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The Christmas season is now officially upon us. Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love the lights, the music, the movies, the food but most of all the intentionality of time with family and friends.

I fully recognize that for so many of us Christmas time can also be tinged with (or even defined by) pain as we remember those who are no longer with us or relationships that have become strained in ways we never wanted.

Whether the season is marked by joy, pain or most likely a combination of both, the root of all those feelings is relationship. Ultimately all these earthly relationships point us towards a much more important and consequential relationship. The relationship with our Heavenly Father.

At Christmas, we are reminded that we have a God who chooses to be in relationship with us. He chose to be Emmanuel - a God who is with us. Christmas is an invitation to relationship and to be in community with God Himself. It was an invitation extended to us through a God who was holy and perfect but chose to enter into our brokenness by allowing His body to be broken and His blood to be spilled.

This gift is one we were told to remember and celebrate through a practice we know as communion. As we partake of the elements and remember the body broken and blood spilled, we are also reminded of God’s holiness as well as the sin in our lives that would seek to separate us from Him. It amazes me that through His sacrifice His holiness is bestowed upon us.

This song is simply a confession of the need and desire to be made holy.

While this is a new recording, the song itself was written in its original form years ago. While this version is a bit different from the version I’ve played over the years, it hasn’t changed all that much from that initial expression when I played it at so many different churches, camps and coffeehouses.

My friend Mark and I may look to add additional musical voicing into this song at some point, but for now this version is just the song in its most basic possible expression - a voice and a guitar.

For those of you that might remember my album “The Life and Times of Jesus the Christ”, you might be interested to know that the instrumental “Communion” was written in the same key as this song so they could be played together. Since the “Life & Times…” songs were written in third person perspectives, this song felt like too much of a first-person perspective to fit in that project, but I did end up weaving this song into “Life & Times…” concerts.

Thanks again to my friend Mark for lending his time and talent to record this song.

If you enjoy this song, please feel free to share it with others you think might like it as well.

This song goes back a little ways. It was from my band Tractor Pull Divas and was only available for a brief window of time as a free download to help raise awareness for foster care and a hometown org called Helen’s Hope Chest. Unless you downloaded the song back then, you were out of luck trying to get it now.

The other day, my amazing 7-year-old daughter had her headphones on listening to this song while walking around the house belting it out at the top of her lungs (Let me tell you, it’s one of the great pleasures in life to have your 7-year-old belting out a song you had the privilege of writing. What a joy!). Hearing her enjoy the song so much made me think I should make this song a bit more readily available.

While there are many kids in foster care, there are so many of us and so many different ways we can be coming alongside them. These kids don’t have to be in this alone. We can help them be brave!

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Gravity

9/30/2023

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Over the years and for varying lengths of time, my wife and I have had the privilege to be foster parents to a number of different children. One of those was an amazing little 3-year-old girl that affectionately earned the nickname of my “Upside Down Girl”.

Each day when I came home, her face would light up and she’d launch herself at me with the full expectation and trust that I’d catch her and “fly” her upside down around the house.

Despite whatever weight or “gravity” of the day I had brought home with me, the incredible joy she expressed in those upside-down flights was enough to lighten my mood. While any given day might have been seeking to write a narrative in my heart and mind of weariness or frustration, those upside-down flights had an amazing ability to rewrite the narrative of my day.

Each night as we put her to bed, we’d tell her that she was fearfully and wonderfully made by a God who loved her. We’d pray for her and her parents and sing the old song “Jesus Loves Me”.

I will always remember waking up one morning to the sound from her bedroom down the hall as she was singing perhaps the most profound and beautiful theological truth any of us could ever seek to understand - “Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.”

I know as she continues to age that this world will throw its worst at her and seek to weave so many destructive narratives into her heart and mind. (“You are not good enough”, “You will fail”, “You are alone and no one cares”, etc). My prayer for my upside girl was and remains that she “being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that (she) may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3: 17-19)

I was honored to record this song with my great friend and long-time music collaborator Mark Allen Johnson at his Groove Dog Studio. I was also once again honored to work with the wonderfully talented cellist Ruthie Wilde. It was great to have a first opportunity to work with talented violinist Margaret Burdick.

