My new record released three weeks ago, and one week ago I was honored to be able to share the new songs with a CD release concert in Nashville at the Hutchmoot – a gathering of some of my favorite people in the world, The Rabbit Room community.

My friend Breann Stephens was there and wrote a generous and articulate review of the show that she’s agreed to let me share with you. Thank you Breann for highlighting the best of what we can hope for in a musical gathering – an intersection where our different stories can meet and mingle and where, by grace, spaces are created for the Holy Spirit to speak.

Jason Gray A Way to See in the Dark Release Concert
September 23, 2011
Breann Stephens

Fear creeps as a creature in the night.

Two times in one week, the burglary alarm sounded. Both times, police arrived, investigated, and left with no definitive answer as to what set the alarm blaring. Now, I lie awake at night, acutely aware of every sound, wondering what danger may lurk in the shadows. I lock every door, secure all valuables, and keep my phone nearby. My possessions remain intact, but I have been pilfered. There is no sign of forced entry, but an intruder has come. The thief’s name is Fear.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full (John 10:10).

There, in the still of the night, a different voice whispers. It’s the voice of the Good Shepherd who calls his own sheep by name, the one who lays down his life and has the power to take it up again. It’s the whisper of Christ.

On September 13^th, Jason Gray released his latest studio project, A Way to See in the Dark. Last Friday, I had the privilege of attending the CD release show at Church of the Redeemer in Nashville, TN. This concert was to me a whisper of Christ.

The evening began at the end  with the song, “The End of Me.” It’s okay. This is just the end. Don’t be afraid. This is where it begins. “The worst thing is not the last thing,” as Frederick Buechner wrote, “It is the next to last thing.” It is when we come to the end of ourselves that new life opens, a life marked with peace, hope, joy, and love. Thus, the concert began with an invitation. It was an invitation to trust, an invitation to hope in Christ’s presence, his love, and his victory.

The presence of Christ descended in song, story, and the sacred sharing of earthly space that Friday night. His was the mouth that spoke, “Do not be afraid.” His was the hand that gathered, held, and provided. His was the ear that heard both our cries and our gratitude. His was the name as intimate as the sound of our breathing. His was the shoulder big enough to bear the weight of our fear.

In “No Thief Like Fear,” Jason encouraged us to use an angry voice to sing the chorus. The song became a naming, a place where we were given permission to direct our anger at the one who “robs me blind right before my eyes.” The riotous beginning of the song gave way to gentleness as we were reminded of a deeper truth, I am free, I am free, oh my God has rescued me. From these chains I am released for my God has set me free.

Perhaps there is no greater promise of God’s presence than in the name, “Emmanuel,” God with us. Jason introduced, “I Will Find a Way” saying, “This might be a song about a girl or a guy you know, or it might even be about you.” God’s determination to live among us was beautifully manifest in the words, “I found a way.” When we couldn’t find the strength to come, Christ came to us, and he’s coming still.

Joy to the world. The Lord is come. This Christmas Hymn, “Joy to the World” was attached to the end of, “Everything Sad is Coming Untrue (part 1)” If Advent whispers Christ’s presence, then the Crucifixion whispers his love, and the Resurrection, his victory. How fitting then that, Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection came together in this one song at the center of the set list.

Perhaps the most powerful realization of Christ’s love and victory came when Jason sang over us asking, “What are you afraid of? What are you ashamed of?” The music played and images emerged in my mind – an allergic reaction to a wasp sting, a worksheet covered in red ink, pointed fingers and laughter, a hospital bed and the words “brain tumor,” a tornado torn town, disappointment, failure, rejection, loneliness, and loss. These images were the toes of a terrible monster, one that bellows, “You are alone. You are unloved. Death has the final say.” We joined in a cry for ourselves and our brothers and sisters in the room, “Break every chain.” And, in the face of a greater truth, the monster of fear loosed its hold. It recoiled, then dissolved.

The next two songs (“Remind Me Who I Am” and “I Am New”) were reminders that fear and shame do not define us; our identity is in Christ. Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1). We are the beloved of Christ, and that is enough.

What better answer can we give to Christ’s presence, love, and victory than gratitude?  And so the concert came to a close as we lifted our voices and sang, “Thank You, thank You, Jesus, we are grateful.”

