Jordan Smith has had to fight for his long-time dream to be on "The Voice". He has struggled with feelings of inadequacy and not being a "real" musician for a long time. He's always thought of himself as a singer, but playing an instrument and singing in front of people at the same time was another matter. Then there was the disappointment when he didn't make the cut for season eight. Empowered by his faith in Jesus, he found a way to overcome that for season 9.
Jordan has never been shy about declaring the fact that he is a Christian to those around him. Even his Twitter account, as pointed out by Saddleback Church's Pastor Rick Warren during an interview at Saddleback, says that Smith is a "Kentuckian, musician, traveler and follower of Christ."
When Rick Warren asked about his relationship with Jesus in the interview, Smith said that, "I grew up in a Christian home. My parents were both Christians, and they took me to church every time the doors were open. And they really instilled in me from a very young age, just growing up, how important it was not only to be a good person but to be a person that's full of the love of God and to pour that onto other people."
Smith says that his family, "has been a great support system," as he has walked through the experience of being on "The Voice", and that his relationship with the Lord has grown as he has trusted Him to help him work through the emotions and pressure of being on the show.
One of the songs that Smith sang on "The Voice" is the old hymn, "Great is Thy Faithfulness." When Rick Warren asked Jordan Smith how God has been faithful to him, Smith said, in part, that, "He's been faithful to forgive me and to love me and to always allow me to feel His presence in my life." Smith added that, "I told the Lord a long time ago that I never wanted to use His name to promote my position, but I always wanted to use my position to promote His name and do whatever I could to make His name famous, and He's been so faithful to give me those positions and give me those platforms to promote Him, and that's just one way that He's been faithful to me."
Smith admits that he is still processing the amazing experience of being on "The Voice" and actually winning. He apparently had a great deal of favor with the judges, in that it's been noted that he received some of the highest praise on the show that anyone has ever been given by the judges. He was even touted as, "the most shocking reveal on The Voice yet!"
Smith confides that because of his feelings of inadequacy surrounding his musician skills, he initially thought, "I had absolutely zero chance of even making it onto the show! I know that what they're looking for is someone who's seasoned and someone that has the capability of being a real performer, and at the time I didn't see that in myself. But then once I saw my Blind Audition and I got the reaction from everyone, I was just so shocked. I was like, 'Wow, people see something in me that honestly I didn't think was there.' I thought maybe I had fooled everyone! It took a lot of convincing for me to finally start seeing myself as a performer and artist. In the beginning, I had no idea what I was getting myself into."
One way that he says that he overcame that is to acknowledge that God has His perfect timing for everything and that, "This was a desire and a dream not only that I had for myself, but that God had for me."
With regard to the fear of not being good enough, he said during the interview that, "I had to accept that I'm not good enough in my own strength and my flesh, I'm not good enough; none of us are. But where I end is where God begins. And He will take everything that's out of our control, and He will do His part as long as we do what we can with what's in our control. So I just had to do that every week."
There has been a great deal of controversy about what happens to people once they place on "The Voice". Though some land record deals, "The Voice" coach Adam Levine has admitted that, "When the baton is passed post-'Voice,' there's some problems. People take over after we do this great job of building these people up on the show. There's some real issues there. The rollout of all that is still such a mess."
In a flourish of some verbally graphic detail, Levine added that," We do so much great s- for these singers, and then they go to a record label that I won't mention. But they go to a record label that f-s it up,"
Smith may become an exception to Levine's concerns in that he has already had some positive responses from iTunes with his music ending up in the top ten while he was on "The Voice".
It's Smith's hope, "to keep doing music that inspires people; that's such a part of what I did on the show, and I'm all about music that provokes emotions. I want to make music that people connect with."
