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Jason Gray



Last Updated: 12/18/2009

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Status: Single
State: Minnesota
Country: US
Signup Date: 1/25/2006

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Friday, October 23, 2009 

Category: Music
Whew! What a great time we had out on the road with Sanctus Real, Phil Wickham, and Addison Road.  I’m still recovering and catching up on sleep, but wanted to blog here about some highlights:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. And even again: I’ve never encountered a kinder, more humble group of guys than Sanctus Real.  Not a bad apple in the bunch.  Every one associated with them is kind and sweet spirited: their sound/merch guy Kurt, their management, even their bus driver.  It was a joy to be with them.
Due to economic conditions, the company sending the tour out had to cancel the buses that were supposed to transport us.  Thank God that days earlier, Sanctus Real had a chance to buy their own bus for a steal of a price, making it possible for us to be on a bus and get some sleep between shows while we traveled to the next date.
Since it was a new bus for them, they kept apologizing that it didn’t have the usual amenities that a bus will normally have like satellite TV and on board internet, etc.  But I’ll tell you that it was the best bus experience I’ve had because of the lack of these things.  No TV meant we had to learn to entertain ourselves, and the lack of internet was hard at first because normally we would be working on web stuff every spare moment, but not having it forced all of us to talk to each other, and there were so many good and life-giving conversations that happened because of the absence TV and internet.   It also freed up time for us to write songs.
At some point while you’re reading this, you can check out my photo gallery from the tour at: http://jasongraymusic.com/#/sanctustourpics
Let me tell you about the guys:
Chris, who drove the bus for much of the tour, was always making sure we were cared for and that the bus was clean for us.  Taya asked him how he was doing with the added responsibility of the driving through the night and he said, “I love it, in fact I think of all the things I’ve brought to the band, I might be best at this.”  I would disagree with him about it being the best thing he brings to the band, but I love his servant attitude.  And he’s a great driver, too!  We never felt a curve while he was at the wheel.  He also gave me one of my favorite compliments on the tour when he told me we would have been great friends in high school.  If you’ve seen Chris, especially on stage, you know he looks like a rock star.  But his attitude is anything but that of a rock star.  Early on I wondered if I’d be intimidated around him, but he has a great way of putting people at ease.  One of my favorite memories from the tour was when his wife and son were at the show and his wife seated their little boy on stage right in front of Chris.  Watching him stare wide-eyed in wonder at his dad during their set was a beautiful thing to behold.
It’s hard for me to relate to you what I loved about Pete and Dan because there’s so much… One of my favorite memories is how Pete loaned me his PJs (or as I like to call them, Pete Js). The Sanctus guys all have a thing where they like to wear PJ pants on the bus to wind down after the show. In fact, I think they gave each other new PJs pants last Christmas. Not wanting me to feel left out, Pete loaned me his rodeo PJs with little cowboys on them.  We’d sit on the bus with our PJs after a show telling stories and laughing til the early morning hours.  It was good to laugh.  And though there are difficult and discouraging realities while being on the road, it’s hard to feel too down when you’re wearing rodeo PJs.
