered me in love
When it looked like it was over
He went and did just what He does
God did it
McKeehan has had his share of brokenheartedness. On Oct. 23, 2019, his 21-year-old musician son, Truett, passed away from an accidental drug overdose.
“I will forever be a different man,” McKeehan said the following year. “I thought, honestly, with my five kids and my bride, that I had the perfect life. And we’re really messy now. It’s not so neat anymore.”
“I live across the street from where he did his last show and there’s a restaurant over there and some days I go to that restaurant, and I just look over at the patio where I last saw him, and gave him a hug, and said, ‘I’m so proud of you,’ and I just cry,” McKeehan said.
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The day after Truett died, in McKeehan’s deepest suffering, he shared that God’s place in his and his wife’s lives hadn’t shifted:
My wife and I would want the world to know this… We don’t follow God because we have some sort of under-the-table deal with Him, like, we’ll follow you if you bless us. We follow God because we love Him. It’s our honor.
He is the God of the hills and the valleys.
And He is beautiful above all things.
In 2022, McKeehan made an album called “Life After Death.” It’s about Truett’s death and McKeehan’s grief and healing.
“I’ve always written songs about the things that I’m walking through and the things that I’m feeling. I’m not really good at writing fictional songs,” he said. “I write about my own life and I figure as I walk with God in this crazy world and try to pursue heaven, that became the most important thing.”
“The people that listen to my music, they’re not that different than me. We’re all trying to live out this faith that we talk about and we want to pursue, but the world mixes us up sometimes,” he explained. “I think that’s what I’ve always written about, so it was natural for me to write about what I was walking through.”
His song “21 Years” is specifically about Truett.
“I viewed that as a song to honor my son’s life. Thank God for the 21 years I got to interact with my boy. I immediately started just turning my faith to God and trying — trying — there were times when I struggled through that, but I found God to be kind in the end and I wanted to remember all of the best things about my son in that song,” he said.
The end lyrics of the song are:
21 years makes a man full-grown
21 years, what a beautiful loan
21 years, I loved every one
Thank You, Lord, for my beautiful son
His new song, “God Did It,” is from his upcoming album “Heaven on My Mind.” The record, which will be released on March 7, features 12 tracks.
“After hard things hit us, we can recover — we can be strong again,” McKeehan shared. “The songs on this album have taken me from the journey of LIFE AFTER DEATH, where I felt the slap of pain and wrestled with God through the why and how, and ‘what did I do wrong,’ to discovering His love again.”
“It’s brought me to a place of loving Him deeper — more than ever before — and altered not only my journey in life, but my journey with God. I love Him more, I trust Him more, and I’ve discovered that He is better, kinder, and sweeter than I ever thought possible,” he said. “These songs reflect it all.”
READ MORE: TOBYMAC ‘GRATEFUL TO GOD’ FOR UPCOMING NEW ALBUM