UNSUNG HERO Inspiration Wants Love to Be Her Legacy
By Movieguide® Contributor
Christian artist Rebecca St. James is opening up about her past and what she wants to be remembered for — “loving well.”
“When people have asked me what do you want to be remembered for after you’re gone, you know, what do you kind of want on your gravestone, I want to be known as someone who loved well, loved God well, loved people well, just loved well,” St. James said on “The Poddy Podcast” July 28. “If they can say that about me and that I loved my family well like that, my kids can like look at me and know that they were well-loved, that my husband can say the same thing, that’s a job well done.”
“So I want to have a thriving heart before God, thriving family life and thriving ministry, and that’s going to look different at different points in my life,” she continued.
The Poddy hosts, sisters Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison, were friends with St. James when she moved from Australia to America. They also performed and were the opening act for St. James on her first tour.
About St. James’ father, Pearl said, “I remember him saying to you, ‘Rebecca don’t believe all your publicity, 100%.’ He kept you grounded. Like, you know, it was what he said to you once, and it was funny ‘cause in the movie [UNSUNG HERO], he said to you — and you have a beautiful voice…and he said on the movie, ‘You have a beautiful voice, Becca, but you’re more of a beautiful person,’ but I remember him actually saying to you one time, ‘Becca, you know you’re not the best singer in the world, but you’ve got something.'”
St. James said she remembered him saying that, noting that her father was trying to protect her. He wanted to ensure she didn’t get a big head and remained wary of people in the music industry.
“It was his wisdom,” St. James said.
When Serene saw young St. James’ awe of the Scripture, she knew that St. James was truly singing only for God.
“I have a memory…This was before that first tour of yours. So it was just very — it was so authentic and real because it had nothing to do with you saying something on stage or saying something to me before stage…” Serene said. “It was just in your family van on the way to some youth group, maybe at that first church that you went to, and I just remember you saying, ‘Serene, I just read the most amazing thing in the Bible.’
“You read me this verse, and you were almost weeping over it,” Serene continued, “and then you read it again to me. You’re like, ‘But isn’t that amazing?’ Like you were just, you were just truly, authentically wowed by the word of God… I had never seen a fellow peer or anybody lead me in such first love at that age you know.”
Serene was amazed that St. James was so focused on God at her young age.
“You had a very pure worship heart to the Lord and I think that’s why — obviously you’re incredibly talented — but I think that the Lord blessed your open doors because there was a true worship of him. It wasn’t for money and it wasn’t for fame,” she told St. James.
The story of St. James’ family, which includes her younger brothers, Christian singers Joel and Luke Smallbone, is told in the movie, UNSUNG HERO.
Movieguide® reported:
A synopsis of the movie reads, “When David Smallbone’s successful music company collapses, he moves his family from Australia to the United States in search of a brighter future. With nothing more than their six children, their suitcases, and their love of music, David (for KING + COUNTRY’s Joel Smallbone) and his pregnant wife Helen (Daisy Betts) set out to rebuild their lives from the ground up. Based on a remarkable true story, a mum’s faith stands against all odds; and inspires her husband and children to hold onto theirs.”
“We clung to God and each other and we saw miracles happen,” St. James shared, adding that she looks back on some of the things her family faced “now as a mom and think, ‘How did my parents do it?’”
St. James is now a mother to three of her own kids — her biggest dream that she felt may never come to fruition.
“I’ve believed my whole life,” she said, “that being a wife and a mom is the highest calling. All the time I was doing music, that was my dream.”
In 2000, at the age of 23, St. James wrote a song called “Wait for Me,” for her future husband. Some of the lyrics read:
Darling did you know that I
I dream about you
Waiting for the look in your eyes
When we meet for the first time
Darling did you know that I
I pray about you
Praying that you will hold on
Keep your loving eyes only for me
But it would be another decade before she tied the knot.
After her marriage, she told Cross Rhythms, “I have struggled with loneliness. I’ve questioned, ‘God, do you have somebody for me? Have I written the song about nobody — in my case, anyway? Maybe it was just a song for other people to sing?’ I’ve wondered, Is it even God’s plan? Deep down I believed he did have someone for me, but in my weak moments, I questioned that,” she said.
“A few years ago I felt like God called me to take my hands off that dream to get married and to entrust that dream entirely to God to the point of saying, ‘If it’s your will for me to be single, then I trust that you have a very good reason.’ That was a grieving time,” she continued. “That was hard and I had to come back to that place quite often — to find the balance between still hoping that there is somebody, to where you kind of die emotionally, going, ‘Woe is me.’ That’s where the balance comes in, and it’s very challenging.”
