Interview with Jason Gray - Part 2 [Gourmet Music Report #31]

Jason Gray's new CD is possibly the best album title of the year. "Everything Sad is Coming Untrue" is inspired by a line in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" - but that phrase also accurately reflects God's redemptive work around us. Let's continue the conversation we started with Jason Gray:

DT: What is the major theme of the new CD "Everything Sad is Coming Untrue"?
JG: Since my last album was about the virtues of weakness, a part of what we wanted to explore with this album was the idea of confession. As long as we continue to try to hide our weakness from each other it gains more power over us. It's not until we bring it into the light and confess our weaknesses, "our sins one to another," that we find healing. It's oftentimes in the church and among other believers that we learn how to perfect hiding our sins from each other and so in part I wanted to explore this on my new album.

DT: Tell me about the song "The Things We Hold Back".
JG: Oh wow! Thanks for asking me about that! I think it's one of my best songs I've ever written and I released it on an indie album back in 2000. I was always proud of that song. It never seemed to connect with my audience the way I hoped it would, but when we were doing "Acoustic Storytime," it's a very acoustic guitar song, I thought I should bring that out again see if it has a chance to reconnect. So I'm grateful that you asked me about that. It's a song about how our lives can be defined either by fear or courage and about what we lose when we allow our lives to be driven by our fears and insecurity. It shrinks our life, things that we hold back on, whereas I believe that almost every time we act courageously it expands our life - makes our life bigger.

DT: You share a lot about weakness and brokenness. How has God worked in your life in this area?
JG: The strong, we applaud their strength, their impressiveness. The weak, we always stand and wonder about what God accomplishes in their lives. He gets the most glory through weak people, so if you feel that you are weak or damaged or broken, whether its depression or addiction or handicap or failure, be encouraged and be expectant because you are exactly who God is looking for. When we bring Him our weaknesses, the worst that hell has thrown our way to destroy our lives, we bring it to Him and He redeems it and He turns it around and uses it to build His kingdom. So be encouraged.

Jason Gray is our special guest on Under The Radar episode #45. Listen on demand at RadarRadio.net.