7 minute read
More trust
Over the last few years reality talent shows have become somewhat of a Saturday night staple in our house. It was while watching one such show, namely The Voice, that we learned the name Leah McFall. It wasn’t merely the fact that Leah hailed from Northern Ireland that made her instantly loveable; there was something uniquely wonderful about her and her talent.
Today Leah is appearing on my screen once again, but this time it’s via Zoom. As we make our introductions I’m already struck by her openness and down-toearth nature. Leah is 38 weeks pregnant with her second child; she already has a 19-month-old son, and despite only finishing work yesterday, she has interviews lined up about her book until a few days before she’s due to give birth. This is a woman who is clearly driven and passionate about what she does.
Leah has always known a love for music which she attributes to her dad who kept a huge eclectic collection of music and was himself a singer, singing at church and at weddings. She says, “When I was a child, my favourite toy was my voice. I would see what different noises I could make with it. I would practise different riffs and how to change my tone and I felt free in that.”
Leah’s new book is called More Trust: Giving our dreams to the trustworthy One. She admits that trust is the biggest struggle for her when it comes to her faith.
“When we’re children we instinctively trust, but then things happen in life that break your heart; you start to not give full control over, even to God. I went through family breakdown and bereavement; I lost my sister, my only sister, in a car accident. From then I started to question whether I was safe. But I always felt God asking me to remain in him, to stay with him and I would bear fruit if I just let him consistently feed into me.
“I wanted to be a singer so I moved
Lisa Skinner chats to The Voice star Leah McFall about her new book.
to London when I was 20, on my own. I started gigging to literally no one but Billy the barman. Then I went through a process of having A&Rs [Artists and Repertoire division, responsible for talent casting] showing up telling me I was the next big thing – then they would never come back. I used to go to management companies and wait behind gates, then sneak in on their lunch break to try and leave off my demo, only for them to email me to say, ‘Can you respect the gate please!’”
Leah grafted for years until she was eventually scouted for The Voice. At first, she was sceptical about entering the reality talent show; she was aware that her family heartbreak would come out and she wouldn’t have any control over it; she worried it might be handled wrongly. Leah also knew she wanted to be an artist but not simply famous for fame’s sake. Despite these initial reservations she entered the show and to her surprise did really well. She became a favourite of judge Will-i-am, who mentored her and with whom she performed in the final, ultimately finishing second in the competition.
Before Leah knew it, she was in Los Angeles writing with the top songwriters in the industry. She made an album with Will-i-am, but due to politics and the nature of the industry, it was shelved, which also meant that she had to see out her contract – waiting for a couple of years until she could become an independent artist and release her own music. Leah refers to this time in the book as her ‘desert place’.
“I’d really felt God’s blessing and felt close to him on The Voice; I was so nervous that I clung to God. I spent all my time backstage with worship in my ears and Scripture on my knees. Then to be brought to a point where everything fell through my fingers left me asking him – are you to be trusted? At that point I grounded myself in Scripture again. He continued telling me to remain in him. Through Scripture he fed me and uplifted me.”
Leah cites this desert time in her life as the most transformational in terms of her walk with God. “I was grieving my dreams and once you start grieving one thing sometimes you go back and grieve everything. That is very much what I did. I started grieving my sister all over again. It was at that point that my mum told me to look at the Old Testament. It is there that we find people in real hardship but God meets them in that hardship. I realised he is to be fully trusted because I could see he was fully there in those times.”
Relevant
Leah hopes that her book will encourage her generation to read Scripture. It is part of SPCK’s More> series which aims to encourage younger people not to think of the Bible as outdated but rather as a relevant text for life today.
Leah previously contributed to a book called Fearfully Made, to help young people overcome fear and anxiety; she’s written a song about mental health (Freckles) and she’s been working in that sphere with AWARE over the last number of years. Leah believes that our biggest battles are over identity and self-worth and social media doesn’t help with that. In the book she explores the desire of people to live an extraordinary life but identifies that a lot of beauty is to be found in an ordinary life.
She comments, “In my opinion lives are only really full and complete when they’re rooted in a God who loves you unconditionally, no matter what you do. We can live in the freedom of knowing that we are loved. What is more, God may have gifted you in ways that you don’t even know yet. That really hit me with the album coming to an end – it opened a new door into worship and also the opportunity to write a book. I thought ‘I’m not a writer!’, yet it came much more naturally than I ever imagined. I thought I only had one gift but God had given me so much more.”
Leah wants to encourage young people to seek God through his Word and prayer so they can discern between what is real and steadfast and what is false and fleeting in this world. She believes that if we encourage our young people to get into the Bible, they will grow into resilient disciples who will not waver.
“Scripture tells us that seasons come and go, yet we live in a culture that is destination obsessed. We have a goal we want to reach and once we get there, we think that will be utopia. That is not what God promised; the destination promised to us is heaven, the rest of it is just a journey. It’s a lie that we’ll be happy if we have that thing or reach that goal. I’ve met people who have reached their goals and it’s never enough. Millionaires want to be billionaires. The goalposts keep moving and that doesn’t cultivate contentment. The year I spent in LA was one of the loneliest times of my life; sometimes dreaming the dream is actually better than living it.”
Leah is still making music; she prays before every songwriting session because she knows the responsibility of writing lyrics. While working with Universal Records, there were lyrics she was asked to sing that, because of her faith, she refused to, despite it branding her ‘hard to work with’. Leah strives to deliver a message that is hopeful and encouraging. This influences her music whether it is worship songs or secular music.
After many peaks and troughs Leah is now enjoying a time of being still and appreciating God’s good gifts. In the last few years, she has gotten married, given birth to her son, written a book and released a couple of singles. Now as she prepares to welcome her second child, she is hoping to take time to relax and enjoy this next season of life before releasing a worship project next year. She reminds me that God gave us life to enjoy and she plans to do just that.
Leah McFall’s book More Trust: Giving our dreams to the trustworthy One is available for £7.99 from Faith Mission Bookshops.