I’ll write more later – I’m excited to share some of the reviews and interviews that are coming in. But for now, I will sleep. After I remind you that the new album is available on itunes as well as my online store.

Okay, now… I…… will…….. sleep…………

The Rabbit Room is hosting a listening party on release day, posting a song every hour starting at 9 AM with my running on commentary on them (and hopefully yours, too!)  I’d love to have you join us and let us know what you think of the songs.

I also posted a new blog there called “Little Faith” about my misadventures in faith healing. You can read that here: http://www.rabbitroom.com/2011/09/little-faith/

Thanks for checking in!  Don’t forget you can order the new CD in my store and also now on iTunes

I hope you can join us for the listening party!

I’m also grateful for the fun stuff we’ve gotten to do in anticipation of the record’s release, and I thought I’d share some of that with you here.  We’re doing a series of short videos called “Song Diaries” and two of them are already posted for you.

The first one offers a candid (and humorous) look at life in the Gray household as well as a preview of what many people are calling their favorite song from the new record:
Song Diaries – Good To Be Alive

The other is an intimate conversation about what the song “Remind Me Who I Am” means to me:
Song Diaries – Remind Me Who I Am

And if you missed it, here’s the official video for “Remind Me Who I Am”:

I also got to be a part of my record label’s comical “Centricity U” series – short webisodes intended to introduce the new singles by all their artists.  They’re really funny and you may want to watch all of them for context (and stay tuned for the grand finale in the coming weeks!), but here are the two I got to be a part of:

Thank you may I have another:

Thanks for watching – if you enjoyed them, please share them with others! Word of mouth is still the best help and I’m grateful for it.

My mother recently told me about a moving moment from the T.V. show “America’s Got Talent.” She told me about this eleven-year-old girl, small in stature and unassuming, who blew the celebrity judges away with her amazing performance and won their highest praise. Backstage, she was asked why this was such an exciting and emotional moment for her.

She replied, “Well, it’s that these amazing people think I’m good, too.”

To be highly regarded by somebody important to you: it’s heady and humbling at the same time. For a moment at least, it silences the voice of fear that is always making a case for our unworthiness. You feel seen. It can make a difference.

Today marks the release of the first radio single from my upcoming record, A Way To See In The Dark. The song is called “Remind Me Who I Am” and has an origin story that might interest Rabbit Roomers.

For the last few years my journey has circled around the idea of identity, where we find it, and why it matters. Our resident expert on the issue of identity here in the Rabbit Room is Ron Block, whose posts and comments are fragrant with the hope of the new creation alive and available to each of us. He knew something that I want to know, and so I wanted to talk with him.

It had been on my mind to give him a call for several months already when, sitting on a plane in Seattle one night in January, I watched him board. Not only is Ron a really kind and intelligent guy, but he also happens to be in one of the most accomplished bands in the world, Alison Krauss’s Union Station. Heck, he even made an appearance in one of my favorite movies: “Oh Brother Where Art Thou”. So when he spotted me, smiled, and said “I’m sitting by you!” I guess I felt a little like the girl from America’s Got Talent – “Ron Block wants to sit by me?” I thought to myself.

It all had the whiff of a divine appointment, and thanks to Southwest Airline’s open seating policy, Ron was soon seated next to me and for the next three hours I got an education that brought some clarity to my understanding of myself and the way the human heart works. Much of what inspired this song grew from that conversation.

The idea I absorbed in my formative years was that I sin because of my willful disobedience. And while that may be true in part, another truth is that most, if not all, of the time I really don’t want to sin, so that I do so seemingly against my own will. Or as the apostle Paul famously said, “I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway…” ( The Message)

So sin begins to look more like addiction than anything else, as though there is a ravenous hunger deep inside of me that demands to be fed. What is that hunger, I wonder?

Genesis chapter three tells us that one of the first consequences of sin entering the world is that the ground would be cursed, that we would eat by the sweat of our brow and the soil would produce weeds and thistles. This carries in it the idea of futility: that our efforts are frustrated, that no matter what we do, we feel it’s never enough – that perhaps we are never enough.

