Songfacts®:

• Steve Green is the son of missionaries. It therefore seemed natural that this song written by Greg Nelson and Phil McHugh which pictures hungry, hurting people who are unaware of the Christian message, would resonate with him. However, Green had a life-changing experience when he realized he'd been living a fake and phoney life, where he'd been doing the right things but with the wrong motives. He'd therefore understood his "desperate need for a Saviour" and "ran to Jesus for what He alone can provide." As a consequence, when this song was pitched to him, Green had just come through "a pretty significant life turn-around." The singer recalled to CCM Magazine presents 100 Greatest Songs In Christian Music: "It resonated for two reasons - first, because my parents had given their lives to evangelize, and their love for the people they were serving around the world was motivated by Christ's love for them; so that was definitely one of the reasons why I gravitated to the song. The other reason was that for the for the first time, I suppose, I was realizing that it isn't just those who never heard about the Lord who needed him. I knew that I was surrounded by people just like me who were living kind of an external, performance-based Christianity, but they had no light. I started thinking of us as the 'elder brothers' - those who never ran away from home but were just as lost as the prodigal."
• This tune is a popular theme song for Christian mission appeals.
• This song paved the way for Green to win his first Dove Award for Male Vocalist of the Year.