Christian recording artist Jami Smith Christian Music

Christian recording artist Jami Smith

April 15, 2008 – 10:38 am

When circumstances are difficult or hard to comprehend, God is still present, contemporary Christian recording artist Jami Smith said.

This is the theme of the Chickasha native’s 13th album, to be released Friday during a CD debut concert at Crossings Community Church, 14600 N Portland.

Smith’s popular song “Faith in You” also is the title of the new CD, and its faith-full premise is to be shared through music and video throughout the evening.

“We’re really going to try to create an atmosphere where people who have been through really tough times can come and maybe just have a night, kind of in memory of someone they’ve lost,” Smith said in a recent interview.

“It is to be a night of healing, a place for them to be with others and grieve a loss, whether it be a person, a job or a marriage — whatever it might be.”

Faith in Him
The “Faith in You” concert is the first of three April events that place Smith in the center of activities focusing on faith and healing.
The day after her CD debut concert, Smith is scheduled to perform at the 13th anniversary remembrance service of the Oklahoma City bombing, set for 9 a.m. April 19 at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. Smith also will perform at the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon-related Sunrise Prayer Service at 5:30 a.m. April 26 at the Survivor Tree on the memorial grounds.

Smith said each of these events will give her a chance to emphasize a message that people need to hear more and more: “God is not against, but for you, no matter where you find yourself.

“A lot of these songs focus on a particular verse in Isaiah which says, ‘My ways are not your ways, My ways are higher than your ways, My thoughts are higher than your thoughts,’ ” she said.

Smith said the Lord often will not give an explanation as to why things happen, though people often seek one. The Book of Psalms, she said, is full of people asking, “Where are you? What’s going on? Why is this happening? Would you please be with me? How come you’ve forgotten me?”

Smith said through song, she is hoping to convey God’s faithfulness, even in times of trouble and periods where His answers are long in coming.

Concertgoers will view video vignettes featuring others who also have trusted God in times of adversity.

One video will focus on Steve Saint, whose father Nate Saint was one of five missionaries killed in Ecuador in 1956.

Smith said another video will show an interview with Donna Weaver, whose husband, HUD employee Mike Weaver, died in the Oklahoma City bombing. Another video will feature friends and family of Sonya Hill Payne, a woman who attended Oklahoma Baptist University with Smith and died of breast cancer.

“I just hope to focus on His goodness, despite wherever we might be with our circumstances,” Smith said.

Some of the lyrics in “Faith in You” perhaps say it best, she said. The song, made popular through the St. Anthony Hospital commercials airing locally, encourages the listener to have faith and walk in the joy of the Lord, even in times when he does not “understand it all.”

“It’s still our good pleasure and still our joy, eventually, to continue to have faith in Him,” Smith said.

“I know that I haven’t walked through every story that everybody in that room will have walked through. No way I could, but I still believe in just the few things I have walked through, that He is good and He is consistent and He is faithful.”

Editor’s note: Look for Smith’s “Keeping the Faith” column on Wednesday’s Religion page.

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