Pete and Dan made me laugh more than anyone else.  Pete is the master of the well-placed Nacho Libre quote.  And his enthusiasm for life is infectious and he cares deeply about things: food, music, etc.  He introduced Taya and I to the best Indian food we’ve ever had. But best of all he’s very generous spirited and has a way of making you feel like you’re the coolest person he knows.  And Dan is one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met.  I told him I didn’t like him because he’s funnier than I am, but that’s not entirely true. He is funnier than me, but I do like him, a lot.  He’s been through some difficult experiences, but there’s not a trace of bitterness in him.  Pete, Dan, and I were invariably the last ones to bed.  We had 3 birthday parties on this tour complete with bad teeth, “champ” necklaces, army action figures, and Chinese yoyos.  The yoyos were the big hit and hours were spent perfecting our yoyo aim.  Pete even set up an obstacle course with the army guys who we’d attack with our yoyos.  (check out the pictures).  More than anyone else, these guys were my “buddies” and I was always seeking out their company.  We laughed a lot.
Mark is maybe the humblest and most sweet spirited of them all, which is saying a lot.  He’s the quiet one and it seems to me to be the most sensitive.  I’d always catch him quietly taking care of things or people that we had accidentally overlooked. My favorite thing was to pray with him, because his prayers were sweet and prayed with great conviction, and often tears.  Sometimes I would corner him to have him pray for me before I went on stage.
And of course Matt. I’ve always been grateful for the way he invested himself in the song we wrote last Spring “Jesus Use Me I’m Yours”.  Matt is very kind and obviously very gifted.  I get the impression he doesn’t realize how gifted he is, which is probably a good thing. He was under a lot of pressure during this tour because they have to make a new record and he’s a few songs short of what they need.  The pressure to deliver songs is immense, especially when the record label wants that “hit”.  Add to this that he turned 30 on this tour – a birthday that is a mile-marker for most, but especially anyone I’ve known who is in the music biz.  We had some great conversations about not only our vocation and it’s inherent challenges, but about life, marriage, joys, disappointment, and gratitude.  Matt really cares about other people and about representing Christ well in all he says and does. Taya and I enjoyed watching him as he would go out of his way to make sure that whoever was hosting us was properly honored.  I remember a day when the food option wasn’t very good and Matt was tortured about how the promoter might feel disrespected if we chose something else to eat.  It’s just a small thing, but it’s this kind of care that extends beyond himself to everyone else around him that makes him a good and admirable man.
I could say as much about Addison Road and Phil Wickham, too, though we weren’t with them as much as Sanctus, and I'm afraid I'm running out of space as it is, but all in all everybody involved in this tour were people who love Jesus with their whole lives and take their vocation very seriously, as worship they offer back to God.
Some of my favorite memories:
The three birthday parties for Pete, Taya, and Matt, especially watching grown adults act like 3rd grade children whenever they had a Chinese yoyo in hand.
When commiserating over the financial challenges that go along with our profession, Smokey (the lighting guy) sharing that his dad always told him: “Money won’t make you happy, it’s the stories you get to tell.”
“Free Shot!”
Getting to watch a great concert every night of the tour.
Knowing the difference it made when 402 of the poorest children of the world were sponsored through World Vision during the tour.
Matt telling Taya while watching a volleyball tournament wrap up in the gym before we could hall in our gear. “I’m just going to imagine for a moment that one of these girls is my daughter and pretend I have a normal life where I get to come and watch a volleyball game on a Saturday afternoon…”
Finding friends who appreciate the brilliance of Nacho Libre even more than we do.
Getting to write with Sanctus Real.
Having real conversations about the big questions.
Enjoying the whole crew – thanks Smokey, Zac, Brian, Danny, Brooks, and Stephanie!
Laughing more than I have in a long time…
Thanks everybody!
Check out my tour photo gallery here:  http://jasongraymusic.com/#/sanctustourpics
Currently reading:
Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana
By Anne Rice
Release date: 2008-03-04
9:47 PM 
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Friday, October 23, 2009 

Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

where_the_wild_things_are03I wrote a response to a review in The Rabbit Room about "Where The Wild Things Are" movie that turned out longer and more thorough than I intended - in fact, long enough to almost be a review itself! - and since this is a film that a lot of people are talking about, I thought I'd post it here, too.  If I were doing an actual review, I would probably have even gone a little more in-depth, but I'll leave it at this.  For context, you can see the video review I'm responding to here.

I LOVE your reviews, and not to be contradictory, but we took our kids to it, including our 6 year old, and he was rapt with attention. And it wasn’t too scary for him either. I think the PG rating is right on the money and I didn’t even think it was that dark. So for those wondering if you should take your kids, I would say that it depends on the kids.
The movie rarely if ever told us what to think or how to feel, and gave us few cues except for a couple times with the music, and so it requires more of you than we’ve come to expect from “family” movies. It’s definitely not escapist entertainment… But however you want to classify it, our little Gus - age 6 -loved it. Our 13 year old twins loved it, too. I can think of some kids I wouldn’t take to it, though, who might be a little more sensitive and be disturbed by the Wild Things - they are a group of monsters, after all.
I was dissatisfied with the ending… and then I realized it was because I wanted some kind of more definite redemption. I at least wanted the boy to say he was sorry. The last scene is very haunting because I feel like it resists falling into either ditch of weak sentimentality or trying to leave us with a moral lesson of some sort. The scene, like most of the film, just is what it is -and is there not to preach to us, but for us to wrestle with and bring our own experience to it. At least that’s how I experienced it.
I think there is only one instance of an apology in the film, and it’s only to the creature that Max most identifies with - Alexander, one who feels picked on and not listened to. It’s interesting because I think the monster Carol is the creature most like Max - temperamental, given to selfish fits of rage, unrepentant - but it’s Alexander, the weakest of the wild things, that Max identifies with the most because Max also feels not listened to, impotent, and bullied. The fact that Max is more inclined to see himself in the victim Alexander than the bully Carol, though the Alexander suffered at the hands of Max’s bullying, further demonstrated to me the self-centered nature of childhood that the film is exploring.
So many times during the film the difficult things could have simply been remedied with an apology, and yet nobody was willing to apologize. Their unrepentance multiplied the very sadness that they hoped to banish. I was annoyed with this through most of the film, but then I realized that this part of the movie rings true and that it was probably very intentional. As a parent, I’m always having to help my kids learn to say “sorry” - learning to say sorry is so hard, isn’t it? Even for adults. Maybe especially for adults. So at the end of the movie when Max fails to verbally say he’s sorry, the parent in me was internally bugged by this… mostly because I wished the mother had made him apologize, to help him learn respect for others, etc… but I think it’s better that Spike Jonze didn’t do this - I think it makes a for a truer film and it’s faithful to the book, which also always bugged me because it was the story of a naughty kid sent to his room without dinner who in the end gets his dinner anyway without every having to apologize.
But the very fact that this story wasn't offered to us as a lesson to learn led to some great conversations during the drive home with our boys - conversations that wouldn’t have happened if the movie had wrapped everything up as a morality tale with a ribbon around it. The way it is, since it never really tells us how to feel about it, doesn’t let us close the book on it as if to say, “okay, I get what that was all about, so now I can move on…” We’re all still talking and thinking about it today.
Many parts in the film drove me deep into memories of my own childhood, like when the monster Carol describes his sadness by likening it to the trauma of losing your teeth: “You know how it feels when all your teeth are falling out really slowly … and then one day you don’t have any teeth anymore? It kind of feels like that” - I had forgotten how psychologically distressing it was to lose my teeth!  And yet we are expected to deal with these kinds of things as children.
Or even the experience of running, running, and having so much fun when all of a sudden you get hurt and the drama that comes out of processing those extreme feelings: exhilaration, anger, embarrassment.  The movie hits the mark in terms of recreating what it feels like to be a child. If nothing else, I think the movie is asking “what do you do with your feelings when you’re old enough to have fears and yet don’t know what to do with them.” The end of the world, powerlessness, isolation, rejection… it’s all in there.
So even if the movie may not have been intellectually coherent to my kids, or even me for that matter, I think it was instinctually coherent. My 6 year old Gus is losing his first tooth, and I watched him connect with the aforementioned scene… For anyone who knows our family, though, you’d know that Gus is a bit of Wild Thing himself.
Anyway, just wanted to throw my 2 cents in and encourage some parents who might be wondering if they should take their kids - it depends on your kids. And even if you wonder if they might get bored, at the very least the film offers unforgettable images and can lead to good post-movie discussions. I’ve never seen a film like it.
Currently reading:
Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana
By Anne Rice
Release date: 2008-03-04
5:47 PM 
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009 

