Settling in for a chat with Jeremy Camp is like sipping hot cocoa on a winter’s day – warm and comforting. We talked about everything from the ups and downs of life, his battle with anxiety at one point, to his epic new song, “These Days,” which came from wanting to flip the script on the phrase “these days” and focus on the idea that we’re all in the right place at the right time. God’s got a plan for each and every one of us, and it’s up to us to walk into that purpose, right where we are.
Catch hope & encouragement with Erica on weekday mornings from 5:00 AM – 10:00 AM, and Sundays from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Erica:
SPIRIT 105.3. This is Erica.
Jeremy Camp:
Erica, it’s Jeremy Camp. How are you?
Erica:
Oh my gosh, I’m so excited to talk to you. How are you doing today?
Jeremy Camp:
Doing so well. We’re actually kind of snowed in here in Franklin, Tennessee.
Erica:
Oh, I’m a little bit jealous. We’ve been hoping for snow, but all we’ve had is a whole lot of rain and cold temp. Jeremy. That’s it.
Jeremy Camp:
That’s the worst when it’s actually cold and doesn’t snow, it just rains. That’s the worst.
Erica:
The only good thing is that it gives you permission to drink as much cocoa and coffee as you want. And I’m wondering, I actually have this on my list, so I think we should start here. What’s your favorite thing about winter? The thing I love about it is that you can drink as much coffee and cocoa as you want, and I think we should start here. What’s your favorite thing about winter?
Jeremy Camp:
Starting a fire. Literally sitting down by the fire. We play games and we drink coffee and hot cocoa. Literally the same thing. I’m not kidding you. I love that. Starting a fire is a big part of it.
Erica:
Okay, now you said starting a fire. We actually have a wood burning fireplace. Do you all have one as well or do you have the gas where you just turn it on?
Jeremy Camp:
No, no, no. It’s wood burning. Yes, absolutely. It’s the best. You have to have the crackle and smell it a little bit, all that. It just makes it so much better.
Erica:
And I mean, there’s something about having to throw another log on. This is a huge responsibility, I feel like.
Jeremy Camp:
Having to go out and get your wood. It’s a whole thing.
Erica:
Now, does your son split up any firewood?
Jeremy Camp:
Not yet. He will be though. Don’t worry.
Erica:
I loved his intro, the little video with your amazing new song, which Jeremy, I just love. We’re going to get to it, but how cool is he doing that intro?
Jeremy Camp:
It was amazing because we were in Cabo, me and my wife and my manager was like, he called my kids. He’s like, Hey, are you going to do some kind of intro thing? It’d be funny. And he texted me, he was like, Hey, I know you’re on vacation. Sorry, but do you mind if I do this? I’m like, no, I would love that. So, he sent me the video and I was like, that is hilarious. That’s perfect.
Erica:
Okay. You’re a cool dad. And I have to say very, very awesome. You going on a vacation with you and your wife. Do you all do that every so often? I think that’s great. Yeah,
Jeremy Camp:
We haven’t done a ton. We’ll go get away for a few days. This is the first time in a long time that we’ve gotten away. Went for a week. Its our 20th anniversary. We’ve been married for 20 years. Wow, that’s amazing. Yes. We got away and just hung out together, connected in a beautiful way. I mean, we’ve been connected, but it’s like there’s something different when you go away for almost a week and just talk, and hang out, and just spend just time with each other. Put your phones up and it was really special.
Erica:
Tell me about Cabo. Just a couple of wonderful things. Paint the picture for us.
Jeremy Camp:
Okay, so we walked in the resort, we went to the room and saw the ocean and the sun shining, laid down by the lounge, by the pool, and I had some fish tacos. It was amazing.
Erica:
Oh, okay. I am super happy for you and you deserve it. You are such an encourager. Jeremy, I want to thank you. This is actually the first time I’ve had the opportunity to interview you, and I can’t believe that, because you’ve been such an encourager to me and I know a million people or more.
Jeremy Camp:
Oh, thank you.
