Matthew West is releasing a new single called 'Wonderful Life' that shares one man's full, painful, yet amazing life. 

Back in 2020 West had a guest on his podcast named Ron Janca, who was battling ALS. 

"My goal with that Zoom call was to sing for Ron and hopefully be an encouragement to him, but Ron had other plans," says West in a YouTube video. "He spent the entire call encouraging me! Little did Ron know that at that time I was battling some serious discouragement and was pretty depressed about the circumstances around me."

The music video for 'Wonderful Life' depicts Janca's life, his past up until he passed away. 

"Here was a guy able to see past his own battle with ALS to show kindness to me. I’ll never forget that. A few weeks later I received a call telling me that Ron passed away. I sat down and wrote this song. These past couple years have brought us tears, heartache, sickness and pain, but Ron taught me about the joy and the peace that you can find in this broken and beautiful, gone mad and magical, awfully wonderful life."

West also announced that his sixth published book, The God Who Stays, will be released in September. In the book, West also talks about Janca's impact on his life. 


The Connections podcast: real life, real faith