Pittman has a voice that gives you goose bumps.  You really can't listen to Megan Pittman's "Parable" in the hustle and bustle of picking up your child from baseball practice and a grocery stop at Walmart.  This is also not an album you can blast off the speakers at a party either.  Rather, this is an album reserved for the tender sacred hours of the morning when the sun is just rising and you have nothing but a Bible and a note pad in your hand.  And when Pittman's voice comes over the speakers, you can feel shimmers all across your body as Pittman pierces us with emotions that are so palatably raw. "Parable" weighs in with a labyrinth of emotions as Pittman deals with some hefty issues of life we have had all wrestled with at one time or another.  Like a beloved sister-in-Christ, Pittman offers us her vocal companion when we are at an emotional loss at the times when we feel like God's ways seem to contradict human wisdom.  And she quietly comes to our side to comfort us during the times we feel like God seems to be gagged by the evilness of the world.  Calling to mind Sara Groves and Nicole Nordeman, Pittman's music is never about volume and pomp.  Rather, it's through her gentle guitar-driven balladry drones where she is the most effective; and it's through her soft vocal nuances where she wins our hearts.

Hailed from Stephenville, Texas, Pittman grew up in a family of 6.  Also at 6 she came to know Christ and she began singing at age 9.  She later became involved in ministry first as a youth minister and then a worship pastor.  "Parable" is apparently her debut record where she single-handedly crafted all the ten tracks (save for a co-write).  Currently she is a stay at home mom-to-be expecting her first child in January.  Maybe it's because of her pregnancy, as soon as she utters her first words of album opener "I Will Wait," you can immediately feel the distance between her and us lifted.  You could swear she has read your diary when she sings with such sheer sensitivity what our hearts couldn't articulate: "Lord, how can I believe/ All that You've said contradicts all I see/It goes against common sense, but man's wisdom is foolishness/When things aren't going my way, the last thing that I want to do is remain/Impulsiveness usually wins and I force my way again."

You can never accuse Pittman of plagiarism. Bearing its own unique character is the inimitable "Speak to Me," where a serpentine Eastern sounding strings form the backing of this jaunty ballad about Pittman yearning to hear God's voice.  With surrendering to the sovereignty of God as its theme, the folk-ish "Your Ways" finds Pittman never flinching with an iota of skepticism in God's absolute goodness.  While the title cut "Parable" is in a class of its own.  Never for once mention the word "parable," the song actually sets to music the parable Jesus told in Matthew 25 about not keeping our talents to ourselves but to lavish them on the work of the Kingdom.  What makes "Parable" works is that it takes Jesus' story and dresses it up in today's contemporary parlance which really strikes a chord in those of us who are reticent to risk for the sake of the Gospel.

Yet, the best song on the set is "Mighty Warrior." Granted that there are many worship songs that have utilized the motif of spiritual warfare before, Pittman's attention is not so much on bravado side of war; rather, her emphasis is more on how we as vulnerable humane targets can find refuge under God's protection. This explains her tenderness approach to this sublime ballad. However, if there's a tooth to pick, it's that the album is too heavy on the ballads.  "If Love," for instance, has a beat percolating beneath its balladry surface that could certainly add to the album's diversity if it were allowed to drive the song's tempo.  Nevertheless, Pittman's "Parable" is a powerful record; yet its power is not derivative upon the song's loudness but it is latent in the song's God-focused lyrics.  And all of this is made even touching with Pittman's vulnerability and sheer honesty.