Erica:
I love your new song because you took this phrase that’s so negative, kids these days, movies, TV these days, and you turned it on its head. Why did you make this song?
Jeremy Camp:
Because that’s what I was tired of hearing everyone talking about the doom and gloom of what was happening in our society. And listen, don’t get me wrong, my heart breaks for what’s going on. My heart breaks for all that stuff. I don’t like things that you see that are difficult, but I’m like, no, wait a second. What if we shift our perspective, and we say, alright, the chorus says very simple. It actually says it all. I believe that you and I are in the right place at the right time. God called us by name. He doesn’t make mistakes. And I think that for me, it was this perspective shift of going, “No, listen. You can still grieve what’s going on. You can still have a heart because it is difficult watching things that are going on around us, but I’m not going to live in this place of like, why are we here? What’s going on? Or there’s no hope or whatever. It’s like, no, God actually called you to be here for such time as this to be a light in this world.” And when it is darkest, we do actually shine the brightest. I know it’s a generic Christian term to say when it’s the darkest shine, the brightest. But I think it really is in that place right now where we have a hope to give the people right now. We’re created for these days.
Erica:
Amen. A thousand times. And I love that your song reminds me of one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I know you’ve referenced this on Instagram. I saw it in a video… Esther, a woman who God called on to be courageous in a difficult time. And I feel like all of us can be Esther right now. He created us on purpose for a purpose. And how do you, Jeremy, how do you think we tap into this purpose that we’re created for?
Jeremy Camp:
I think a lot of it is understanding that we have perspectives sometimes of a couple of things. I’m just going to hide in the corner and let the world just go by and not deal with anything and that’s not healthy. Or we can say, I need to go out in order to be useful. I need to go out and I need to save a hundred people, and I need to be a missionary, or I need to do all these crazy radical things. I’m not saying don’t do that. I’m not saying that at all. But I think what happens, we have to understand that God just wants us to be faithful where we’re at and to be a light where we’re at. So if you’re faithfulness is loving your family and loving on your neighbor or loving on your coworker or someone at your school or whatever it may be, we have to understand that that’s the perspective change we have to have is that, man, I’m here for a reason. And so I’m here to love my family. I’m here for you. I’m here to be on the radio and to be an encouragement to thousands of people sharing songs, sharing verses, sharing things that God’s taught you as well. We all have that reason. And I think that if we just are faith where God has us, it can shift our whole perspective. And it’s like, yeah, we’re created for such time as this to be light around us.
Erica:
Absolutely. And look, when the alarm goes off in the morning, it’s tough. You’ve hit snooze a second time and I’ve started praying this little prayer. It’s so simple like, “Lord, make me a blessing to someone today.” I don’t know what that’s going to look. Sometimes Jeremy, it scares me half to death. How is he going to to that prayer? But it’s like just starting from the first second you wake up, before you even brush one tooth.
Jeremy Camp:
Yeah, you have a purpose. You wake up every day with a purpose. So I called you by name.
Erica:
Yes. He’s called us by name and it’s not a mission trip. We’re just on mission all the time. And to me it’s kind of invigorating. At any point, God could call you or me to intersect with somebody. And how cool is it for you? I mean, you’ve got these songs that play, I feel like you’re going to have a line in heaven someday. And there was this moment I needed your song, I needed to know that I was made for right now. How does that make you feel?
Jeremy Camp:
Honestly, I’ve done this for 21 years. I never thought I’d be doing it that long. I think it just kind of blows me away. And God keeps giving fresh perspective of different things. And I think that every time when he gives something fresh and new, I’m always like, “God, thank you because I don’t know why you keep using me, but because you are, I’m going to step into it with my whole heart and understand that you’ve created me for such time as this as well.” And it’s super humbling. And that’s a weird, I hate saying that word, it’s such a catch phrase, but it’s really humbling to go like, God, you really do think of me. I’m not a mistake. You have purpose and you’ve ordained my steps and all those different things. I think knowing that he’s ordained my steps and that he for some reason has said, “Okay, Jeremy, you’re going to be a voice through music and Erica, you’re going to be a voice through radio or you’re going to be a voice to your family.” Whatever your innocence, job or purpose may be, your voice in that place. And I think it is no matter what is very humbling and we should be grateful for it.
