The Fermata Post: Special Notes of Rest Workshop & Show Saturday, Musings on Europe
Workshop & Show 26 Nov 2022, St. Mark UMC Chicago IL
Hi everyone,
Long time no talk. I’ve missed you all. For my American readers, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow. And to everyone, know that I am deeply grateful for all of you.
I have the biggest show coming up in my life to date on this Saturday, 26 Nov, at 10a at my childhood church St. Mark UMC in Chicago. (My childhood church is generous enough to be hosting this for me. To have folk believe in the vision like this is such a gift. Talk about Thanksgiving!) It’s going to be a Notes of Rest workshop in the morning (10-11.30a) and then a Julian Davis Reid & Friends concert that afternoon (12.30-2p), with lunch will in the middle. The Friends include The JuJu Exchange, Peter CottonTale, Tramaine Parker, and my brother Emmanuel Reid. I will be playing with all of these different acts, spanning a wide array of genres. If you’re in town for the holiday you’ll be blessed by it - of this I am sure haha.
I’ve had a lot of good events recently - Notes of Rest in Denver at Society for Vineyard Scholars and at Albany UMC in Albany, IL (right next to the Mississippi River). In both settings, I was tremendously blessed to receive the good news of Jesus from the people with whom I shared. For instance, in Denver, after my Notes of Rest from War, several people prayed for me and gave me prophetic words about the growth of the ministry. And in Albany, I got to offer a brief Notes of Rest for several rural United Methodist congregations as they celebrated the use of grant monies they had received. It was dope seeing them celebrate innovation in this way.
But through it all, I’ve been thinking heavily about my tour in Europe with Isaiah Collier and the Chosen Few that ended just over a week ago. There is so much to share, but I will reflect on one constant theme: God’s rhythm of steady faithfulness amidst our lack of rhythm.
Isn’t it ironic that touring musicians are tasked with establishing and maintaining rhythm for listeners, yet live a fairly rhythm-less life? This irony was most prominent for me on the road for those 2.5 weeks throughout the continent. Most days I was in a different country from the day prior. I never had the same schedule two days in a row. My shows often ended at 11p or later and my call times in the hotel lobby were often before 7a the next day.
Why is this? On tour musicians don’t fall into any kinds of routine because of transportation logistics and showtimes. Because our work hours typically fall during the peak entertainment hours for others, we get thrown to and fro. And playing back-to-back shows is how many tours keep costs low enough to make any profit.
While it was fun to be seeing so many different places, the inability to establish routine is hard on the body and on the mind. After all, God the artist made us to live in rhythm. We can see this in the logic of weekly sabbath, of daily circadian rhythms, and even in the rhythmic pulsing of our Mother’s heartbeat (the first sensory input we perceive in utero).
Before I embarked on tour, I worried a good bit about the impacts of this irregularity. From my research for Notes of Rest I had learned the importance of rhythms of rest, yet here I was subjecting itself to its absence. Could anything be redeemed from this lack of restfulness?
Yes, much.
On a practical note, God proved steady and faithful amidst it all, by showing me how to keep my priorities straight. Even though I couldn’t attend church in person during those three weeks, our hotels were always near churches with open doors in European city squares (and I could listen in to my home church’s services online). As such, I could take time to rest there and pray for myself, pray for the congregations that met there, and pray for the congregations that’d gather at our show that night.
My mentors taught me to grab every moment possible to to nap. I intentionally played music in my headphones that calmed me, either by it being familiar to me or by being soft and inviting. I sought to move slowly and gratefully throughout all of the traveling, keeping complaining to a bare minimum and taking in the sights and sounds as best I could. However, I didn’t feel the need to maximize every moment by pushing my exhausted body to see every sight, but instead chose to sleep guilt-free when my body called for it.
I tried my best to preserve email-free Sabbath on Sundays. Admittedly, this was hard because we were performing most nights - and even when we weren’t, there was still much moving to and fro that kept me on my phone. But still, it was an important effort. And finally, I talked to my bandmates about how they were resting - a generative topic for Black men who always feel they need to be on the go.
These were the ways I practiced Notes of Rest in the moment. And now with hindsight, I see that touring has given me unique perspective on Scripture.
Many of the main characters in the Bible lived on the move just like touring musicians do - e.g., Abraham and Sarah, Moses and the Israelites, Jesus and his followers. In fact, a preponderance of modern-day scholars believe that most of the Old Testament’s foundational documents (e.g., the Pentateuch) were completed after Babylon had destroyed Judah’s temple in Jerusalem and exiled many of the elites to live in Babylon (6th century BCE). Scholars theorize that because the physical temple - a place of rest for the people - was gone, the people turned to Scripture to be their portable faith. It’s curious how much faith in the biblical texts is lived out by people in transit, who have been robbed of a stationary home.
The same holds true for Jesus. Jesus’ life started with abrupt movement - having to get up and leave his homeland to avoid King Herod’s infanticide campaign. And as an adult, he is on tour for all of his public ministry, staying in the homes of others, eating on the move. (This is why the miracle of feeding the 5000+ needed to happen - folks were out in a countryside haha.) Yet for Jesus and his Israelite ancestors, they had Notes of Rest amidst their movement. They kept the Sabbath. They kept their faith portable. They asked God to protect them as they sought out the Promised Land or as they lived under Roman imperial occupation.
And not only did they practice Notes of Rest despite their travels, they cultivated deeper faith for themselves and others because of their travels. The Israelites were led by God out of Egypt (the Exodus) and that occasioned deeper faith for them. Jesus was led by the Spirit to move about Galilee and even go into Samaria (a place Jews would never go), and that occasioned faith for those he met.
Of course stability is important. Much spiritual good happens by staying put (as we see with the insistence of biblical Israel to resist foreign imperial forces.) The new heavens and new earth are places of stability. The kingdom of God is a vision of stability. The promised land was a vision of stability. But even though all of these biblical themes were visions of stability, the biblical record shows that many did not actually enjoy physical or spiritual simple stability. There was typically some kind of motion in their lives that occasioned new needs to put their trust in God.
My tour got me wondering what the lack of rhythm that I voluntarily entered into can help me see differently about Jesus. But it also showed me the importance of beholding the faith of people who move because they have no other choice.
Harriet Tubman and others who resisted the evils of capitalism and sought physical freedom for themselves have much to teach us about faith. My ancestors who migrated North during the Great Migration have much to teach about faith. As wars on the continents of Africa, South America, and Asia continually shake up migration patterns around the world today, these immigrants in our midst are able to teach us about faith. As gentrification wars on in the US, Black and Brown folk that are being displaced have much to teach us about faith. These travelers are not mere victims. They are teachers.
Whether your travel is by choice or by force, may you see in Jesus a savior who is a fellow sojourner.
abundantly,
Julian