It was also really, really cool to have my oldest son (aka GaryBoy3) help me in putting this lyric video together. He is a gifted kid and I’m darn lucky to be his dad!

As you read this, there are children all across the country in the foster care system - just like my “upside down girl” was. This world is seeking to rip their minds and hearts with narratives that are destructive and untrue. My hope and prayer is that there are men and women all across the country that are willing to stand up and play a part in helping to rewrite the narratives competing for these kids’ hearts.

I’ve had the opportunity to connect with a number of great organizations that are stepping up to help rewrite the narrative in the lives of foster children. I’d encourage you to check them out and join them in this incredibly important work.

For the Children - Wendy McMahan and the great team are doing amazing work in mobilizing the local Church to create life-changing moments for children who have experienced relational trauma.

Christian Family Care - Mark Upton and team are coming alongside children, families and churches to envision a future in which every child is loved and nurtured in a Christ-centered family.

Lifeline Children’s Services - Herbie Newell, Pastor Chris and the team are equipping the Body of Christ to manifest the gospel to vulnerable children.

For Others - David Nasser and team are partnering with organizations, community partners, and carers to offer holistic services for at-risk families and children.

Child Bridge - Mary Bryan has built a team seeking to inspire a movement of fearless, joyful ambassadors of Christ who fight for children who bear the invisible marks of being unseen, unheard and unwanted.

Arizona127 - I’ve got to brag on my wife a bit on this one. My wife has an amazing heart and has come along to encourage and support so, so many foster families over the years (I'm darn lucky to be her husband!). She’s currently serving on the board for this org and coming alongside Katie O’Dell and team as they seek to train AZ churches on how to best recruit and care for the members of their congregation engaged in the ministry of foster care and adoption.

While the problems of foster care are huge, they can be dwarfed and eclipsed by churches that are willing to stand up and make a difference. To quote a singer that I love (but have never had the chance to meet) “Love is bigger than anything in its way”.

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Bloom

8/24/2023

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Back in the Tractor Pull Divas days I had the pleasure of being introduced to Donna Bartos. Donna had a vision to prevent teen dating abuse before it even started. Through years of her tireless work, advocacy and a team she built around her, those efforts have grown into the organization now known as Bloom365.

TPD was honored to support those early advocacy and fundraising efforts through a series of really fun shows she put on with the great folks at Hard Rock Café. At each one of those shows, Donna kept planting a seed and encouraging me to write a song focused on these ideas.

After several years of encouragement, I finally wrote the song “Bloom” and gave Donna a really rough demo recording. In a way that demo was an implied promise of an intent to record and release the song. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after that TPD came to a close before we ever had a chance to do any type of proper recording of the song.

All these years later, I’m excited to finally have the song recorded. As it turned out, I was even lucky enough to have 3/5ths of TPD play on the recording! (Thank you, Mark & Randy. It has always been a privilege and pleasure making music with you guys.)

Donna, I apologize for how long it’s taken to follow through. Blessings on your continued, passionate work to end teen dating violence and the root lies and destructive beliefs that allow it to continue.

And for all of us that might feel like we are stuck or withering on the vine, I pray for the courage to uproot the lies and the audacity to believe that we were truly made to bloom.

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Not for Me

7/30/2023

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Not for Me

Not long ago, I was reading the C.S. Lewis book “A Grief Observed”. As I read Lewis’s book, I was struck by the raw reality of his loss. The unfortunate truth is that one of the most unifying experiences we have as humans is that we all know and experience the pain of loss and brokenness.
Another unfortunate truth is that most of us don’t really know how to navigate those experiences well.

We have so many things to learn from how Jesus walked through the experience of pain and brokenness.
The Gospels provide us many examples of Christ’s experience of engaging the pain of brokenness (for example, the tears He shared at Lazarus’s tomb, the compassion that the Gospel writers will often mention prior to Jesus healing someone, etc). While we have several examples, I often find myself struck by the brokenness Jesus experienced on the cross.

The pain of that moment perhaps reached its pinnacle in the raw emotion of Christ's words upon the cross as he calls out the words of the psalmist - "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46 & Psalm 22:1).

There are so many elements of that moment that we can't begin to understand as God the Son took upon himself the sins of the world and became the object of God the Father's wrath towards sin. Since we don't have the ability to even understand the nature of the trinity, we have no chance of understanding the enormity of that moment.

While it is true there are elements of that moment we can't understand, it is also true that there are elements each and every one of us likely identify with greatly. Every single person on the planet has experienced those moments and seasons in which it felt like God is distant and removed from our realities.
Upon the cross, Christ suffered not just physical pain, but He also endured a spiritual pain as He took upon Himself the curse of sin that separated us from God the Father.

As we reflect upon the agony of that moment on the cross, it points us towards the incredible love Christ demonstrates to us. He willingly took up the cross fully knowing the torment it would involve. I can't help but recall the old adage - "Something is worth what you're willing to pay for it." The incredible price Christ paid for us is evidence of an incredible love He has for us.

While I often focus on the agony of that moment or even the love expressed in that moment, I only recently recognized what perhaps may be a more obvious truth that Christ was modeling for us.
In His moment of greatest suffering, Christ focused His mind on scripture! In that moment of agony as He called out the words of the psalmist, scripture was relevant and had something to say about His circumstances and even the emotions He was experiencing.

In fact, He didn't just think about scripture, He verbally spoke it.

As He hung upon the cross, every breath required to speak was hard fought for. People who know a whole lot more about these things than I do have explained what was physically happening to Jesus as He hung on the cross. They tell us that those who hung upon a cross couldn’t push themselves up to get full lungs of air without pushing upon the pierced feet and wrists. Most people who were crucified ultimately died of suffocation. Christ used some of those last labored and fought for breaths to speak scripture as He quoted the words of the psalmist.

As we engage our moments and experiences of loss and brokenness, perhaps, we should also be looking to remind ourselves of the truths of scripture so “that (we) do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13(b) NIV). Make no mistake, when we experience loss, we will experience grief. Christ modeled that for us. The difference is within our grief we can still have hope. We may not feel it; we may not be able to see it, but it is still there.

Like the words of the old hymn referenced in this song remind us, in the enormity of these moments we have the opportunity to build upon the shifting sand of our feelings and perceptions or on the truth of Christ our solid rock.

If you are in a season in which the grief of loss feels eclipsing, I pray that this song would be a reminder that there is a solid rock that has never been and never will be shaken.

Back to the Lewis book, as I was reading and struck by the enormity of his grief, I couldn’t finish reading without picking up the guitar. This song just flowed out. As I brought it to my friends Mark and Kim Johnson they had the great idea of making it a piano-driven piece. We were able to pull in the ever-talented Ruthie Wilde to lend her cello talents to this song.

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Immeasurably More

6/29/2023

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Ephesians 3:20 - 21 reads:
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (NIV)

It’s no secret that life is hard.

Life has a way of beating us down. To avoid the hurt of dashed expectations, so often we find ourselves trying to shrink our own expectations. If our expectations are small, it seems there is less chance those expectations won’t be met.

The problem is our hearts are not wired for small things.

God has placed something in each of us that longs for something bigger than ourselves. I love the way Solomon describes this in Ecclesiastes 3:11 when he says “He has also set eternity in the human heart.”

Ultimately, those longings are designed to draw us to the only one big enough to fulfill the longings of our souls.

Despite these God-placed longings, our hearts still deceive us time and time again. So often we can find ourselves desperately striving for things which don’t satiate. We think if we can achieve this one thing or free up more time for certain activities, that life will be better.