Category: Music
Three of my friends released really cool new records this week that you should check out:

Thad Cockrell, “To Be Loved” – warm, hymnlike, tunes with elegant and honest lyrics. Part Paul Simon, part Ryan Adams, part Daniel Lanois. Don’t miss this record, it’s a treasure you’ll return to over and over. (Thad is one of my favorite writers, I wrote “When The Sun Falls From Your Sky” that’s on the Special Edition of my new CD) Get it at iTunes or http://thadcockrell.com

Phil Wickham, “Heaven And Earth” – I fell in love with Phil (in a brotherly way : -) when he was out with us at the beginning of this tour. This record is full of amazing vibe, it has a great production value. Modern pop/rock worship from one of the most passionate vocalists in Christian music. iTunes or http://www.philwickham.com.

Downhere, “How Many Kings” – Well, if you followed me the last several years, you know I’ve done 4 tours with these guys and that I love them like brothers. Following the success of their Christmas song, How Many Kings, they decided to make a whole Christmas record. It’s full of what you’d come to expect from them – solid pop/rock with beautiful melodies and amazing voices to sing them. It’s also they’re most playful record. iTunes or http://www.downhere.com
4:00 AM 
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009 

Category: Music
Check out "10 Questions With Jason Gray" this week at All Access - http://www.allaccess.com/christian/10-qu..estions
9:28 PM 
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Monday, October 12, 2009 

Category: Life
It's been rewarding to read people's stories of God making sad things "untrue" for the Jesus Freak Hideout contest. Here's one of the latest:http://mwcrim.blogspot.com/2009/10/every..thing-sad-is-coming-untrue.html

There's still one more day to enter for a drawing to receive an uber deluxe package of the new CD! To enter, go here:http://jesusfreakhideout.com/contests/co..ntest3.aspx
4:16 AM 
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Sunday, October 11, 2009 

Category: Life
I just read a blog that really moved me and that I thought readers here might be interested in. It’s an exploration of the idea of everything sad coming untrue where the writer simply references literature, music, scripture, and a tree. It’s simple and beautiful and I was grateful to be included in it. I think you’ll be moved by it as well:

http://sweetsojourn.wordpr..ess.com/2009/10/09/everyth..ing-sad-is-coming-untrue/
5:28 AM 
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Saturday, October 03, 2009 

Category: Music

“Mom, Dad, I had a freaky awesome birthday!” Gus said Thursday morning, and they were the sweetest words we could’ve hoped to hear.  We flew home from the tour for a couple of days to spend some time with the boys and throw Gus a birthday party.  He turned 6 on the 23rd of September, but he’s young enough that we all pretended that his birthday was on the 30th since that’s when we could make it home.  We got everybody in on the conspiracy, forbidding all family members to call him on the 23rd.  We felt a little guilt over all this, but it was the right thing to do – no harm, no foul, right?


On Saturday we wrapped up the first half of the Something Heavenly Tour to a great crowd in Austin, TX.  It was Phil Wickham’s last day on the tour, so me and Pete (from Sanctus Real) came up with some impromptu hi-jinx.  During my opening set, I was prepping the audience by making a big deal about how this was a “big night” for us because we were saying goodbye to Phil.  Then during Phil’s set Pete and I carried out a giant statue of a knight that we found backstage - complete with a sword - and stood it up behind Phil. I took the mic and said, “see, it’s like I said: It’s a big night… so we decided to bring out a… well… I suppose it’s obvious…”


Phil was playing a beautiful set of worship music, making it hard for Pete and I to find the right moment to bring out the knight.  We didn’t want to kill the vibe… but eventually we found a good moment and seized it.


