I’m not going to lie, I used to not be a fan of Carrie Underwood. When “Jesus Take The Wheel” came out, I would change the radio station every time it came on.

I transferred high schools my junior year and met a girl who ended up becoming one of my best friends, and she was Carrie’s biggest fan. We used to “argue” about who was better: Carrie Underwood or Taylor Swift. She would always side with Carrie, and I would always side with Taylor.

A few years later, when I was in college, Carrie released a song called “Something in the Water.” It wasn’t until she released this song that I openly admitted that I was a fan. There was something about that song that spoke to me. This isn’t Carrie’s first song with a Christian message (she released “Jesus Take the Wheel” in 2005), but “Something in the Water” had a different effect on me.

In the song, one of the lyrics says “Trust in someone bigger than me ever since the day that I believed. I am changed and now I’m stronger.” I think this is one of the most powerful lyrics of the whole song. The “someone bigger” is clearly a reference to God. The whole song is about baptism and how God is forgiving. I give mad props to Carrie for releasing this song because a lot of secular artists don’t openly talk about, much less, sing about their faith. “Something in the Water” was released around the same time I started going back to church, so I feel a connection to it.

Without all of the so-called “arguments” my friend and I had back in high school, I might not have had a love-hate relationship with Carrie that eventually turned into me being a fan of hers.