If asked to sum up Jessica Reedy following my chat with her last week, I would have to abandon phrases like “industry newcomer” and “Sunday Best finalist.” While those labels describe her, they don’t define her. Throughout our conversation, only one word circled through my mind– “determined.”

Fighting a cold, Jessica seemed eager to talk with me, and to make it through a full schedule of promotional activities over the coming weeks. When I asked how she’d make it, she confidently replied “I’ll be fine. It’s probably just God getting my mind right to make sure I know it ain’t about me.”

It was this genuine humility that won the hearts of the gospel community years ago, when Jessica Reedy became a familiar name, face and voice in the second season of BET’s Sunday Best. She didn’t win the competition (she was runner-up to Y’Anna Crawley that year), but since 2009, she has managed to maintain more TV time, on-stage appearances and press opportunities than even some of gospel music’s most seasoned artists.

Still, it’s been a lesson in patience for Jessica. Crediting her manager, Phil Thornton, with keeping her grounded, she recalls  ”I thought people were going to forget about me. Phil said ‘just be patient.’ Now, it’s been two years. I didn’t win the show, but I have a highly-anticipated album. That’s God.”

“Highly-anticipated” may be an understatement. Jessica’s debut album, From the Heart (in stores Tuesday, September 27, 2011), has had fans chomping at the bit before it was even being recorded. Once she and her label,Light Records, began leaking video blogs and details about the album’s collaborators, it seems the frenzy became virtually insatiable.

The project is musically progressive– it’s not a churchy gospel album– but it is at all times about Jesus Christ. And that’s evident. When asked about the more mainstream vibe of it, Jessica unequivocally declares “that was not my intention, at all. I’m not looking to crossover– I’m doing what I do.”

Jessica’s stance, though it could make many industry execs cringe, is quite inspiring. “I’m taken care of regardless. I can’t get caught up in numbers and miss God. EJ, the same people that love you now, next week, they’re over you. I want people to be blessed by this music, but this is about me doing what God told me to do.”

“I can’t go to God and say ‘I’m sorry, God. I made 13 tracks of people-pleasing music and it didn’t work. What do I do now?’ I’m going to make the music He gave me, and I just don’t care. Every time I sing the songs, it’s as if I wrote each one of them. It’s true to who I am.”

If her resolve sounds intense and pervasive, it is. Spurred by a series of recent near-fatal events in her life and the lives of her loved ones, Jessica shares that she has resigned to trusting God with it all. Reflecting on the recent house fire that nearly took her life and the life of her young son, or the major car accident from which her son walked away uninjured, Jessica shared through tears, “I’ve got to trust Him. Imagine what life would be if He took His hands off me.”

And so, with unwavering determination, she is moving forward in her ministry and in this calling. Though she would point out that she is still in shock over all that God is doing with her, Jessica is not naive in it. “I won’t let anyone work harder than me, especially on this vision that God gave me. I’m a grown woman and I want to know my business, too.”

It seems to be light years from the wide-eyed young finalist we first met on several years ago on BET’s Sunday Best, the hit gospel talent competition that catapults virtual unknowns to household names, even if just for a time. Jessica is not nearly as critical of the show as many on social media have been– she says that its strength in the marketplace actually has little to do with sales or a launching platform. “It’s about your heart,” she says with a quiet confidence. “God put us on Sunday Best to show us our gifts and how we live them out. And our hearts determine where that goes.”

“Some people get put on the show and get cocky. They start feelin’ themselves and start knocking BET, saying ‘I hate BET, they put me in this contract…’ But it’s not about what BET does or what the audience does. We have to get past what we see and hear– we are spiritual beings,” Jessica testifies. “I thank God that I didn’t see judges or competition. I saw God and I was just grateful. And guess what? BET released me from my contract.”

Jessica’s heart of gratitude shows in every conversation I’ve had with her over the past two years. It practically consumes her. And if you think that might shift a bit because she’s got a new album, think again.

In fact, when I asked how she’s handling the droves of guys eager for a chance to date the early-twenty-something-year old, she was shocked, as if the thought had never crossed her mind. “What?! Who? Nah, they can’t get up with me, EJ,” she yells through laughter. “I’m not going through no foolishness. They have to talk to God about me– I’m not examining nobody because my judgment was way off. I got a baby. Been there, done that!”

As the gospel industry ages, everyone from execs to industry vets are referring to the coming of a “new generation of artists.” Many gifted singers are eager to enter it, but it takes a determination like Jessica’s, wrought with tenacity and resolve, to actually do so and stick around for a while. And I believe she will.

Jessica Reedy’s debut album, From the Heart, doesn’t hit stores until September 27th, but it hit iTunes a day early! Listen to snippets and buy it here: