Perry LaHaie Goes Personal As He Talks About Pain, Loss & "Tears This Side of Eden"

Singer/songwriter and morning drive-time radio host Perry LaHaie has released his new single, "Tears This Side of Eden." The song shares the powerful testimony of how hope in Jesus is forged in the sufferings of life. 

LaHaie is best known as a recording artist with Frontiers USA, an international community of people dedicated to inviting Muslims all over the world to follow Jesus. LaHaie uses his platform as a recording artist to challenge believers from across America to find their role in bringing the gospel to the Muslim world.

His latest project, Him, produced by Grammy Award winning engineer Andy Hunt, follows his 2008 debut, Endless Fields, and his follow-up CD, Ahead. LaHaie has also released several powerful singles since his latest record.

LaHaie currently can be heard as an on-air radio personality, weekday mornings on 89.3 FM Grand Rapids, MI, as a co-host on Perry and Shawna Mornings.

He is also the host of the nationally syndicated radio feature / mini-podcast Cast Yourself In, a program that tells amazing stories of how God is working in the Muslim world. Cast Yourself In is broadcast on more than 450 stations and translators across the U.S. To listen to Cast Yourself In, click here.

Q: Perry, thank you for doing this interview with us. You have recently dropped a new song. Can you briefly tell us what "Tears This Side of Eden" is about? 

"Tears," is about the winding, unpredictable journey on the way to see Jesus. How Jesus prays for us every step of the way, gives us strength when we feel we can't take another step, and grows in us the hope that when we finally embrace him at journey's end, we'll finally be whole. 

Q: Your press release mentioned that the song "has taken a lifetime to write." Can you elaborate on what you said? 

Sure! By the time I was 22 I knew Jesus loved me to the core, and I knew he had planted kingdom dreams in me to pursue. At the same time I had already experienced enough shame and regret and depression to know that there would be a lot of tears in my journey.  

That's when I thought, "Someday I'll need to write a song about all the tears that fall on the journey to the City of Light." But I knew I hadn't lived enough life yet to write the song. But through some dark nights of the soul, like the Christmas day I felt cut off from God, "Tears," was being written.

 And hope was being created deep inside of me through dark nights like that. And at just the right time, when just the right amount of life had been lived, on a December morning of 2020 the song was born.  

Q: Closely related to the song is the passing of your own mother. Tell us a little about her and how this song ministered to you during your loss and pain. 

"Tears" was born a few weeks before mom went to Jesus. The grief felt like a sword through my soul. But through the years, hope had been growing in me, hope for the day when "all the sad things come untrue." And so though the grief was really deep, the hope had become deeper still, and it carried me. 

Q: What do you have to say to our readers who may also be suffering from loss and pain now? 

I'm so sorry. It's not supposed to be this way. Death is an enemy and suffering wants to pull us under never to come up again. But Christ. He knows how we feel! He feels our despair. He tasted all the agony you have, and more. And he went under. But on day three, he rose. He beat death by dying. And that broke its power!  And now, as CS Lewis says, "Death is working itself backward."   

He has poured his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit to be with us every step of the way. He gives us joy in the journey because we know we're loved. He gives us purpose by using our deepest pain to give the deepest hope to those who have none. And he guarantees for us through his resurrection, the day when "all the sad things will come untrue." 

Q: Regarding the near future, what can fans look forward to regarding new music? 

If it's in God's plan, I'm excited about releasing an acoustic remix of my single, "Crashed Into Grace." Also, releasing a song of surrender that I wrote after laying down my own dreams to pursue God's (which I need to keep on doing!), called "Thy Kingdom Come." And I'd love to release a simple piano/vocal version of "Tears." 

Q: What is your vision for your music? How do you hope these songs will impact the faith journeys of your listeners? 

I hope you resonate with the honesty of my journey and feel in your heart, "Oh, so I'm not the only one!" I hope the songs help you grow to know Jesus' love deeply and feel his beating heart of love for the world. And I hope the experience of Christ through the songs will propel you to bring his love to your neighbors, and especially to families who have no chance right now to hear the gospel. 

There are 400 Muslim people groups from North Africa to the Far East who have no access to the hope, love, and gospel of Jesus. But Frontiers believes that it can't end this way, and so do I. That why I partner with FrontiersUSA to bring about the day when there is no place left in the Muslim world without access to the living water. 

And I'm inviting people like you, maybe even you, to join me in bringing about that day by locking arms with me and Frontiers. Find your role at FrontiersUSA.org!  Or reach out to me! 

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