The first thing you notice about JJ Heller is a wide grin that stretches across her face and welcomes you in as a friend, whether you've known her for years or are shaking her hand for the very first time.

Perhaps it's her insight and sensitivity that consistently draw a female audience to JJ's music. She touches on issues of self-image and worry, questions of faith, and feelings of loneliness; her songs resonate with women and offer encouragement. “For some reason, Christians (including myself) sometimes think, ‘if I’m following the Lord and doing the best I can, that life will be easy,’ and it’s not. That’s where grace comes in, and that’s where we grow.” “We have the choice to live in fear, or to live in the hope that God is in every moment with us,” JJ says. “That’s one of the major themes of this season in my life.”

I got the opportunity to interview JJ and her husband David Heller about "Control," the current single from her brand new album, When I’m With You.

Please share the background that led you to write the song "Control."

The song is based on a true story about a girl who struggled with cutting named Brittany Garcia from Broomfield, Colorado. We met her at a camp a few years ago. She was telling her story throughout the week of the camp. Several times people have told me I needed to write a song about cutting. I have always felt that would be a compelling subject for a song as it is an issue that so many people deal with.

I had never heard anyone talk about it before so I didn’t know how to write a song about what would compel someone to hurt themselves. To hear Brittany talk about it, my eyes were opened to the fact that cutting is the same as any other addiction. It is the illusion of “control” as she was feeling powerless and such a victim to things in her life that she wanted to take some steps to control her life. So, she started to hurt herself because that was something she was in charge of about herself. The more she did it, eventually cutting had power over her. Only when she submitted to Jesus was she able gain freedom from the addiction.

Please tell me about the Bible verses you used in writing the song.

Isaiah 53:5: But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.

How can listeners apply that message when they listen to the song?

The second verse, “Perfection has a price, but I cannot afford to live that life, It always ends the same; a fight I never win,” is my story about struggling with perfectionism. In Brittany’s case, she talked about how when she was in high school her family put a lot of pressure on her and they were completely falling apart. They expected her to be the perfect one and hold her family together. She was trying to live up to that expectation and image that her family had about her and she had about herself. She tried to get good grades in school and stay out of trouble. She tried to salvage her family.

I can personally relate to putting that type of pressure on myself as well. I am a perfectionist. I feel like I really miss out on a lot of life and blessings. My tendency is to not try something unless I’m going to succeed or be really good at something. I’ve been learning that there’s so much to enjoy about this life and I don’t need to be the best to enjoy it. I need to see life as a gift from Him. I’m really trying to be less self-conscious and more joyful.

Here are the lyrics:

The cut is deep, but never deep enough for me
It doesn’t hurt enough to make me forget
One moment of relief is never long enough
To keep the voices in my head from stealing my peace

Oh, control
It’s time, time to let you go

Perfection has a price, but I cannot afford to live that life
It always ends the same; a fight I never win

Chorus

I’m letting go of the illusion
I’m letting go of the confusion
I can’t carry it another step
I close my eyes and take a breath
I’m letting go …

There were scars before my scars
Love written on the hands that hung the stars
Hope living in the blood that was spilled for me

Here’s Matthew Henry’s commentary on Isaiah 53:5: “The consequence of this to us is our peace and healing. Hereby we have peace: The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; He, by submitting to these chastisements, slew the enmity, and settled an amity, between God and man; He made peace by the blood of His cross. He is our peace. Christ was in pain that we might be at ease; He gave satisfaction to the justice of God that we might have satisfaction in our own minds, might be of good cheer, knowing that through him our sins are forgiven us. Hereby we have healing; for by His stripes we are healed.

Sin is not only a crime, for which we were condemned to die and which Christ purchased for us the pardon of, but it is a disease, which tends directly to the death of our souls and which Christ provided for the cure of. By His stripes (that is, the sufferings He underwent) he purchased for us the Spirit and grace of God to mortify our corruptions, which are the distempers of our souls, and to put our souls in a good state of health, that they may be fit to serve God and prepared to enjoy him. And by the doctrine of Christ’s cross, and the powerful arguments it furnishes us with against sin, the dominion of sin is broken in us and we are fortified against that which feeds the disease.”

What’s so relatable is how JJ Heller’s “relationship” songs are relevant for everyone, but especially if you know Jesus, then you know the ultimate answer to the quest for love can only be found in Him. No song better displays that emotion than “Control” which includes the extremely moving description of someone seeking perfection and is a cutter who ultimately finds redemption in the “hope living in the blood that was spilled for me.”

I started sobbing the first time I heard the emotional bridge of the song, it’s that moving and beautiful. We are called as Christians to believe in the freedom that we have in the cross of Jesus. We are free from our addictions, our insecurities and perfectionism. Jesus came to die for us so that we can all truly live in Him.

There is a chapter about the prophecy of Isaiah 53, more than 700 years before Jesus came to Earth, in his devotional book Glory Revealed, author and evangelist David Nasser says: “The glory of the Lord is best revealed in His Word. When we begin to dig into the truth that is found within the pages of the Bible, we will begin to see His glory revealed.” As we approach Easter, remember the prophetic words of Isaiah about our Savior Jesus: “By His wounds we are healed.” Amen.