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Biography (courtesy of Forefront Records)

After 'retiring' his band, The Distance, in 1998, Geoff Moore faced many unknowns in his professional and personal life. The experiences involved with pursuing a solo music career, adopting daughter Anna Grace, having his 40th birthday and the events of September 11 all provided major milestones and major changes for Geoff. These influences were key as the lyric-writing process began on his latest release, A Beautiful Sound.

"The way I responded to those circumstances is to remember that ultimately, God has my best in mind," Geoff says. "But, what we define as our 'best' and what we discern as beautiful is rarely what God sees for us."

And so came the title track to A Beautiful Sound, an upbeat track that discusses giving God obedience even when we don't understand or see the big picture. "Resting in that part of God's character contributes to the kinds of things I said on this album, beginning with the title. The opening line of the album says: The heart of a proud man breaking/ The cry of a sinner seeking truth/ The beat that your heart is making/ The moment that true love crashes through … It's a beautiful sound."

One of the most beautiful sounds in Geoff's life is the sweet voice of his now 17-month-old daughter, Anna Grace. However, the song "Swept Away," a song about how much Geoff and his family love and care for Anna, almost didn't find its way onto the album. "I wasn't going to include a song about adoption," Geoff confesses. "I was going to wait and just let the experience grow in me a bit more and include a song on a later album. But, when we were picking songs for the album, it just felt like it was incomplete. 'Swept Away' was the last song I wrote."

The imagery found in "Surrounded" also came out of the adoption experience: Do you ever dream/ Dream of days to come/ When battles will not rage/ For the souls of little ones …

"For Anna, it seemed like everything was against her-she was abandoned in an orphanage in a country that didn't value her. It seemed like she was surrounded by everything bad, but really God had her surrounded by his love since the beginning. He was just waiting for us to come and get her."

Alongside references to adoption, the album also includes dramatic imagery of God's sustained creation, such as found in the all-out rock song "Impossible" that says "When the wall seems unclimbable / And the sea uncrossable / The mountain unmovable / Our God does the impossible."

"I see evidence of that in what God has done with my life, my career-being able to do music all these years," Geoff says. "I see it as I hold my little girl, my two sons. I see it in what God has allowed to transpire since September 11."

Partnering with Mark Byrd ("God of Wonders"), Geoff penned a worship song entitled, "All I Want." "We arrived at the idea for the song by simply coming to grips with the fact that worship is thanking God and bringing honor to him," says Geoff. "But, it's also in a lot of ways a great intention, the true desire of our heart. It was our heart 's cry to say 'Lord, I know I act like I want a lot of other stuff and that other things are important, but my real desire is that I find my rest, my hope, my satisfaction in you.'"

Finding strength in God means being made aware of our weaknesses and vulnerabilities, being real and realizing others share our same burdens. "It's important to me to write and record music that is genuine to who I am," he says. "I write things that are true to what I believe and true to the world I live in. I'm not just playing a role or acting a part — I'm being myself and when I operate from that place, there are other people that often find it relevant as well."

While Geoff continues to tour, he is now found playing at youth conferences and leading worship at singles conferences as often as he does fly-in dates-sometimes with just a guitar and other times with a full band.

He also continues to write and sing outside his own projects. His songs appear on such compilation projects as ForeFront Records' "The Prayer of Jabez" and "Secrets of the Vine." And, Geoff's song "Overflow" was Youth for Christ's DC/LA 2000 theme song.

The fans that he earned through his touring days with The Distance stuck closely by his side and they also brought along some new fans to the show. "I'm a family act," Geoff says with a grin and a shake of his head. "There are people that are in their thirties and forties that saw me when they were in high school and college. Now, they bring their kids and their youth groups."

Whether singing, writing, touring or spending time with his family, Geoff Moore has found the peace that passes all understanding through Christ's love and His abundant blessings. In the album's liner notes, Geoff concludes: "One thing I have been learning is that beauty is found in those things that, at the end of the day, bring us closer or remind us of Jesus' love … It took a little girl all the way from China to remind us that we can all be adopted by a Father who will always be there." And, that experience is the most beautiful sound of all.