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. It makes a - The title of Jason Gray's newest Centricity Music release, Love Will Have the Final Word, speaks of decisiveness and closure. It is heady and humbling at the same time to be so highly regarded by One so worthy. 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. This desire tells me that I’ve forgotten who I am and need reminding.
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. Andrew Peterson pointed out to me years ago that in the other parables surrounding this one, the “man” in the story was always God. 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. "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.
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