Colton Dixon: Chart-Rising Song ‘Build a Boat’ Urges Christians to Have a ‘Crazy Faith’ in God

Growing up, Dixon says, he would “hear people say, ‘I never fully understood the love of God until I had kids.’”

Dixon says he can now relate. Shortly after his wife, Annie, gave birth to twin girls Ava Dior and Athens Elizabeth last year, Dixon said he was overcome with emotion while looking at them, thinking to himself, “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for this child.”

“[I felt a] tug from God’s saying, ‘I feel exactly the same way about you,’” Dixon told Christian Headlines.

“My life is no longer my own,” he added, referencing the lesson about selfishness he’s learned. “I’m not just caring for myself anymore. I’m not just caring for myself and my wife anymore. My kids are my responsibility,” he said. “[I’m] so honored that God would trust these two beautiful girls to us.”

The past year has been busy in Dixon’s professional life, too. He starred in a new Pureflix comedy series, Live+Local, which tells the story of a Christian radio morning show.

“It’s going to be hilarious,” he said of the series. “… Personally as a fan of Christian music and what Christian radio does, I can’t wait to watch it.”

In recent weeks, Dixon also released a new single, Build a Boat, which has been on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart for eight weeks and is up to number 27. The song echoes the story of Noah, referencing faith in the middle of trials: “I will build a boat in the sand where they say it never rains; and I will stand up in faith, I’ll do anything it takes; With Your wind in my sails, Your love never fails or fades; I’ll build a boat in the desert place.”

“We really wanted to write a song about crazy faith, and what that looks like,  and take inspiration from past stories and maybe apply that to … a modern situation,” Dixon said of writing the song. “You take Moses parting the Red Sea, or Peter walking on water, and of course Noah obviously building a boat in a drought.”

The song, he said, encourages listeners to step out in faith “before you even see the end result.”

“So we really wanted to be intentional about this and say: How can we craft the song not just [as] an anthem for believers, but really as encouragement to say, ‘Regardless of what it looks like around me, I’m going to step out. I’m going to do … what you called me to do.’ Because I believe that there’s a reward waiting on the other side of crazy faith. So the goal is to get you to go beyond what’s just comfortable. Because I believe God wants to give something to you. When he asks something big of us, that means something big is on the way.

“I’m glad it’s encouraging people and doing what it was meant to do.”

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Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.