Kevin Davis has done a whopping baker's dozen (that's 13, folks) Behind the Song Devotional interviews with Centricity Records artist Jason Gray over the years. Now, as he unleashes his brand new album, Where the Light Gets In, we thought we'd take a look back through the years and albums and pull some of his thoughts and reflections from those interviews.

#8 - "Blessed Be"
Losers, all the lovely losers who never thought you'd hear your name
Outside, always on the outside
Empty at the wishing well, but time will tell

Blessed be the ones who know that they are weak
They shall see the Kingdom come to the broken ones
Blessed be

Not for the strong, the beautiful, the brave
Not for the ones who think they've got it made
It's for the poor, the broken, and the meek
It's for the ones who look a lot like you and me

#26 - "The Cut"
I think the best thing that can happen to us is to be "found out" for all that we are, our religious and human pretenses stripped away to reveal our sin, pettiness, and weakness. Then we can devote our energies to better endeavors than the constant masquerade of sufficiency. The added benefit is that people are able to see how God's grace works in a real person's life. When we come clean about our brokenness, Christ becomes the star of our testimony and not us. Most of my Christian walk has dealt with affliction.

#62 - "For the First Time, Again"
Nothing is beyond God's reach. [There's] excitement when we first accepted Christ... how we lose that enthrallment when burdened down by our life experiences and tight regulations within the church. I watched kids respond to an altar call, and I wanted to experience my first love and the excitement of what it was like to fall in love with Jesus for the very first time, to be born again.

#118 - "More Like Falling in Love"
G.K. Chesterton said that our Christianity should look less like a theory and more like a love affair. That an important idea to me. Sometimes, I think we're in danger of making our faith about intellectual beliefs of facts of who Jesus was and is today. The danger, at least for me, is that a solely intellectualized faith can lose its heart, and over and over we are told in Scripture that the heart matters. Belief in the facts is an important part of faith for sure--believing that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for our sins and rose from the grave--but there is that unforgettable Scripture that reminds us of the limits of mere belief where we are told that "even the demons believe, and tremble." So clearly, a faith that pleases God is more than just believing the facts. So what is the "more" that God is looking for? 

#174 - "Love Has A Name"
Rather than demonize the secular aspects of Christmas, look for God's glory among all of the hustle and bustle and commercial parts of the season. Rather than complain about shopping malls, integrate them into your enjoyment of Christmas and see that all the hustle and bustle of the season is ultimately a response to celebrating the birth of Jesus.

#207 - "I Am New"
To me, I increasingly understand the idea that we are who we think we are. That sounds like a New Age idea, but it's actually Scriptural. I was talking to a friend about this idea. I only know how to come to the Lord as a servant. I've had difficulty realizing myself as a son of God. Most of us are living in a servant mindset. We live with shame and guilt when we blow it and aren't pleasing the Lord. Part of that is natural and correct to want to please the Lord. It goes wrong when we lose the context of thinking like God's sons and daughters.

We need to remember that our righteousness doesn't come from fulfilling duties like tithing, serving, praying or reading the Bible. We need to grow beyond being a hired hand and remember that we are children of God. This song proclaims that we are children of God and He came to set us free from our shame. Part of the newness of being part of God's family is believing that we share in the righteousness of God because of the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. 

#275 - "Remind Me Who I Am"
For the last few years my journey has circled around the idea of identity--where we find it, and why it matters. The idea I absorbed in my formative years was that I sin because of my willful disobedience. And while that may be true in part, another truth is that most, if not all, of the time I really don't want to sin, so that I do so seemingly against my own will. So sin begins to look more like addiction than anything else, as though there is a ravenous hunger deep inside of me that demands to be fed. What is that hunger, I wonder? Genesis Chapter 3 tells us that one of the first consequences of sin entering the world is that the ground would be cursed, that we would eat by the sweat of our brow and the soil would produce weeds and thistles. This carries in it the idea of futility: that our efforts are frustrated, that no matter what we do, we feel it's never enough--that perhaps we are never enough.