The constant, nagging fear that we don’t and never will measure up is like a pebble in our shoe that troubles every step of our journey. Surely this is the curse.

We can’t live under the oppression of inadequacy long before we start looking for ways to escape the shame and loneliness of it, and things go from bad to worse as we flee from the curse by running to things we hope will make us feel loved, desirable, and worthy.

We run to affairs. We surround ourselves with symbols of status that we hope will convince us of our worth. We escape into the fantasy world of pornography where for a moment we can imagine ourselves desired and wanted with no risk of rejection. We flee to workaholism determined to prove our value – our life and vocation shaped by a fear of failing. We hide in the bottle. We turn inward and refuse to risk disappointing those we love by withholding ourselves from them.

But of course all of these desperate grabs for significance leave us worse off than we were before — more empty, more ashamed, and with more regret.

If only we could learn to run to Christ, the one who calls us his beloved, his bride, the child that he chose to welcome into his family. We would hear him tell us that we are enough because he says so. We would hear him call us his treasure, and we would come alive.

There is that parable where Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God being like a man who, having found a treasure in a field, sold everything he had in order to buy the field and gain the treasure. I was always taught that I was the man in the story who needed to give up everything in order to “gain” the Kingdom of God. But our own Andrew Peterson pointed out to me years ago that in the other parables surrounding this one, the “man” in the story was always God. What if God cast himself as the man in this parable, too? Is he the one who gave everything he had in Jesus in order to recover us? Could it be that we are God’s treasure?

When I’m tempted by sin these days, I can feel beneath it a desire to feel worthy and loved. This desire tells me that I’ve forgotten who I am and need reminding. I’m learning to run to the only one who can tell me, the One who carved my name in the palm of his hand and gave everything he had so I could be his.

It is heady and humbling at the same time to be so highly regarded by one so worthy. It makes a difference.

Get “Remind Me Who I Am” instantly for free when you pre-order the full new record, A Way To See In The Dark, at www.jasongraymusic.com – available in standard and a deluxe edition with 8 bonus songs and a 32 page devotional booklet

“Remind Me Who I Am” is also available on iTunes! Here’s the link

Listen to the song here:

Also, with the release of my remix project, Song Cycles, it seemed like a good opportunity to revisit and remix (meaning update, edit, add to, etc.) some thoughts about the ideas behind “More Like Falling In Love” that I wrote when the song first released.  Two are posted with more to come (and they’ve sparked some lively discussion!).  You can read them here: http://www.rabbitroom.com/author/jasongray/

I’ve gotten back early mixes of ten of the twelve songs from the upcoming record and I’m really grateful for how it’s all coming together.  Two of the mixes are approved with minor edits being done on the other eight – I’m excited for you to hear them! The first single to be released to radio has been determined – it’s a song called “Remind Me Who I Am” – and should be available as a single on itunes sometime in June.  I’ll also be heading to Nashville soon to make a music video for it!  I’m working on my spray tan as I write ;- )

We’re also working on putting together another Special Edition of the new record with goodies and extras and probably an extended booklet with devotional style thoughts behind each of the songs, much like we did with Everything Sad Is Coming Untrue.  I love that kind of thing and am grateful Centricity is into providing that for my fans as much as I am. We hope you like it, too :- )

That’s all for now, thanks for checking in.  It will be a busy few months for me as we try to wrap up everything for this project for it’s September release!  After that, I head out on tour with my labelmates Downhere and Aaron Shust who both have new albums releasing this Fall, too.  Should be a good time.

Thanks for tuning in, I’m so grateful.

Jason Gray

Seven Stanzas at Easter
John Updike

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body.
If the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the
amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the
eleven apostles;
it was as his flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that – pierced – died, withered, paused, and then regathered out of
enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a thing painted in the faded credulity
of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier mache,
not stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of time will
eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in the
dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not make it less monstrous,
for in our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour,
we are embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

My new EP, Song Cycles – featuring some compelling remixes by Derek Webb, released this week! I wrote a blog about this special project here: http://bit.ly/e25ttG and there’s also a great review of it here: http://bit.ly/e2GcaS You can get it in my webstore and iTunes, among other places that sell music on the web.