Mustard Seed Grant Project—Urantia Spiritual Songs

By Marti Garlow Leib, Tennessee, United States

Editor's Note: Marti was a recipient of the second round of Mustard Seed Grants awarded in 2024. The grant funded the recordings of three spiritual songs inspired by The Urantia Book. In this article, Marti describes her music, inspiration, and project.

With deep roots in the Nashville music scene and a lifelong devotion to The Urantia Book, I love to create songs that invite listeners into a deeper space of meaning and connection.

At the age of 17, I first came to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a music career. I connected with Marijohn Wilkin, of Buckhorn Music Publishing, Inc., who gave me a copy of The Urantia Book as a gift. I have since written many songs with spiritual messages inspired by it and was fortunate to have Marijohn invest in recording my singing many of them.

In February 2025, with the Mustard Seed Grant, I recorded the songs: “Family Love,” “Light Up the World with a Song,” and “The Life That Jesus Lived.” Each song is drawn from life experience and inspired by The Urantia Book.

My lyrics for “Family Love” reflect the component of humanity's most successful and foundational structure. Family life is the civilizer of mankind, and ideally, a manifestation of God's unending and eternal love throughout all life and creation.

“Light Up the World with a Song” is meant to reach our children at an early age, to help them grow spiritually, and to become members of the family of God.

“The Life That Jesus Lived” seeks to acquaint us with the mortal life lived by our Creator Son, Christ Michael, on this troubled and backward world. Jesus' entire life from birth until death was the perfect example of how as mortals, we can overcome our own struggles and focus on the guiding light of God's eternal love by following in his footsteps and exercising faith to overcome any obstacles and challenges that we might face. His life and how he lived it infuses us with that unending hope that will see us through the various stages and phases of life.

My songwriting connects with The Urantia Book and helps facilitate the completion of spiritual thoughts through finding the appropriate words or expressions to bring the truth to life. For me there is definitely a difference between writing a spiritual as opposed to a secular song in that faith, rather than feelings, guides my more harmonious and spiritual thoughts.

The struggles of my life since becoming a devout truth seeker have been more meaningful and insightful. I have grown in ways that I never imagined possible, especially with a new understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus as they are revealed in The Urantia Book. I have come to believe that songs, when accepted as harmonious truth in action, can be transformative to the individual soul, and I am tremendously privileged to share my experience with others.

You can enjoy listening to these songs on truthbook.com. Just scroll down and find them under Artists Inspired by The Urantia Book.