Former Country Star Needed to Surrender to God: ‘Broke Me Down’

Published: December 17, 2024

Former Country Star Needed to Surrender to God: ‘Broke Me Down’

By Movieguide® Contributor

Former country singer Granger Smith found “rest in surrender” after the death of his son.

“It was an absolute nightmare,” he told THE 700 CLUB of River, who died in a tragic drowning accident in the family’s pool. “I failed at the one thing a father should be able to do: keep their son alive. I failed at that. Feeling the guilt and shame from that, I realized that I needed to be the rock for my family.”

“I had these visions pop into my head,” he said. “It would cripple me, absolutely cripple me. I was drowning.”

Smith decided to go back out on tour, frequently using drugs to stop seeing the slideshow in his mind. One night, he drank alcohol for the first time since River’s death, and all those images he had been trying to avoid came rushing back.

“I started sobbing. I was shaking and pulled out my gun and put the gun up to my head,” Smith said. “That’s when I had a thought that was outside my own consciousness….the thought was: this is the way to rest. I recognized that there was an enemy speaking to me. I said, ‘Jesus, save me, please save me,’ and the slideshow stopped. I dropped the gun and fell asleep in peace. That next morning was Day One of a new journey for me.”

Smith leaned into his faith, listening to sermons and reading the Bible.

“I knew what would save me, and it wasn’t in myself,” he explained. “It was in Christ, and the slideshow, it didn’t stop, but it lost its sting. I felt peace, I felt joy, I felt rest in surrender.”

Smith concluded, “Praise be to God that He broke me. That He completely broke me down to nothing so that I could rely on nothing but Him.”

“Following Jesus requires sacrifice,” he explained. “It requires suffering. You will have sorrow, pain, temptation, and grief. In this world, you’ll have tribulation, but take heart, Christian, because Jesus has overcome the world so that you could have joy through all of it, even after the unimaginable pain of losing a child.”

Smith continued, “Denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus is not at odds with your joy but in fact is the source of it. Nothing in this world can satisfy you with the fullness of joy like Christ alone.”

Today, Smith has left his music career behind and is training to be a minister.

“I don’t want the Granger Smith name to be famous, instead I want to proclaim the name of Christ! The one that has washed me clean, the one that has freed me from my shame and my guilt. The one that gave me a new heart. I want Him to be known! And I want to know Him more,” he told The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “That is the real reason I’m leaving music touring.”

Smith continued, “From now on when you hear the name Granger Smith, my goal is NOT for you to say: He was a great singer, or a great speaker, or author, or not even what a great loss he suffered. Instead, when you hear my name, I want you to think, ‘Granger Smith? Oh, I’ve heard of him. What a great Savior we have in Jesus!’”