The Big Knight made another appearance later when it was brought out center stage in front of the mic for Sanctus Real’s encore song, “We Need Each Other” – Pete and Dan even did guitar solos with the knight.  Meanwhile, Phil and I decided we should crash the party by taking to the stage on the Zappy scooter that was backstage. We figured out how to get us both on there, with Phil in the front and me behind him holding on… we tried to make it look as awkward and ridiculous as we could… and we rode out on the stage, riding in circles around Dan and Pete, stopping to lean in and sing with Matt before cruising off stage again.  It was a fitting end to our time with Phil.


I had taken to introducing Phil each night something like this: “you guys are going to love Phil, he’s great, as an artist yes, but even more so as a person…  I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to like him. I had kind of hoped he might be a jerk…” this was always followed by nervous laughter in the crowd, which was perfect… “I mean, he’s one of the cool kids – he looks cool, he sings really cool, he dresses cool, his guitar playing is cool… and it’s always kind of hard to like someone that cool, you know?  So I was kind of hoping he’d be a jerk or something, but dang it… he’s even cooler as a person.  So I’m getting over my disappointment and I’ve grown to love this guy, and I know you will, too.”


It was a pleasure working with Phil.  He’s one of the sincerest and purest hearted people I’ve met in a long time. It’s clear that he’s deeply in love with Jesus. Worship music usually leaves me cold, but Phil is a gifted worship leader and it was a blessing to worship with him. And off stage… he’s very gracious and so positive.  I’d like to think that I’m pretty positive and find fulfillment in finding the best in any situation, but the last few weeks I’ve been pretty grumpy.  Taya and I have been running since early June when we went to Asia, and have had only a day or two here and there to take a breath.  I think the cumulative effect of all the demands on our lives came to a head this month and I came present to my own burnout.  Being around Phil was God’s grace to me and a gentle reminder to be grateful and content in all things.  I should mention too that Phil is hilarious, but in a way that seems like he’s mostly trying to amuse himself, and anyone else who happens to be around just gets to go along for the ride.  We will miss Phil, his wife Mallory, and road manager Daniel.  I thank God that our paths crossed.


After the Austin show, Taya and I got dropped off at the airport where we tried to sleep on the granite floor until the ticketing counter opened at 4am so we could catch our flight home at 6am.  Catching little naps where we could, we got about 3 hours of sleep before arriving in the Twin Cities to see our boys, Kipper, Jacob, and Gus for a few days. We paid some bills and took care of a few obligations, but otherwise tried to devote all of our attention to rest and play for these 4 days home.  It was perfect Autumn weather in MN – a crisp chill in the air, the leaves turning, and our apple tree we planted 3 years earlier finally gave us our first apples! Taya bought the “Fleet Foxes” record that Zac, my sound tech, had recommended to us, and it was the perfect soundtrack for this brief time at home.  It actually felt like a part of our rest.


For Gus’ birthday, he had heart-shaped toast for breakfast and Frankenberry cereal per his request.  Later I took him out for his birthday lunch.  He picked Culvers over McDonalds and wanted to sit and eat “in the store”.  So we sat and waited for our order and I asked Gus if he had any goals for this next year J.  We decided that working on saying “s” properly was a good goal for his 6th year.


We celebrated Grampa Mark’s birthday that night, too, since his birthday was on the 27th.  Grampa & Gramma even brought some fireworks for the occasion that he assured me were the quiet kind.  After a couple screeching whistlers and loud bangs, I was the party pooper who brought an end to all fireworks but sparklers and smoke bombs, hoping to avert a visit from the police.


At the end of the day, all the boys camped out in our room and we went over the story with Gus of the day he was born, and how we were so happy with Kipper and Jacob and that we couldn’t imagine being any happier, but then we all thought of a way, and that was to have a little Gus in the family.


Now we’re flying as I write this, preparing to rejoin the tour.  Our flight cancelled, forcing us to miss our connections, and after two mile long sprints through the Chicago airport, it looks like we’ll arrive at the venue at 7:10 for my 7:00 set.  The plan is for me to walk in and take the stage, but we’ll see!


If you’ve read this far, thanks so much for caring.  More updates coming… can’t wait to tell you about the guys from Sanctus Real.

3:08 AM 
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009 

Category: Life
Celebrating Gus' 6th birthday today! (Actually his birthday was last week while we were on the road, but shhh.... don't tell him.... :-). It's also his Grampa Mark's birthday today so we're preparing for a birthday party at our house tonight. Here's a picture of Gus this morning opening up his birthday cards and eating the heart shaped toast he requested for his birthday breakfast: http://twitpic.com/jq4yq
5:15 PM 
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Monday, September 28, 2009 
We're home at last, the first time in three weeks. We spent the whole day traveling, getting an hour of sleep here, an hour there, to get a total of three hours sleep before reuniting with our boys.  Last night was the last show with Phil Wickham and we're sad to see him go. There were several moments of low impact hi-jinx to mark the moment, including when he and I rode out on a scooter during Sanctus' last song - it was awkward & glorious! Hope to post video soon. Taya and I were dropped off at the airport at 2am so we could catch our 6am flight home! We're tired, but so grateful to get to see our boys for a few days. I'll try to write an update about this last weekend soon, but I'm sure you'll understand if I decide to lay low for a few days and play legos with Gus :-). Here's a pic of poor Taya trying to sleep at the airport: http://twitpic.com/jc5xw

I'll catch you up with more later...
1:50 AM 
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009 

