Matthew West’s one of those artists where it just feels real. A lot of his songs are pulled from real-life stories—people writing in, sharing what they’ve been through—and he turns that into something honest. He’s been through it himself too… even lost his voice for a season and had to fight his way back. He’s also written for artists like Casting Crowns, Rascal Flatts, and Mandisa—which says a lot about how strong his writing really is. You can hear it in his own music—nothing forced, nothing fake… just faith, struggle, and redemption showing up in the songs.
First up— 🎵 History History (2o05)
Next— 🎵 Get Away History (2o05)
Also I’ve included a cool bonus video where Matthew surprises a fan from Twitter with a phone call… a song… and a prayer.
Hope yall enjoy… 🙌🙏t`’
Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Before Lacey Sturm ever stepped on stage with Flyleaf, she had already lived through the kind of darkness most people only write about. As a teenager she battled deep depression and survived a suicide attempt… and what came after reshaped everything. Her faith didn’t become an image or a lane — it became the core of who she was. That’s why her voice hits different. It’s not just tone or technique… it’s survival, it’s prayer, it’s something real breaking through. A lot of those Flyleaf songs weren’t crafted for radio… they came straight from her journals, her struggles, her conversations with God. That’s why you feel them more than you just hear them.
What makes her story even more wild… she walked away from it all in 2012, right when things were peaking after New Horizons. No drama… no crash… just a decision to step back for her family and her calling. Most artists hold on tighter at that point — she let go. And when she came back, it wasn’t to pick up where she left off… it was to start fresh with her own solo career. Same intensity, same raw honesty… just even more personal and stripped down. That contrast you hear in her — the softness and the scream, the broken and the bold — that’s not a style she learned… that’s a life she lived.
There For You 🎶 Year: 2005 Album: Flyleaf
Cage On The Ground 🎶 Year: 2012 Album: New Horizons
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✝️ 1 John 3:18 “Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?
My middle name is Loia, and for most of my life, it was a mystery.
It’s funny this WordPress prompt comes up today… because I’ve spent decades carrying that name without really knowing why.
I always knew it was rare. I knew it sounded different. But beyond that, it was just this odd, beautiful word that sat between my first and last name like a secret I didn’t yet understand.
What I did know was that it was also my step great-grandfather’s middle name.
He wasn’t related to me by blood at all. He was my great-grandmother’s second husband, and they never had any children together.
On paper, he and I weren’t really connected at all. But life doesn’t always follow paper.
He was always around as I was growing up. He loved me and helped raise me like I was his own. He was an extraordinary man, steady and present, and he stayed in my life until he passed away in the mid-90s.
That middle name tied us together, even if I didn’t know where it came from. I just knew I shared something with him, and that felt important—even if I couldn’t put it into words.
When I started my blog back in November, I chose Loia as my pen name. I wasn’t even sure why I did it at the time.
It just felt right… like the name was waiting for that moment.
Maybe it reminded me of him. Or maybe the name had just been sitting there all along.
Either way… I typed it into the author field. And it just felt right.
Recently, I started digging into it… really digging.
I wanted to know what I’d been carrying all these years.
I found out that Loia was my step great-grandfather’s mother’s maiden name.
She was an Italian immigrant, and she gave that name to her son as his middle name… so he would carry it with him—to keep her lineage from being forgotten.
That’s when it really hit me.
She didn’t want her name, her people, her story to disappear into the dust of time.
So she planted it in her child’s name like a seed.
And now, somehow, I carry it too.
I’m not Italian at all, at least not by blood. Yet here I am, bearing the same name she fought to preserve.
Somehow.. I became part of what she started… long before I was even born.
And somehow I’m the one who ended up running with it.
I traced Loia back to its Latin origin and into the early Roman Empire.
I followed it as far back as the 12th century, to the Loia family in the southern Italian peninsula, in places like Campania. There may even be some Sicilian roots branching off that same line.
I read stories about relatives from those eras, names.. dates.. fragments of lives, and it was fascinating.
It felt like finding my name written in a story that started centuries before me… even though none of them are my blood.
Apparently it’s a rare surname.
Old as dirt…
the kind of name that has seen things.
I could have kept tracing it back even further, but at some point.. I decided to stop.
I knew enough.
I had already learned more than I ever expected to… and the mystery started feeling like it belonged to me.
Growing up, I pronounced it “Loy” like “Joy,” because that’s how I was told by my mother to say it.
Only recently did I learn that the Italian way is more like “LOH-yah.”
It’s interesting hearing the same name two different ways—one from my childhood, the other from Italy.
And then there’s this other detail that feels too poetic to ignore…
My girlfriend is also an Italian/Sicilian immigrant and an American citizen.
The way we met, the timing, the circumstances around it—it all carries this almost storybook quality.
“Coincidence” doesn’t quite feel like the right word anymore.
I don’t know how to explain it fully.
It just feels like there’s a hand at work in my life right now… quietly lining things up.
This old, rare name. The man who loved me like his own. The Italian mother who didn’t want her lineage forgotten. My choice of pen name. My girlfriend’s story.
All these crooked lines seem to be converging in ways I couldn’t have planned if I tried.
So what is my middle name, and what is its meaning or significance?
My middle name is Loia.
It’s the name of a man who helped raise me, the name of an Italian woman who refused to let her family disappear, a name that has survived centuries, continents, and bloodlines to land here, in my life, on my byline.
It reminds me that family isn’t always about blood… and that sometimes the things we carry our whole lives… finally make sense.
“It’s not what you got… it’s what you give. It aint the life you choose… it’s the life you live.”
Psssst… hey you. Yeah, you — know-it-all. C’mere… do you have a pen? I know you do. Write these numbers down… 10, 33, 41, 47, 56 — Powerball 10.
Play them on November 7, 2022. The jackpot will be $2.04 billion.
But listen—use most of it to help people… that’s where the real win is. You’ll be happier. You’ll be blessed. And you’ll receive a reward on the inside… that no amount of money can buy…
🎵 Kid Rock — “Care” (Cocky, 2001) feat. Angaleena Presley & T.I.
“For where your treasure is… there your heart will be also…” — Matthew 6:21
📚 New Read Alert! For transparency, Nan is a friend of mine — but this book genuinely encouraged me… powerful…
I’m so excited to share Celebrate Every Life….Even Mine – Nan Corban’s Autobiography with you all! 🌟
In this powerful memoir, Nan Corban opens up about her journey through life — the challenges she’s faced, the lessons she’s learned, and the beautiful moments that have shaped who she is today. Set against real-life experiences and heartfelt reflections, this book also shares how Jesus saved her and helped turn her life around, reminding us that every life has meaning, every story matters, and even the hard parts can be celebrated. 🙏
With 170 pages of honest storytelling and spiritual insight, Celebrate Every Life….Even Mine is the kind of read that encourages you to reflect, to grow, and to embrace your own story with a little more grace and hope. It was published by Trilogy Christian Publishing in July 2023 and written in English. 📖
Whether you’re looking for inspiration, encouragement, or just a real-life story that sticks with you, Nan’s memoir is worth picking up. 💛
Available on Amazon… go check it out… I read it and it’s great! 👇
Heart of Loia `'.,°~ 