New Album to Help Process the Election
Announcing Beside Still Waters: A Notes of Rest Offering
What’s good everyone,
I hope that you’ve been able to vote or that you will sometime before polls close. At the risk of capitulating to hysteria or anxiety, these are grave and serious times we’re in. To that end, I invite you to join me in voting for Kamala, in part because of what she’ll do to curb continued ecological degradation. Trump will regress us drastically, and we cannot afford such myopia as the earth continues to heat. There are other reasons to vote for her, genocide in Palestine notwithstanding, but others have put that more eloquently and time is short.
I will note, however, that whatever happens today, we are in for some uncertain times ahead. No matter the victor, the impact of this election cycle will send ripple effects throughout the US and around the world. Jesus be a fence.
To help us process the unfolding hope and madness, today I released Beside Still Waters: A Notes of Rest Offering. It is a collection of solo piano loops titled after key phrases from Psalm 23. Walking through all 12 verses, my aim is to remind us all that God will keep leading us beside still waters come what may. As election results trickle in tonight, I’m hopeful that this record brings you some peace as you discern what’s yours to do in these tender times.
Here are some questions to consider if you get around to listening to it today.
What kind of music will help you calm and take action in these uncertain times?
What does voting bring up for you? Where do you take those emotions?
What gentle nudge can you make in your spirit to show up differently as an US citizen or resident in the US based on today?
What miracle can you be a part of in your city after this election?
I’ll be releasing a more detailed devotional for the record, which you can see a part of here underneath “What’s Next.” I’ll release tracks 2-6 later this week to my paid subscribers and all of it next week to everyone.
May the God of peace and justice walk with you during these times. I am thankful God knows my pain and yours too. For even in resurrection, Jesus still bears the scars of Rome’s nails.
abundantly,
Julian
What’s Next
Nov 8 Notes of Rest at Bethel University (St. Paul, MN)
Nov 9-10 Notes of Rest and Circle of Trust at Plymouth UCC (Des Moines, IA)
Nov 11 Notes of Rest Working Group 7.15p (for paid subscribers only)
Nov 15-16 Julian Davis Reid & Circle of Trust at Andy’s (Chicago)
Nov 21 The JuJu Exchange at Jazz Institute of Chicago (Chicago)
Nov 23 Julian Davis Reid & Circle of Trust (Chicago)
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Save the Dates
The Last Days of Cabrini Green Audible Originals Podcast (I scored the soundtrack) (Nov 14)
Feb 22-23 Black Contemplative Prayer Summit - Notes of Rest on Feb 23 (Virtual)
First-ever Notes of Rest Overnight Retreat - May 30-31, 2025 (Oregon, IL)
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Beside Still Waters Devotional
Nov 5, 2024
Dear Ones,
Welcome to the Beside Still Waters Devotional, which is paired with my record Beside Still Waters: A Notes of Rest Offering.
I pray this music and these devotionals help us move through the anxieties of this season with a bit more rest in God. Released on the day of one of the US’ most historic presidential elections, this project invites us to draw on the confidence and conviction of Jesus to seek the welfare of the places where we lay our head. Psalm 23 reminds us that God leads us beside still waters despite the treacherous valley of the shadow of death we walk. Whereas music and religion can numb us to the presence of pain and evil in the world, this record and meditation on one of Scriptures’ most famous passages in US Christendom acclimates us to better engage it.
It is important to remember that much of Scripture was written by war-torn people. In the Ancient Near East, death – brutal death - was all around. Because biblical Israel existed on a thin strip of prized land on the Mediterranean Sea, there was ongoing tension with neighboring peoples such as Egypt to the south, the Philistines from the sea, and the Hittites and Assyrians to the northeast. It is safe to say that Psalm 23 was written by people who knew war, pain, uncertainty, and death. And of course, the author to whom it was attributed, King David, knew this side of life all too well himself.
As you sit with the text and this record, I pray the Holy Ghost meets you as present your fears and hopes to God Our Shepherd. Though the chorus of genocide, xenophobia, White Christian Nationalism, and authoritarianism sings ever louder in the US, God leads us beside still waters. Though sexual abuse runs rampant in the church and the earth grows ever hotter, God leads us beside still waters. Though trust in institutions of all sorts is deteriorating – the church, democracy, tech companies, marriage – God leads us beside still waters. This refrain is not to glibly slap a Christian bumper sticker on these sorrows, sins, and pains. Rather, it is a way to present our pain to God our healer and friend, trusting that God will walk with our communities of faith through these difficult times, granting us the fortitude needed for the work of the ministry to which we are presently called. Jesus died because of humanity’s love of death, but he rose because our death is neither God’s end nor ours. One day Jesus will return and receive God’s fulsome rest. This is a conviction of faith that grounds our life as we work for justice in the respective ways we’re called. May God’s rod and staff comfort us while we do so. Amen.
I invite you to listen to this record on your own and in community. To be sure, there is much value in listening to God by yourself in solitude through Scripture and music. However, most of Scripture was written to communities – not individuals - so it is important to read Psalm 23 in concert with others. In that spirit, perhaps the record will bring peace to your church groups and your Bible studies, your families and friends, even your neighbors. I look forward to playing this live for you sometime through Notes of Rest, too. The election and its frictions are coming, but so too is God’s goodness and mercy. Amen.
May God lead us all beside still waters. Come Holy Spirit. Amen.
abundantly,
Julian
You are a TRUE gift!!!
Lovely!