Category: Music
I had the best day I’ve had in a long time yesterday. But to understand why, you need to know that of all the commandments in the bible, the one I’m the most guilty of breaking is the one about taking a day of rest. Especially these days on account of the new record releasing. So much to do… a lot of plates to keep spinning… I could tell that I was feeling the burn from the schedule I’d been keeping because my crankiness had a hair trigger and it didn’t take much to send my attitude off the deep end. I’d like to think that I’m usually very pleasant under normal circumstances :-) (smiley face employed to depict my generally pleasant demeanor). But by the end of this last weekend, my mood took a darker turn. For starters, we did two outdoor festivals. Now, I’m often asked why I don’t play more outdoor festivals, and while I know they are a lot of fun for concert-goers, I try to avoid them since they tend to be challenging for a guy who does what I do. Festivals have kind of a social gathering/party kind of atmosphere, and it’s hard for a guy with an acoustic guitar and penchant for earnest storytelling to achieve the desired kind of intimacy that gives my work the best chance at connecting. I need four walls and a hushed low-lit room to coax people’s hearts out of their myriad hiding places. Maybe I take myself too seriously by expecting such a level of attention, but this is the kind of environment that I seem best suited for. Deep connections are always the goal. Without that, I'm always suspicious that I'm wasting the time of everyone involved. Both events were youth-centered outreaches, which is totally cool, and which Sanctus Real and even Phil Wickham are well suited for. But get a guy with an acoustic guitar up there trying to talk about the virtues of weakness, God making sad things come untrue, and serving the poor, etc. and watch me flounder. It’s especially hard when there’s a group of kids in the back hollering “you suck!” about 30 seconds into my first song (Taya took care of them). Or when someone throws beach balls into the crowd for people to bounce around in front of me when I’m singing lyrics like: “In Rwanda’s killing fields Forgiveness blooms and heals As the power of love reveals The Kingdom come today…” Or: “The Son of God woke in the ground The angels laid the soldiers down To bring the King His crown I believe!” POW! – a beach ball bounces off the end of my mic stand and all of a sudden I’m back in the eighth grade wearing ill-fitting gym shorts and playing dodge ball. The truth is, I just can’t compete with a beach ball. I mean, I try to be funny and tell jokes and stuff, but in the end the beach ball will always win. So… I got a little grumpy about it. On stage. It didn’t help that I’d had a video chat the day before with my boys that left me feeling homesick and wondering if this work I do is worth the price we pay for it. Most times the answer is yes, but I start to doubt when I’m being heckled by teenagers in the back row or the beach balls start flying… Taya was back at the sound-board shaking her head at me, with a look that was pleading with me to not say something awkward and grumpy from the stage. I managed to restrain myself for the most part and just snuck in a snarky little comment before my last song that went something like this: “hey, how would you like it if I came to your workplace or classroom and bounced a beach ball around while you’re trying to work?” Kind of funny, but kind of grumpy and miserly too, I know. The supplier of the beach balls didn’t mean any harm, I’m sure. Everyone’s just trying to have a good time, I should lighten up, I know. And I know it sounds like I’m feeling sorry for myself when I play the “missing my kids at home” card. But all this to say that though these things are normally not that big of a deal - par for the course kinds of things, really - on this particular weekend they put me in a bit of a funk. The beach balls became larger than life – looming, symbolic rabid scapegoats for everything that is difficult and disappointing; giant beach balls of doom like the one that nearly mashed Indiana Jones in the opening sequence of Raiders Of The Lost Ark… Nipping at my heels, threatening to crush me at any moment… I grumped about it afterwards on the bus for a bit, and seriously began considering a change in vocation. Again. But then I recognized that I might be a little burnt out and shouldn’t make any rash decisions. Phil Wickham is a pretty positive guy and hanging out with him is good for me. He’s always helping me look on the bright side and count my blessings. I used to be very much like that, but lately feel more like that 70 year old guy who yells at people for walking on his lawn. Clearly I needed some rest. So when the bus pulled in to Toledo, OH at 4:00am and we drove to our friend’s house 3 hours away in Clare, MI, our heads hit the pillow at 7:30am and we slept til 1:00pm on Sunday. With a mixture of panic and relief I discovered that I left my phone on the bus and, cut off from the rest of the world, I took a day off with my favorite person in the world: Taya. Our friends were away on a trip so we had the place all to ourselves. Taya and I anonymously went shopping at the local grocery store to get the fixin’s for tacos. When we got back I played guitar for pleasure – wow, how long has it been since I’d done that? Years? – for a couple of hours on the couch while Taya made some fresh guacomole. Then, with our tacos, guac, and pineapple salsa we sat down and watched TV for like three hours. We watched three episodes of Flight Of The Conchords followed by one of my favorite movies of all time: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, an artful film that to me always feels like a good dose of marriage counseling - to know the worst that you could feel about a person and then choose to love them anyway… isn’t that the most challenging and beautiful part of marriage? And then, off to bed early. I even got to read some. What a great day. I didn’t do a thing. I didn't have to be anybody. I got to be a bump on a log, vegging in front of the TV. I'm not sure this was entirely what was meant by the commandment to observe the Sabbath, but I think I was in the ballpark because it felt like exactly what the Doctor ordered. This morning I got back to work, but my head was clearer. The weekend of shows became less about beach balls and a small group of disruptive kids in the back and more about the kindness with which I was received by those who attended, those who talked with me after the shows sharing their stories with me and generous words of encouragement. I found several kind remarks on my facebook page and in my inbox from new friends who attended the events. Maybe, by God’s grace (again!), my songs connected after all. I thought of the kids who were sponsored through World Vision who might not have been otherwise. I counted my blessings for the friendships I get to have with cool guys like Phil and Matt, Pete, Chris, Dan & Mark from Sanctus Real. I smiled thinking about Phil teaching me some new chords… And I called my kids who were doing pretty good, too. I get to see them next week when we fly home for Gus’ birthday. I can’t wait. Maybe things aren’t as bad as I thought. And maybe those beach balls aren’t as big as I imagined, either. For all the ways they burdened me and felt like they carried the weight of the world in them, maybe they were only full of hot-air after all. Dare I say it? I’m even looking forward to getting back out on the tour this week. And what’s more it looks like there aren’t any more festivals on this leg. See, I’m already counting my blessings again. I'm also already looking forward to my next day of rest...
4:22 AM 
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