The Power Behind Matt Brouwer

Faith & Fitness Magazine: So you run, snowboard and what else? Sounds like you are quite the outdoor fitness enthusiast.
Matt Brouwer: I love being outdoors for sure. I grew up on a farm in Eastern Canada and was always outdoors growing up. It never occurred to me back then that it was important to stay fit. I was active simply because I loved it. I was a lifeguard in high school, played organized sports, and was practically obsessed with swimming and dirt biking. Since moving to the city and making music I have had to be a lot more intentional about taking the time to get out in nature and engage in fitness activities. I always feel like I’m where I belong when I get out and breathe the fresh air.
F&F: What kind of weightlifting or regular exercise do you do to keep in shape?
MB: I love to run, which is odd to me because I used to hate it when I was a kid. But it’s great because when I travel it’s something that I can do pretty much anywhere. As for life on the road it’s pretty simple: sit-ups and push-ups most of the time and sometimes a workout room in a hotel. When I’m home I have a routine that includes a lot of cardio and I do some free weights/weight machines as well. I try and mix it up a lot so I don’t get stuck in a rut, and my goal is to be toned and lean more so than to bulk up on muscle mass…Obviously!
F&F: So what do you get out of all this physical activity? Why does it play such a role in your life? What power does it give you?
MB: Being in shape has great practical health benefits that help me have more stamina while dealing with an erratic schedule and with being at my best when performing too. Beyond the obvious health and wellness benefits, being physically active works as a way to help center oneself spiritually and emotionally. For better or worse we connected body, soul, and spirit…when one part of us suffers everything else begins to
be dragged down as well. I know when I am feeling tired and miserable from lack of exercise, I am not operating at my potential emotionally or spiritually either. In that sense there is a Spiritual discipline aspect to healthy physical activity that helps shape us as complete and whole people.
F&F: Actually “power” isn’t the word people might use to associate with you when they listen to your latest CD “the b-sides recording vol. 1”. You talk about suffering, perseverance, and surrender.
MB: There have been a lot of humbling experiences in my life that have birthed those themes in my music. And we all go through hard times and terrible experiences, yet I grew up with a Christian mindset that basically said that the more real and difficult subjects of pain and suffering were topics that when possible were best to be avoided because they bring up difficult questions that take years of struggle to begin to answer. As the years have passed in my life I’ve chosen instead to embrace those themes and it’s been amazing to really grab a hold of what Jesus talked about in the New Testament. Those concepts that baffled people 2000 years ago and still baffle us now. Statements like, “You have to lose you life to find it” or “To be great you must become a servant”. The idea of finding true power by surrender and submission to a higher power seems crazy, but that’s where we find real strength and true freedom.
F&F: Your song “Here I Am Again” talks about you being on your knees, letting go and trying to attain. Is this song more about our weaknesses or God’s strength?
MB: I suppose it’s about finally laying down my self-will and admitting that I can’t make it through life on my own. The ultimate message in that song for me is that I am lost and the only sense of being found that I’ve ever experienced is by being embraced by the unconditional love of God that is expressed in many powerful and amazing ways in life if we only stop trying to do it all on our own and receive it. It feels so painful to let our self-will die, but I believe that is the only way we can experience the new life of God.
F&F: Thanks for sharing your song “All I Want” with our readers in our FiTunes section. We think it’s a great song to help people achieve true spiritual focus during physical workouts and in developing overall fitness goals. Are you ever challenged to come to terms between your physical and material wants and the deeper spiritual “want” to have an intimate relationship with Christ?
MB: Definitely, it’s a tug-of-war pretty much all the time. We live in a society that sells us on the idea that we need more and more stuff, more power, and more money to be happy. But I’ll tell you, in my experience some of the most joyful and content people I’ve ever met lived in a house that had holes in the roof and a dirt floor! It’s been seeing some of those things that have changed my life as I’ve traveled places in my 20’s. It’s been a season of unlearning and unraveling with the goal of getting back to a solid foundation, the core of why we are all here on the earth to begin with.
F&F: What have you seen happen in the lives of people that make Christ the singular desire in their life?
MB: As depressing as this sounds, the people who I have met that have experienced suffering and pain in their lives seem to have a depth and understanding that only experience can afford. And it’s not the pain and suffering that made them this way, it’s how they reacted to being tested that developed character in their lives.
F&F: Tell us about the ministry God has given you. How does that enable you to exercise your spiritual strengths?
MB: I feel incredibly blessed to be able to do something I love to do so much, to sing and make music. I see this as a gift and therefore I believe that it comes with a responsibility to use this gift to give everything I have to give to the purpose for which I was created and that is to glorify God. There is something so freeing about finding that place. I feel like my whole life I’ve always wanted to connect with people and to be a part of something meaningful. I’ve been learning that to do that requires an openness and vulnerability that can be incredibly scary, but when it is motivated by love it leads to deep and powerful connections to each other and ultimately to God.
F&F: So which one needs more work your guitar playing or your bench press?
MB: Hmmm, loaded question. I consider myself an underachiever in both of those skills for sure, but both are areas that I greatly want to improve. Improvement requires a lot of work and commitment but it’s so worth it. When I was younger I used to be afraid to bring something to the table if I was not able to be good at it right away. What I’ve been learning is to not take myself too seriously and just be who I am. We are all people “in process” and to let fear prevent us from experiencing things that don’t come easy is a terrible shame.