Big show this Thursday, Notes of Rest Upgrade

New Show from The JuJu Exchange online, Is Notes of Rest a fad?

Hi all,

This Thursday (Mar 16) at 8.30p central, my band The JuJu Exchange has a release show for our new, first full-length album JazzRx. You can get tickets in-person here in Chicago or for an online livestream. If you’ve been following my work with Notes of Rest, this show will very much fit the sonic spirit of that ministry. It is The JuJu Exchange’s intention to play various emotions back to you, the audience, for the sake of you feeling seen and heard. We just started rehearsals today and I was thankful for how restful the music made me feel. I am confident this show will be a gift to you.

You can get tickets here. (In-person tickets are almost sold out, fyi!)

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For the last few months, I’ve been fairly quiet on Fermata, for good reason. Notes of Rest has been expanding in my heart and mind, and I’ve needed to slow down to let it swell. The Spirit has been challenging me to take deeper this concept of rest, and really think about the concepts I’m inviting you all to engage for the sake of life with God and neighbor. Slowing down with the writing posts has given me space to reflect on what I’m sharing, ensuring that it was coming from a healthy place.

To that end, I was challenged by this podcast by a role model for me in this work, Tricia Hersey. She leads The Nap Ministry, an organization that examines the liberating vision of naps. In this interview, she observed that conversations about rest have arisen a lot recently in the public square, but that this work if not taken seriously to its root can be as a mere fad or gimmick. You have to first be committed to the work before you talk to anyone else.

That challenged me to think about my own practice. I know God gives rest. I know that we are pathologically restless due to the excesses of capitalism and anti-blackness. I know that salvation through Jesus can be understood in terms of rest. But is rest a gimmick that I’m interested in, just because of the stress of the pandemic? Am I living restlessly while promoting it for others?

I have reflected in various ways on this question, and have decided that the answer is “no” to these questions. Notes of Rest is not a fad. It is a lifestyle. It is not a topic I have picked up because it’s in vogue in the health and wellness industry. It is a ministry I steward because God is doing the work in me and I can’t keep the good news to myself. I am prayerful that this ministry will grow because God has and continues to open my eyes to three critical forms of rest we need - Sabbath, sleep, and stillness - and God has gifted me with the tremendous inheritance of Black music as a means to move myself and others towards that rest.

All to say, I am more invigorated for Notes of Rest than ever before because I see how urgent this is. My beloved Chicago cries out for rest from economic and gun violence. This earth cries out for rest from the violence deforestation and depletion. Our bodies cry out for rest from the violence of deprivation. We need Notes of Rest.

As I cry out, as we cry out together - we are met with God’s grace. God graciously gives us sleep daily even though we have done so much to hurt ourselves and others. God gives us routine gifts of rest in Sabbath even though we so often spurn that. God calls us to be still even though we choose to be anything but it. I am thankful for these gifts of grace. Rest is not a gimmick because grace is not a gimmick.

O Kind Shepherd, grant us your grace. Help us receive rest and pass it along. The system desires our exhaustion, but you made us for renewal. Be our fence, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Be on the lookout for new offerings from me that help us move towards the rest. And in addition to what help I give, I pray you cultivate your own rest practice, for your sake and for your community’s. We are in this thang together.

abundantly,

Julian

Cover Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash