The idea is voiced in the song "If You Want to Love Someone", and in Gray's ability to speak into the cracks in people's souls. Instead, Gray clings to an idea expressed in a quote by Keith Miller: "The way to love someone is to lightly run your finger over that person's soul until you find a crack, and then gently pour your love into that crack." But here's where Gray is different: he recognizes that sometimes it's just not adequate to declare to someone, in the midst of their shame or their challenging circumstances, that if they'll just trust in Jesus, everything will be OK. Ultimately, that's the theme of the album: the redeeming power of love. God's part in the story is, He comes to the garden, He draws closer, He comes looking for us, calling us by name, in order to draw us out of our hiding places and make sacrifices necessary to cover our nakedness and to assure us that there's a way back home."
We are the ones who hide our presence from him. We are the ones who withdraw out of fear and shame. What does God do? God comes to the garden looking for them, calling their name. "Then they become afraid, and then they hide. "They become aware of their vulnerability, their nakedness, and they become ashamed," Gray observes. The new album's anthem As I Am retells the emotions of Adam and Eve in the Garden, after they've sinned. Shame is a daunting and hopeless word, but it doesn't have to be. "But I found," Gray says, "that it was harder for people to believe that about their own failure, their own shame, and I thought, man, if the Gospel's not true there, then it's not true anywhere." People are hungry to believe that when bad things happen, God is in it, that the experience won't be wasted. It was in the response to one of those songs that speaks hope into our trials – "Nothing is Wasted" – that Gray noticed something important. Through songs like "All the Lovely Losers" and "Remind Me Who I Am", he's been vulnerable, honest, and trustworthy in making music that ministers. Maybe that's why so many are drawn to Gray's music. But God, the Champion of the lost cause, chose Gray to become a living, breathing, stuttering example of His strength in our weakness. Like Moses arguing with God over his effectiveness as a communicator, Gray naturally resisted the call to ministry through music. As a child, Gray developed a speech handicap. That success and exposure is a testimony to the power of music and an artist willing to be used by God. His 2012 release, A Way To See In The Dark, was named Album of the Year by critics and garnered three top-five radio singles, including Nothing is Wasted, which hit No. The Minnesota native is steadily drawing legions of fans who recognize his ability to connect with listeners on an emotional level, offering not escape or distraction, but healing and hope.
Jason Gray has emerged as a songwriter of extraordinary depth, with a noteworthy ability to convey deep theological truths in engaging three-and-a-half minute songs. It's an album that knows when to show empathy, when to give advice, and when to just come alongside and grieve. It's an album that recognizes our loneliest of lows and our most hopeful highs. This is an album that bravely avoids trite and simple platitudes thrown at our very real and complex circumstances. It's those ups and downs, though, that are the tricky part, and this soul-stirring collection of music speaks directly and powerfully to our present reality.
And it's true: we live in the assurance that through all of our ups and downs, the ultimate victoryhas been won for us, and Love has spoken.
It's a statement of confidence and determination. CBN.com - The title of Jason Gray's newest Centricity Music release, Love Will Have the Final Word, speaks of decisiveness and closure.
0 kommentar(er)
