Marvin Sapp's latest albums, I Win (2012) and Here I Am (2010), further propelled the pastor's renown, already on a high from the 2007 crossover hit, “Never Would Have Made It,” the groundbreaking song featured in Saturday's gmc World Premiere Original Music Special: The Song That Changed My Life at 9 pm et.

Sapp’s I Win CD released in March 2012 to substantial buzz, particularly for the single dubbed “My Testimony,” which delivered the same vocal power and depth that has endeared him to audiences the world over. Here I Am, Sapp’s eighth solo album, made history as the highest-charting gospel album in history, landing at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 and selling roughly 76,000 units its first week.

For Sapp, 2010 was also a year of unfathomable loss as his wife of 15 years, MaLinda, lost her courageous battle with colon cancer. It was a battle he was convinced they’d win, right up to her very last breath.

But on September 9, 2010, the mother of his three children, his manager and business partner, his co-pastor, a licensed psychologist, and all-around partner, passed away.

Four short months later at the Stellar Awards, Sapp was named Artist of the Year and dedicated the award to his late wife, later breaking down.

In the year since MaLinda’s death, grieving took somewhat of a back seat to managing his growing Grand Rapids-based church, Lighthouse Full Life Center Church, and business investments including the opening of a full service salon/spa; touring with Verizon’s ‘How Sweet the Sound’ National Choir Competition, recording his ninth solo CD in Washington D.C.; making sure homework is done and everything else that comes with rearing his three teenagers, one of whom, Mikaila, released the book The Girl Behind the Mask at age 13.

That, he says, is how MaLinda would have wanted it.

“I always kept it moving because that's something my wife was about,” said Sapp. “That was one of the expectations for our children. That was her expectation of me. My wife died on the ninth of September. On the 10th, my children got up and went to school. I asked my 11-year-old why they were going to school, and she said, 'Well Daddy, that's what Mommy wants. She would want us to keep it moving.” For us, the best way to hold on to her memory is to keep living and keep her vision and her memory for people.

“It's a lot to be thrust on one individual,” Sapp states. “But mothers have done it for years, so it's not like it's impossible. You just have to learn how to manage and prioritize what is and what isn't important.”

What is important to the 45-year-old performer is his kids.

“My focus has really been on trying to make sure my kids are great and just really trying to gather my life together because when the person you have been with for all of your adult life ends up leaving, you really have to try to find yourself.”

What isn’t important is dwelling on the past. Instead, he has learned to channel those memories positively as with his “Marvin’s Motivational Moments,” uplifting daily insights transmitted to more than 500,000 of his fans and followers via Facebook and Twitter.

“I started doing Marvin's Motivational Moments because it was therapeutic for me right after the passing of my wife,” Sapp states. “I began to fill my wall with things MaLinda and I used to sit in bed and talk about because I couldn't sleep. It was difficult adjusting to sleeping by myself.”

He had known her for most of his life, having first met his late wife in the third grade.

“We went to high school together. We double dated for the senior prom,” he recalls. “She went with another person and I went with another person. The reason why I talk about it is because even though I'm a pastor/preacher/teacher, my wife was a psychologist by profession so it was a natural thing for my kids and me to go to counseling. That has been a major help in our process of grieving.”

It was a process.

“When my wife was first diagnosed,” Sapp reflects, “we listened to healing tapes and CDs and began to recite and quote scriptures. We did it throughout her illness and I even did it up until the time she took her last breath.

“When you are a person of faith, you don't believe in God when it looks bad, you believe God in spite of. God was showing me that he was allowing me that time to deal with my faith so that even after she had transitioned, my faith would still be intact. Although I was hurt, I believe in God now more than ever before.”

Suddenly single, gospel’s hottest-selling artist has not only had to find himself again but has found himself to be a hot commodity amongst his female fans.

“I've learned a very valuable lesson,” Sapp observes, “21st century women are very different from 20th century women. My wife and I started dating at 23. I come from a day where there was something called 'the chase.' I'm realizing now that's gone. I'm being chased now. We've had to do three restraining orders.”

It is hardly a priority for the newly single father, whose recently adopted slogan, “us four, no more” says it all.

“At this point in my life I'm just going to focus on my kids until I get them out to college or wherever. My son (Marvin II) is a senior in high school. My daughter (Mikaila) is a freshman. And I have another one in seventh grade. By the time I'm 49, I'll have an empty nest. When I'm ready I will date, but I'm in no hurry.”

As it stands, he has his hands full with ministry and music. “God has given me a platform in a very difficult season to say things that will edify the believers.”

It is the process of overcoming his grief that inspired his latest album. “It's an introspective look into my process in moving forward in my life, understanding that even though I've lost some things I'm not a loser,” Sapp says. “Most importantly that they made it through every trial, every test, every heartache, every situation and God's been there the whole time.”

Copyright 2012, watchgmctv.com. For permission to repost or reprint, click here.

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About the Writer

Lisa Collins, a Los Angeles native and resident, is a syndicated columnist, writer, publisher and former Billboard Magazine columnist. Her career in gospel began in 1988 with her creation of "Inside Gospel," a daily/weekly syndicated radio series that provided news, profiles and product updates relative to the gospel music community. For the next eight years, she would also serve as executive producer of the show that was broadcast in more than 100 markets nationwide. Collins has also served as a segment producer for BET and authored well over 300 articles on a variety of issues for a number of national publications from Essence to Upscale. Her background in the field of entertainment reporting is extensive, featuring cover stories and interviews with the likes of Richard Pryor, Michael Jackson and Prince.