Having just won the Gospel Music Association's 2009 Dove Award for Song of the Year for "Give Me Your Eyes," he and co-writer Jason Ingram were aware that "because we have a big song, it kind of feels like everyone is just expecting you to write another one."

So the pair "sat down in a studio and prayed and thought, well, whatever the message is on this next song should be simple. We don't need to embellish anything. Let's just tell the truth."

The results can be heard next month when Heath's Leaving Eden is released on Reunion Records, addressing themes including redemption. "I just picture this really lush green space in my heart that hasn't been touched yet," Heath told Christian Retailing. "And I really want to protect those things. I believe that a lot of the songs are talking about that a little bit. ... I do want to take you on a journey in redemption a little bit because I do feel redeemed."

Heath also said that some of his songs wrestle with dissatisfaction. "A lot of times the world leaves us longing for something else. ... It's that we are looking for the right thing in the wrong places. A lot of times that brings a dissatisfaction, so that's why it's a recurring topic for me: I know the right answer, but I don't know why it is that it's so hard for me to go after that. And I think a lot of people are asking the same question."

Read more in the January issue of Christian Retailing.

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