Dreams Do Come True

Montreal Jazz Fest, Ruth Haley Barton, Online Notes of Rest Courses

My good friend and bandmate Isaiah Collier

Hi everyone,

I know I’ve been touch and go the last few months. Much has been happening that has made me slow some rhythms down as others have started up. I’ve been digging into both sides of my identity as an artist-theologian, laying into my sound as a musician and into the scope and aim of Notes of Rest. It’s been a generative time of incubating dreams new and old. Now I want to get back into the rhythm of sharing weekly musings here on Julian’s Note. A million thanks for walking with me. What a journey it has been.

Montreal Jazz Fest

I played the Montreal Jazz Fest last week with Isaiah Collier and the Chosen Few. Man were those shows electric! It was a dream come true to play that international festival. In fact, a printout of the Montreal Jazz Fest has been on my vision board since 2017. I would touch that board with my feet daily, but didn’t know when that dream might come to fruition. God’s timing is so tight. I’m thankful for dreaming big enough and trying my best to respond to God’s grace daily.

One of the highlights was at the end of the first set when a fan in the front row said that I was a divine vessel and that he was so moved he could cry. I was appreciative that he could sense me trying to play from and towards God, as that is always my intent. Whatever was leading him to tears, I give thanks I could be there.

Sometimes the deepest ministry comes from what you don’t say. St. Paul in 2 Cor 2:15 talks about how disciples of Jesus bear the aroma of Christ. I love this thought of aroma because we all can’t help but smell of something. What scent we bear, though, depends on what emerges from us and what fragrances we decide to carry. Even when I never open my mouth, like when I’m playing with Isaiah and the crew, I pray that aroma is sensed. I pray the same for you and the scent you leave in spaces.

Notes of Rest at Transforming Center

Days after Montreal, I got to host Notes of Rest at Ruth Haley Barton’s Transforming Center Alumni Retreat here in Chicagoland. That was an honor as Ruth is one of my role models in contemplative Christian practice. Getting to sit with those 50 alumni from around the country was a moment of grace.

I wove Ruth’s latest book into my Notes of Rest and it was a beautiful. The Sabbath is a gift God invites us to practice receiving no matter our season of life. I strongly recommend!

One idea that resonated widely was when I talked about how we can think of God’s gift of rest to us as notes of a musical chord (another take on Notes of Rest.) Each note stands distinct, never to be confused with another, yet reverberates with and makes the others louder. (A concept I learned from my mentor Jeremy Begbie at Duke Divinity School.) Thinking about Sabbath and Sleep together in that way can have profound implications for our communities’ practices of rest. In this way, music is able to help us think practically about our faith.

Music plays the way our world feels and how we want the world to feel. (A concept I learned from my mentor Don Saliers at Candler School of Theology.) So let music be a prism through which you see the world. I invite you to think past lyrics (if the song you like has them). Those are important, but often we stop there in thinking about the implications of music on our world. What about the beat, and the chords, and the melodies? You needn’t be a professional musician in order to make some sense of music’s technical aspects.

What’re musical concepts you like to apply to your sense of the world? Maybe it’s melody, or harmony, or rhythms. Whatever it is, let your love of it shape your love of the world. Imagine if we live a world more attentive to the core elements of music.

What’s Next…

The big to-do is that the Notes of Rest Fellowship is going into its testing mode starting on Aug 1. My manager Hannah and I have been creating a new phase for Notes of Rest that carries forward the conversation from the intro sessions. The Fellowship will be an online community of subscribers who are interested in deepening their practice of God’s rest. What I can discuss in Julian’s Note or in Notes of Rest sessions is always just scratching the surface of my research, so I relish the prospect of being able to share more with you in that new format.

I’d appreciate your participation in the Beta testing phase over the next few months, so stay tuned for more details about that. Your help during this testing period will be helpful as I prepare to teach my first-ever Notes of Rest virtual class in October, offered through my alma mater Candler School of Theology. I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks.

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Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few at Gallery Guichard in Chicago: Jul 15, 6-8p

The JuJu Exchange at Detroit Symphony Orchestra: cancelled for reasons beyond our control

(Private) Theology & the Arts Consultation at Belmont University in Nashville: Jul 27-28

Notes of Rest Fellowship (Beta Mode) Launches Online: Aug 1

Julian Davis Reid’s Circle of Trust (my original music) at Elastic Arts: Aug 2, 8p, Chicago (will be livestreamed)

Notes of Rest at The Practice Church in South Barrington, IL: Aug 6

Notes of Rest Virtual Class at Candler School of Theology, 5 consecutive Mondays starting Oct 9

abundantly,

Julian