Jonathan McReynolds is no stranger to mountaintop moments.
At just 35, the gospel artist, author and Mensa member has spent more than a decade shaping contemporary Christian music with his soul-stirring lyrics, winning numerous awards in the process.
In 2025, he reached a new peak — winning a Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance/Song at this year’s ceremony on Sunday night.
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But despite his many achievements, the “God is Good” singer believes it’s in the “valley moments” that true growth, spiritual renewal and identity in Christ are found.
“If you look at any actual mountain, you find that people settle in the valley,” McReynolds told The Christian Post. “All the ancient civilizations settled in the valley. They didn’t settle on mountains, even though they’re beautiful and we’ve heralded them so much. But there’s a reason why. There wasn’t a lot of life on the mountain — it’s because the things that are needed for life are not really up there.”
In his latest book, Before You Climb Any Higher: Mountain Wisdom for Valley Dreams, the singer encourages readers to have a “valley mindset,” challenging the belief that valleys are inherently negative.
McReynolds is quick to clarify that striving for success is not the issue.
“There’s nothing wrong with climbing, inherently,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with grinding, doing what you have to do to make sure things are successful.”
But he warned against making the mountain one’s identity, whether that mountain is career success, ministry or even personal ambition.
The self-professed workaholic said his perspective shifted when he realized that while his achievements continued to pile up — awards, degrees and sold-out tours — he was losing sight of something essential.
“The higher I got, the more space I cut out in my life for that mission, for that assignment, the less life there was up there,” he shared. “Now, I might have gotten awards and some degrees and some other stuff like that, but the actual things that made Jonathan, the person, survive? There’s less and less of that up there.”
“So that means there must be another place where we can actually get the things that we need, we can actually get the presence and the peace that we need,” he continued. “I believe that we rarely will find that on the mountain at work, doing all the things that you’re ‘supposed’ to be doing.”
McReynolds acknowledged the message of Before You Climb Any Higher is countercultural, especially in a world that glorifies hustle and grind. But the artist urged readers to reclaim their identity, not as workers, artists or leaders, but simply as children of God.
“I really wanted to tap into this different mindset where I’m not a boss, I’m not the guy who has to be the leader, but I tap back into something that I think gets talked about very little in my culture, and that’s being just the son of God. We’re the workers of God. We’re the ministers of God. We are men of faith. But rarely do we talk about just being a son or a daughter of God. I wanted to write a book that outlined and chronicled my journey down the mountain, down from the titles and achievements to just who I am simply in God. And that’s His son.”
McReynolds said his journey has been one of unlearning and reorienting his faith; before his prayers were tied to his success.
“For me, it is first knowing that your life, your identity, your sense of self-worth is not made or broken by what happens up on that mountain,” he explained. “You might get a promotion today, you might get fired tomorrow. That does not actually impact your status in God’s eyes. And therefore, it shouldn’t impact your status in your own eyes.”
“Every bit of faith that I had was all used up on, ‘Lord, don’t let me fall off this mountain.’ But when you start to really think about yourself as a son first, then you start to recognize even the disciplinary moments as love,” he added.
This new understanding, he said, has changed his personal and professional life. “I was always feeling way more used than loved by Him,” he said. “Way more of a tool of Jesus than a son of God. Way more a ministry billboard than an actual person that could be ministered to.”
Reflecting on his own journey, McReynolds said he had to unlearn the idea that every revelation from God had to be turned into a song or a sermon.
“I was so busy trying to be a vessel, I wasn’t receiving some of those things as God’s advice, guidance, and love for me,” he says. “Now I have to go back and listen to my old songs to try to figure out what He was trying to say to me before I turned it into a song for everybody else.”
For those who struggle to see God as a loving Father, McReynolds, who shared he has a strained relationship with his own father, offered a simple challenge: believe.
“A lot of people, particularly in my community, have strained or lacking relationships with our fathers,” he said. “So that makes it very difficult. We don’t have a lot of earthly experience being a son, so it’s hard to imagine being a son to a God. But all of this begins with faith. It begins with belief. It begins with you saying, ‘I believe that God is real, and He loves me.'”
As one of the leading voices in contemporary gospel, McReynolds encouraged up-and-coming artists to redefine success.
“Generation X gave us one definition of success. Millennials took hold of it, and we added Instagram to it,” he quipped. “But now, all you Gen Zers that are learning what life is, we need to redefine this thing.”
He challenged artists to consider what true success looks like beyond social media clout and accolades.
“No matter how much money, no matter how much fame, no matter how many followers, you can still be quite sad. You can still be quite depressed and anxious. You can still be quite confused about the state of things,” he said. ‘So if that is the case, then maybe what we were calling ‘success’ is not really success. Perhaps there is a goodness that God has been calling us to, even as we’ve gone after a human idea of greatness. Everything He called good has outlasted everything we’ve called great.”
McReynolds said he prays Before You Climb Any Higher serves as a roadmap for those who, like him, have spent too much time striving for mountaintop experiences only to find that the most important things are waiting in the valley.
“I want to de-romanticize the mountain because everybody just loves the mountain. They can’t wait to get up there. They just love it. But when you get up there and you start looking around, you realize that most of the people up here are dying,” he said.
“I’m working hard to see what’s next and do something cool and different. But ultimately, I also just want to make sure I do something that is effective and impacts the Kingdom well,” McReynolds added. “In all of these opportunities that I have to express God’s heart or revelation that He’s given me, [I want to] represent Him well, because ultimately, that’s what our country needs.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
