By Gavin Boyle
After landing a deal with a major record label, Madison Ryann Ward felt her life being shaped into a future she did not want, so she left and found the freedom to properly pursue Christ through her musical talent.
“Personally, I was really struggling. Because I didn’t really have my feet planted deep in what my faith was…” Ward told Relevant. “I need[ed] to find out what I believe and who God is. And who I am without all this added to me.”
Related: From Volleyball to Music: Madison Ryann Ward Praises God for ‘Dynamic’ Life
Ward returned home and genuinely thought that she was done with the music industry after having been a part of it for two and a half years and releasing two studio albums. The Lord, however, had different plans and brought her back to music. But this time, it was with the sole purpose of glorifying Him, rather than doing whatever it took to make it a career.
“If I’m not compromising on the things that matter most to me, it just feels so much more free,” Ward said, explaining how this new season is different than her previous years in the industry.
Ward’s experience is shockingly similar to Josiah Queen who found success only after he gave up trying to craft catchy songs for radio waves and instead wholeheartedly gave his career over to the Lord.
“I was writing songs that I thought would work for the radio — what I thought labels wanted,” Queen told Relevant last June. “And they weren’t really clicking. So finally I said, ‘Forget it. I’m just gonna make something I like.’ That’s where it started.”
“I never want my relationship to Jesus to be transactional. Like, hey, let me call God. I’m going to come to you and read this so that I can write a song about this so that people will click on it on social media. Because, that’s not how relationships work…” he later told Jonathan Pokluda. “And so, you know, it’s like realizing that that’s honestly the hardest thing for me because it’s like, I write songs about the Bible. So, it’s like reading my Bible and going to the Lord, that being my relationship and then everything else coming second.”
Through this shift, Queen has become one of the most prominent voices among the younger generation as his songs are extremely relatable and honest.
Ward is well on her way to joining him and will release her first album since her career reset, Standing Tall, later this year. Both artists are a testament to the way that the Lord wants us to truly devote ourselves to Him, and the way our lives can be transformed when we make the decision to put Him first.
Read Next: How This Indie Christian Artist Stays Rooted in the Lord
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