What "How Can It Be" means
"How Can It Be" is a song about the disorienting, almost embarrassing grace of God, the kind that finds you at your worst and does not look away. Lauren Daigle brought this song into her catalog early, and it became a signature piece precisely because it names what many believers feel but rarely say out loud: the surprise that God would choose them. The song sits in Bb and moves at a slow, deliberate 68 BPM, leaving room for the weight of the lyric to actually settle in the room. The thematic anchor is the grace of God as described in Romans 5, where Paul says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The song is asking the question every honest believer has asked, and then answering it with the cross.
What this song does in a room
Slow it down for a moment. A room singing this song is not being rallied. It is being undone. There is a difference, and it matters for how you lead this one. The question in the title is rhetorical only on the surface. Underneath it, the congregation is being given permission to acknowledge what they already know: that they are not impressive, that grace did not find them because of anything they brought, and that this is somehow the most freeing thing in the world.
The dynamic shape of this song is where Lauren Daigle's instincts show up most clearly. The verse is intimate and almost confessional. The chorus opens wide. The bridge is a pivot moment where the song stops explaining and starts declaring. When you lead this song well, the room moves from self-awareness to wonder without ever feeling manipulated. The transition from "I am broken" to "how can it be" to "you called me by name" does something that takes a room deeper than a louder arrangement could.
What this song is saying about God
The theology here is specific. God is not passive in his grace. The song does not describe a general benevolence floating in the direction of humanity. It describes a God who calls, who frees, who claims, who exchanges shame for his own righteousness. Every verb in the chorus is active. God is doing something, not simply feeling something. That distinction matters when you are leading worship, because the congregation is not being invited into a mood. They are being invited into a story in which God is the primary actor.
The song also honors the tension between worthiness and acceptance without resolving it falsely. It does not tell the congregation they were never that bad. It lets the question stand: how can it be, given who I am, that grace this large found me? And then it answers: because God said so. That is not a small theological move.
Scriptural backbone
Romans 5:8 is the beating heart of this song: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The word "while" carries everything. Not after we cleaned up, not when we were ready, not once we had enough faith to qualify. While. The song is a musical meditation on that single syllable. The grace that found you did not wait for you to become findable.
How to use it in a service
Communion. That is where this song lives most fully. The elements on the table and the lyric in the air create a kind of double witness to the same grace, and the room feels it. If you are not using it at communion, use it at the close of a gospel-centered message, or before the invitation, or at baptism services where the testimony of what grace does is already in the room.
Do not use it as an opener. This song requires something to be in play before it lands. There needs to be a reason for the question "how can it be" to feel real and not simply rhetorical. Get the room somewhere first, and then bring this song as the answer to what they have just heard.
Things to watch for as the worship leader
Bb is a comfortable key for male voices, but the top of the melody in the chorus asks for some reach. Do not drop the energy when you hit those peaks. Stay committed to the phrasing even when the note is a stretch. The congregation is following you into the lyric, and if you physically pull back they will pull back too.
The 68 BPM can feel spacious or it can feel slow, depending on how your rhythm section plays it. Brief, you want the pocket to feel intentional, not like the song is dragging. The kick drum placement and the bass line are what hold the tempo feeling alive at this pace. If those two are not locked in, the song will feel like it is searching for a pulse.
Watch your tendency to fill silence. At this tempo, the space between phrases is not dead air. It is where the lyric lands. Let the room sit in the question for a half-beat before you move. That pause is doing theological work.
A note for the team behind you (techs, vocalists, band)
Sound team: Lauren Daigle's original production is piano-forward with a lot of air around the vocal. If you are trying to honor that feel, the keys need to be up in the mix and the vocal needs clarity without being compressed too tightly. Give the reverb a slightly longer pre-delay so the vocal feels present rather than drowning in the space.
Band: the guitar parts in this song are mostly texture, not statement. If you are playing electric, less is significantly more. A clean, slightly wet tone with very spare picking will serve the song far better than a full rhythm part. The song's power is in the lyric, and a busy guitar arrangement will compete with it.
Vocalists: this is a song for your most emotionally present singer. If you have a background vocalist who gets lost in their own head, sit them out on this one. The harmonies need to come from a place of genuine weight, not technical execution. The blend should feel like a congregation, not a performance.