Sanctus Real

Jason Gray is one of our best friends on the road. His thoughts and songs are deeply profound. It was such a privilege to tour with Jason, and we’re very fortunate to have him co-write a song with us. And write a blog…

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT JASON GRAY HERE
VISIT HIS FACEBOOK PAGE HERE

LISTEN TO “I WANT TO GET LOST” HERE
PURCHASE PIECES OF A REAL HEART – DELUXE VERSION – HERE

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I got to tour with Sanctus Real in the Spring of 2009 and not only did I become a big fan, but they’ve become some of my closest friends. I’ve said it many times, but am glad to say it again that these guys are among the kindest and most generous groups of people I’ve been blessed to work with. These are the kind of guys you want to win because they work hard, serve others, and have a genuine love of the Lord and Kingdom things.

During the Spring tour I was working on songs for my upcoming record, Everything Sad Is Coming Untrue, and invited Matt Hammitt to collaborate with me. Together we wrote a song that many have considered to be one of the best from my new album, “Jesus Use Me I’m Yours” – a song I had started with a friend of mine before he succumbed to cancer, but couldn’t have finished without Matt’s help.

I got to tour with them again in the Fall of 2009 and was so grateful when Matt and company invited me to collaborate on a few songs they were writing for their new album, Pieces Of A Real Heart.

Matt had an idea for a verse and I jumped in.

Though neither of us are necessarily big fans of country music, we both recognize and appreciate the way that country music writers can take a phrase we think we know and turn it inside out to mean something else. So we started with the idea of getting lost. Usually being lost is a negative idea, but is there some sense in which getting lost is good?

Lately I’ve been trying to put my identity or sense of worth in anything but Christ. Easier said than done. We all have a tendency to look to our friends, our status, our jobs, and those we love to define us and give us value. If my wife is in a bad mood, I feel disrespected and rejected because I have put the burden of my fulfillment and happiness on her. If my song isn’t doing very well on the radio or if concert attendance is low, I can have a crisis of my identity wondering why I’m here and if I have worth because I’ve put the burden of my existence on my audience and career. If a friend doesn’t return my call I fear that I’m no longer cool enough for them.

You reading this have your own stories of rejection, fear, isolation, and disappointment that come from putting hope in people or things that fail or degrade us. We question our existence when we feel like we don’t fit the bill of what our peers and culture considers attractive, talented, or valuable. It can leave us feeling worthless, alone, and lost in the worst sense of the word.

But why should we feel this way when God tells us he loved us so much that he sent his only son to die for us? Why would we question our worth when we read that God has numbered the hairs on our head (Luke 12:7), knit us together in the womb (Psalm 139:13), and carved our very names in the palm of his hand (Isa. 49:16)? Why should we feel so worthless when God puts so such a high value on us?

There is a parable that Jesus tells that most of us have heard – it’s in a series of stories he tells about the Kingdom. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matt 13:44)

For years I thought that the man in the parable is me, and that I should give up everything in order to lay hold of the treasure of the love of Christ. This may be a true understanding of this passage, but it’s possible that another interpretation is even truer. You see, in the stories that precede this one, the protagonist (“the farmer” in the earlier stories, the “man” in this one) is always God. Is it possible that Jesus is telling us that we are the treasure that moved him to give everything he had – his very life – in order to recover us? That he considered us such treasure that it was his joy to give up everything to have us? Are we the pearl of great price? I believe it.

Would our lives look differently if we understood ourselves as God’s treasure?

The world works everyday to make us doubt and forget this – to forget who we are, our very identity. The world offers hundreds of ways to be lost outside of the love of Christ, and along the way we pick up all kinds of lies that try to name us and burden us with shame and feelings of worthlessness.

The only way to break free of all this is to lose ourselves in the love of Christ, to get lost in his arms where we discover that we are his beloved, that we are treasured even, and that we have purpose (Jer. 29:11)

Come away from the liars who try to tell you who they think you should be. Come away from the empty hope that anyone else can bring you happiness, fulfillment, or identity. Only One knows who you really are, and he calls you His treasure. Come and lose yourself in His presence, trusting Jesus when he says that “…whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Jason Gray

http://www.jasongraymusic.com

http://www.facebook.com/jasongray