Erica:
Amen. You asked yourself a question recently, am I supposed to keep doing this? And I have been in that situation so many times. I’m like, Lord, is this what you still want? I mean, I’ve thought to myself, should I go and be a hospice nurse? I have such a heart for people who are dying. It is built into me, but he keeps telling me, I want you right where you are. So, what did he tell you when you asked him that question?
Jeremy Camp:
It’s actually what he showed me. He kept showing me the stories, I guess, of people saying, God is using this song or using this, when I go out and play. And I’m seeing people respond to the gospel or seeing people respond to his presence or seeing or hearing stories, it’s what I’ve seen or heard, I guess I could say as well. That’s more what it is, is him showing me practically actually how he’s using this. But not everybody gets to see that. And I think that’s what sometimes it’s difficult when you’re like, I don’t hear those stories. I don’t see that. But then if that’s where you have to say, God, you still want me here, and then there’s just something in you for me, I’m just going, I feel such a peace about where I’m at because I just know that no matter what he has for me in the next 10 years, I’m going to be faithful with it.
And if it’s like, Hey, in five years you’re going to be playing in front of a hundred people, and it’s like, okay, cool. That’s what I’m going to do. Great. I’ll be faithful with that. But I think it’s having a peace about where you’re at no matter what. If you hear stories or not. For me it’s great because I get to hear stories, but some people don’t get to hear those stories. And I think that you have to still walk in that confidence that, no, you know what? Even though I’m not seeing what I think I should see, or hearing what I think I should hear, I’m confident God’s calling to be here because I have peace about it.
Erica:
Amen. Walking in that purpose and when anxiety starts to lie to you, you can just crush it because your song has meant a great deal to me. I have a family member who battles anxiety and I’ll just look at him every once in a while and I’m so sorry I butcher your song. I can’t sing to save my life, but Jeremy, I will just start shouting out the lyrics. Come on, you’re the come to my anxious heart and we laugh and we move past it. Why did you write that song? Because another one for such a time is this. Holy cow.
Jeremy Camp:
It was my own experience years ago. I had gone through a time where I just felt like I was having these irrational fears, and I think I’ve always battled with trust in my life. I think when I lost my wife to cancer, I think that the enemy has always tried to kind of piggyback on that and chisel on my trust with the Lord, and I let it happen. About five years ago, I remember all of a sudden I just was home by myself and I had a massive panic attack and basically that whole kind of anxiety, overwhelming anxiety, I couldn’t go outside for almost two weeks. It was really bad. And I cried out to Jesus and I was on my face, and finally he just showed me. He is like, and this is not for everybody. Some people I get it. We talk about some people like God does provide medication.
I understand that, but no matter what for me, I didn’t have to go on that. But no matter what, even if you have to go on medication, you always take it to Jesus, no matter what. Either perspective is saying, Jesus, I lay this at your feet. God, am I not trusted? Is this a trust issue? For me, it was a trust issue where I’m not trusting him, and so everything fell out of control, and so no matter what situation you may be in, those are always the things that you definitely go to God are the things in my life that I’m holding onto too tight. And finally when I just, he showed me I was holding on to everything in two times, my family, my future, my finances, that’s when the release started happening. Ended up writing that song and trying to be a voice to just saying, this is what in this generation, all these fears and all these things that are happening, let go and truly trust God. Wow. From my own perspective, what I went through,
Erica:
Thank you for sharing that. It is so much fun getting to know you and talking with you Jeremy Camp. You’re a blessing. Will you keep singing please?
Jeremy Camp:
Absolutely. Erica, thank you so much. I can’t believe we never talked and never met. It’s crazy.
Erica:
I know. I can’t believe it either. And I feel like, wow, I’ve been missing out, so come back soon.
Jeremy Camp:
Oh, a hundred percent. Thank you so much. You’re awesome.
Erica:
God bless you. Ditto kid.
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