“Dead Man Walking” by Jeremy Camp || Worship With Me #32

Welcome back to my latest music review series, “Worship with Me.” This series introduces you to new worship music that you might have heard before. I aim to connect with you through worship and build your relationship with God in ways you might not have tried.

Today’s song is “Dead Man Walking” by Jeremy Camp. Jeremy Camp is one of the artists I know more of his older mainstream songs and less of his newer and expansive discography. The first song I got into from him was “He Knows.” It was mainly just that song until I stumbled upon “Dead Man Walking,” which was a delightful surprise. It had energy, intensity, and a powerful message, and I fell in love with it, especially during the season I first heard it. Honestly, “Dead Man Walking” is the only song of his that remains in my playlist. For me, there’s something about his voice that makes it hard to listen to much of his music over a long period, but that’s me. I mean no offense to Jeremy, his band, producers, and fans. I’m excited to share this discovery with you and hope it brings you as much joy as it did for me.

In an article he did with Capitol Christian Music Group, he had this to say about the song: “Colossians 2:13-14 speaks of our lives before Christ as being ‘dead.’ There was a time I felt emotionally and spiritually dead, but then God changed me radically. That is why I’m excited to share ‘Dead Man Walking’ – because it’s a song of thankfulness that even though I was once a ‘dead man walking’ I’m now a man ‘walking with God.” (Quoted from this article: https://www.capitolcmglabelgroup.com/news/jeremy-camp-releases-new-single-dead-man-walking/)

The fact of how personal this song is to him and how powerful it is shows me that it was made for me to hear. It was released in 2019, and I was learning about what it means to be a ministry leader for all ages and what I needed to do personally to be the person God calls me to be for that position. It was learning the deeper levels of why ministries work and don’t, how they can work in today’s culture, and things like that. It also showed me my leadership weaknesses and where I would need God to showcase his strength through it. By the time I was releasing the plans for the ministries after all that preparation, the pandemic shut it all down! I fell into a massive depression after that, which made me feel dead to the world. Yet, God changed my heart and foundations and sprung out a new version of ministry I never would’ve imagined.

It’s time to share with you some of my favorite verses from this song:

Freedom was something I never found

Trying to find six feet underground

Under the weight of all of my sin

Fighting the fight that I couldn’t win

Then you rescued me

And Now I can breathe

Freedom, from a Christian and biblical perspective, was something I fully understood in the last few years. It is freedom from the bondage of sin. It’s freedom from what holds me back from being the person God created me to be. There’s a lot of pressure from the world to be consistently producing, always working, always monetizing, which creates cycles of burnout and disgust. God doesn’t require that of us. The last thing he created was rest. The Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments, and Jesus reiterates its importance through his own ministry. To surrender that feeling of always and allowing God to include rest in the middle of that is life-changing. It’s allowed me to step back, breathe, rest, recharge, and get back in the game while doing things for the kingdom more than ever.

I’ve talked about how busy this year has been for me with working as a tax professional and catching up on a lot of adulting tasks that I couldn’t do during tax season. That included studying for my written test to receive my driver’s permit, following through on my work with my therapist, researching and signing up for driving school, looking into unemployment, catching up on doctor’s appointments, and applying for other jobs. It’s been a lot. It’s been tiring. Yet, with all that going on, I still have consistently gotten you all 5 blogs a week (6 during this summer). “Now, Marc, that feels like that always producing thing you mentioned before.” Yes, but God’s changed my heart on managing this in a way that doesn’t burn me out. I used to always have my months’ worth of blog work in front of me, and any downtime I had would be dedicated to that. I got tired of writing once tax season finished, and I had more free time. I had to pause and step back for a couple weeks, which was okay. As of writing this, I’m in a season where I’m not making TikTok videos and haven’t for a few weeks and most likely for a few weeks longer, which is okay. I’m not trapped in the cycle of being unable to produce consistently. I’ve broken my workload into smaller chunks, which helps me accomplish more. I’ve been doing a variety of writings lately (which is the source of his new song review series.) God has rescued me from that pit, and I can breathe and watch the fruits produced before my eyes. The success of this blog this year has been mind-boggling. Plus, I’ll be starting other new projects (at the time of writing this) soon, too, to help with the mundaneness of writing constantly all the time.

I’m aware that this was just one verse, but the whole song revolves around that freedom and having new life breathed in. I’ll leave you with the bridge and be back next week with a brand-new song! Until then, stay blessed.

I have tasted, and I’ve seen the wonders of your heart.

I do not deserve a thing, but that’s just who you are.