Steven Curtis Chapman talks openly about the tragedy that struck his family

by Dan Wooding
Founder of Assist News Ministries

The date of May 21st, 2008, was the worst day of Steven Curtis Chapman’s life, for it was then that Chapman's five-year-old daughter, Maria Sue Chapman, was killed in an accident.

It occurred ten days after Maria's birthday when Maria was accidentally hit by her older brother Will while he was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser pulling into the driveway of their home in Franklin, Tennessee.

Maria, the youngest in the family, was one of three daughters whom Steven and his wife Mary Beth had adopted from China, and she was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. Maria died from her injuries and blood loss.

The entire family was preparing to celebrate their eldest son Caleb's graduation from high school and their daughter Emily's engagement just hours before the accident. A spokesman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol termed it “a terrible accident,” and no charges were filed.

During the memorial service for Maria, in which Pastor Scotty Smith preached, the family expressed their faith in God and their love for each other.

I caught up with Steven on Sunday, April 11, 2010, just before he was due to go on stage for the final evening of Mike MacIntosh’s Festival of Life Coachella Valley outreach held in Indian Wells, California.

And I discovered that Steven almost quit his singing career due to Maria's death, but then he realized that Maria would have wanted him to continue singing.

And then, in November of 2009 -- almost exactly 18 months after this tragic loss -- Chapman performed at a special concert at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California. At his side was Greg Laurie, the pastor of Harvest, who suffered the loss of his own son, Christopher Laurie, just months after Chapman's loss.

Steven performed several songs from his album, “Beauty Will Rise”, and took part in a live discussion between himself and Pastor Laurie. The two talked about dealing with grief and their mutual belief and hope in heaven.

Listening on the radio to that concert in San Diego was Pastor Mike MacIntosh who told me that he had been so “deeply moved” by what Chapman had said that he knew he had to invite him to perform at the Festival of Life.

So I asked Steven, who is now 47, about the struggle he had about performing again after suffering such a tragedy.

“There was a period during those first few weeks and months when I really did not know if I would ever stand on stage and be able to sing these songs again with any conviction or integrity,” he said. “I will honestly and truly say that during those earliest days and even hours, the only way I coped was literally saying and singing ‘Blessed be the name of the lord -- you give you take away’ and that kept us from being crushed.

“I felt that I was literally in a black hole of despair that would begin to pull us in as a family and me in particular, but my heart as a dad, just chose to say ‘God, I bless your name. I trust you I don't get this. I won't ever get this, but I trust you.’

“And, at those moments, I would literally feel like being pulled back from that black hole of despair; back into a place of hope and so I knew I was going to sing those songs again.”

Steven admitted, however, that he wondered if he would ever have any joy back in his life.

“It was a period of time that God really began to bring a new breathe, a new life, into those songs and I realized what the truths of them were at a much deeper level and it was at that point that I thought, ‘Now I can sing these songs, even the song Cinderella, which I thought for sure I would never sing again and which I had written for my two youngest adopted daughters from China.

“The first time I was back on stage after Maria had gone to heaven, I found myself really having to make a decision to sing it again. We’re still going through the valley of the shadow of death and we will be until we see Jesus and our little girl again, but I know that even those deepest painful places now represent a place of hope because they represent the promise of God.”

Steven said that on one occasion, before he lost his own son, Christopher, “You know Maria is a much greater part of your future than she is of your past.”  

He said, “At that time I didn't believe that, and if I couldn't believe that, I wouldn't stand on stage and do what I will do tonight, but because I now believe it, I have a thousand more reasons to stand on stage and that is much more compelling you know to say I've got to do this now if God gives me the opportunity to.”

He went on to say, “I didn't know the human heart was capable of this much pain and suffering and yet I also have never really understood the heart of a God that would let his own son die such a painful death for our sake so that we could have life.

“I mean, I didn't let my daughter go, but she was taken from us somehow by God's sovereign plan. But a God who would choose to send his son to suffer for us on the cross, I would say that truly is the only hope. There are no words I can say to others who are also going through grief, and I wouldn't try to stick a band-aid on anything and just give them a Bible verse, but I would say somehow even beyond what I can conceive of God, He is with us and God is for us and God is a God of comfort and He will give us comfort that nothing else can give us.”

With that Steven Curtis Chapman went on stage to sing one song before Mike MacIntosh preached and hundreds came forward to receive Christ, and then came back on for a full-blown concert where he moving shared his story with the large crowd and sang many of the songs he once thought would be impossible to perform again.

This courageous singer shared a message of hope that brought tears to many in the audience and I am sure brought so much hope to many.

Note: Chapman is also a vocal advocate for adoption, along with his wife Mary Beth.

Together, they have adopted three children from China and have started a charity organization called Show Hope -- http://www.showhope.org -- (formerly called Shaohannah's Hope), that mobilizes individuals and communities to care for orphans through its international orphan care work as well as adoption aid grants to help put more orphans from overseas and the U.S. in loving, forever families.

In 2009, Show Hope finished building Maria's Big House of Hope, a medical care center in China that provides holistic care to orphans with special needs.

He is also a contributor to Compassionart, a charity founded by Martin Smith of British rock band Delirious?.

I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com.