Seph Schlueter Finds Hope in Worship after Losing Baby Girl
For Christian artist Seph Schlueter, songs about praising God through pain took on deeper significance last August when he and his wife walked through their own tragedy. The Counting My Blessings and Running Back to You singer was touring and preparing for a new album release when they learned during a 20-week ultrasound that their unborn baby girl -- named Charlotte Davy Schlueter -- no longer had a heartbeat. That month, he wrote on social media, was the "hardest of our lives." Schlueter knew she had joined "a great cloud of witnesses in Heaven, singing praise to the King who sits on the throne" -- as he wrote -- but that biblical truth did not eliminate his and his wife's pain.
Schlueter's songs are sometimes written months or years ahead of their release. Suddenly, one of those songs -- This Side of Heaven -- took on new meaning.
"It's about praising God through your pain. It's about praising God through the midst of suffering, and how that's a special gift that we can give on this side [of heaven], that we can't on that side," he told Crosswalk Headlines.
He said This Side of Heaven was written in response to the trials faced by a co-writer.
"[But] all of a sudden it became a lifeline for me," he said, explaining that "I can still praise you in this pain, God, and in the midst of mystery -- I don't understand why, but I'm still gonna give you this gift. And so it took on a totally different meaning."
His debut album, also titled Counting My Blessings (Provident), was released this month. It's a mixture of folk, pop, and worship, filled with songs about hope, love, and promise.
This Side of Heaven is on the new album, as is another song -- Won't Start Now -- that also carries new meaning for Schlueter.
"I wrote that song in a place of just seeing God's faithfulness and seeing His presence, and seeing the ways that, like, He always showed up, and it was awesome," Schlueter said.
It's harder to sing Won't Start Now these days, he acknowledged, even though he knows every word is still true.
"That's where those songs matter so much, because it's not about how you feel -- it's about the truth of His Word," Schlueter said. "And so sometimes we need those reminders in places [when] we don't quite feel it, so we can go, 'Man, I don't feel this, but this is the truth.' And so even that song kind of came on from a whole different meaning."
Schlueter burst onto the scene in 2023 with his breakout hit Counting My Blessings, which topped multiple charts and became a viral sensation on social media. The song has been featured in over 800,000 TikTok videos and has racked up more than 61 million streams on Spotify.
He remembers that he and his co-writers wrote the lyrics as an affirmation of God's answer to prayers.
"The way we phrased it was, like, we're living in the answer to prayers we had prayed years ago. Years ago, we had prayed for this to happen in our career and our family and our relationships and yada yada. We're living in it. But it's so easy to move on to the next thing and move on to like, you know, new goal, new achievement, new dream. And we forget to actually just pause and say, Thank you.'"
With more than a billion streams across all platforms, the song has even caught the attention of celebrities and well-known athletes.
"Just to see the way that the song has resonated with so many people is just so sweet."
Schlueter launches a multi-city tour Sept. 18.
Photo Credit: ©Provident
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.
Listen to Michael's Podcast! He is the host of Crosswalk Talk, a podcast where he talks with Christian movie stars, musicians, directors, and more. Hear how famous Christian figures keep their faith a priority in Hollywood and discover the best Christian movies, books, television, and other entertainment. You can find Crosswalk Talk on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an interview that will be sure to encourage your faith.
Originally published July 17, 2025.