While it is very true that there are likely lots of things we all probably could and should do to spend our time more productively, the truth is that even our most productive moments will not satisfy the type of longing talked about in Ephesians and Ecclesiastes. The longing for “more” can only be satisfied in Christ alone.

For me, this song serves as almost a dare to believe and open myself up to a God who is able to do immeasurably more. I pray that we'd all be willing to dare ourselves to embrace that longing for something greater than ourselves.

My good friend Mark Allen again allowed me the privilege to record this song at The Loft Studios. Both he and his wife Kim also lent their musical talents. It was wonderful having my good friends Randy Therio on guitar and Russell Loeffler on bass.

We'll be continuing to place more songs on this page over the coming months. Please feel free to enter your email below so I can keep you posted as they post.

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Good...

5/27/2023

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GR Brown · Good By GR Brown

I still find myself writing songs…

… It amazes me that after all these years God still uses the songwriting process to help me know Him, myself and the world around me better. More about that later…

Recently, as I began to navigate some transitions in my own life, I found myself engaging with a number of friends that were also navigating some really difficult seasons and transitions. Very simply said, there were a lot of “big” things going on.

As I tried to walk with and make sense of these “big” life events, I found myself being reminded of Paul's encouragement to the church in Rome “He works all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

I know how easy it can be to trivialize that profound truth into a trite sentiment.

The truth is that the goodness of God is much bigger, wider and deeper than my ability to even comprehend it. There are so many things we wrestle with in this life that we will never be able to justify or make logical sense of. Yet the the truth is that the goodness of God is even greater than the limitations of our ability to comprehend it.

As I found myself sitting with the truth of that scripture, I realized my understanding of its truth was likely still much too narrow.

While I could see the relevance of that Romans 8:28 promise in the BIG areas of life, the scripture says ALL things work together. That means even the day-to-day, tyranny-of-the-urgent, mind-numbing repetitive things work together for good. It means that the yet-another-round-of-laundry, the changing-dirty-diapers, the sitting-again-in-traffic, the paying-the-bills, the realizing-it’s-only-Tuesday-when-it-feels-like-it-should-be-Friday monotony of everyday life is also promised to work towards good.

I know I can slip into the lie of thinking that the monotony of life is the enemy of and keeps me away from the great things I feel like God is doing or wants to do in my life. That is not true. Believing that lie just robs me from the opportunity to perhaps capture a glimpse of how God is present and working even through the everyday moments of life.

Lately, I’ve found myself trying to be intentional in looking for God’s presence not just in the BIG events of life, but also the everyday mundane aspects of it. In all transparency, that shift in mindset and perspective is completely unnatural and I’m not all that good at it, but with intentionality I have been able to catch a couple of glimpses that would have otherwise completely escaped me. For those couple of moments I’m thankful.

Back to the songwriting…over the years, I’ve often joked that God teaches me things in 4:4 time signature. As I’ve been wrestling with some of these Romans 8:28 truths recently, I found myself writing a new song called “Good”. My good friend and longtime musical partner in crime (as well as one of my favorite people on this planet), Mark Alan lent his time, talent and his studio to help bring this song to life. Feel free to check it out on the link above and I hope it may serve as an encouragement to look for God’s presence and work in all areas of life.

Beyond that, I’ve been encouraged by my wife, kids and so many friends during this season of transition to lean into music and songwriting as I process and even wrestle with things God is teaching or has taught me over recent years. Again, Mark has been gifting me with his time, talent and studio to record some of these songs. It’s been amazing to pull in some of my other musical friends (some long-time friends and some new ones) to lend their incredible talent and musicianship to these songs as well.

I’ll be releasing more songs over the coming months as well as sharing some of the reflections/experiences that led to the songs. If you’d like me to let you know as those songs get released please just click the link below to share your email address. Please feel free to pass this along to any others you think might be interested as well.

And remember even though we may tend to trivialize the profound truth into a trite sentiment, “God (still) works ALL things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to his purpose”.

Keep me posted!

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GR BrOWN

Holy

Brave

Gravity

Bloom

Not for Me

Immeasurably More

Good...

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