The constant, nagging fear that we don't and never will measure up is like a pebble in our shoe that troubles every step of our journey. Surely this is the curse. We can't live under the oppression of inadequacy long before we start looking for ways to escape the shame and loneliness of it, and things go from bad to worse as we flee from the curse by running to things we hope will make us feel loved, desirable, and worthy.

When I'm tempted by sin these days, I can feel beneath it a desire to feel worthy and loved. This desire tells me that I've forgotten who I am and need reminding. I'm learning to run to the only one who can tell me, the One who carved my name in the palm of His hand and gave everything he had so I could be His. It is heady and humbling at the same time to be so highly regarded by One so worthy. It makes a difference.

#331 - "Good to Be Alive"
We were created to enjoy things. We enjoy the taste of food. We don't have to, and we would need to eat anyway. The fact that we were created with the capacity to enjoy things and that make us alive means something. 

I grew up with a church background that taught me to be suspicious of things that I enjoy. I would say that I went through a time where I stopped having fun because I was being cautious. I imagined things I enjoyed to be unspiritual. I don't think that's true. 

I can enjoy what I enjoy and trust that brings joy to my Creator. You can certainly enjoy things too much like alcohol and abuse it. Being overly cautious and not having enjoyment is counterproductive.

I think of Saint Augustine who said, "Love God, and do what you want." If our heartbeat first and foremost is about pleasing God, and our desire is for God to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant," then we will enjoy the right things and we don't need to be so nervous about abusing them. 

#378 - "Christmas is Coming"
Christmas, rightly understood, is an invitation to become like a child again. I marvel at the significance of God coming to us as a baby. We have no defense against a baby. We have no walls to shut out that kind of innocence. It's so disarming that we can't protect ourselves from it.  The Christmas story - the story of God approaching us as an infant, whispers such a profound answer to our world-weariness. 

#434 - "Nothing is Wasted"
No matter what we go through, whether it's difficulties we've experienced, ways people have hurt us, or even ways we've hurt others and our own failures, there isn't anything beyond the redemptive reach of God. There isn't anything that He can't take and redeem and turn around and cause to serve His plan--the story that He wants to tell.

There's an uncomfortable truth out there that you have to suffer to be beautiful. Suffering makes people beautiful. As long as it doesn't make you bitter. It can go either way. The most beautiful people I know have suffered a great deal. The people with the most beautiful testimonies and stories I know have been through the most hardships. The best marriages I know have gone to hell and back. 

The most gracious and kind people I know have had their biggest failures completely exposed. It's eradicated judgment from their lives. That can be the fruit of the most difficult things we go through.

#497 - "With Every Act of Love"
The Kingdom will come, but the Kingdom is also coming right now and we are invited to participate in it. With every act of love we are allowing the Kingdom to come into the little part of the world that we influence and we can consecrate it to the Kingdom whether we are building a home for the poor, or building a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for our kid. Whether we are caring for those in need, or doing laundry for our family, if we're doing it as an act of love, then it's eternal, it lasts forever and reserves a part of our hearts for the Kingdom.

#588 - "Laugh Out Loud"
What is more surprising and unpredictable than the grace of God? While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He makes us ministers of His reconciliation. When we recognize the outlandishness and surprise of all that, and when we recognize that we are caught up in the divine comedy of the love of God, laughter isn't only an appropriate response, it is worship.

I think that pain is holy ground in a person's life, and giving permission for someone to be in pain and to grieve helps them along in the healing process. I think that giving them space to grieve helps people feel joy as well. If they refuse to grieve, they won't feel joy. If you don't feel the depths of your grief, you won't feel the heights of your joy.

#640 - "Glow in the Dark"
Go in there and be the light for Jesus. That doesn't mean you have to be perfect. Grace is revealed through imperfection. If you are a son or daughter of your heavenly Father, you don't have to do anything but allow Him to reveal Himself through your imperfections.

So much of evangelical, Western Christianity puts emphasis on the believer. I wanted to do a song that spoke the language of evangelicals, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't making a demand on the listener to "go out there and glow in the dark." I wanted to assure them that hopefully they don't have to go and do, but go and be. You were made to glow in the dark, so that's what's going to happen. You don't have to be perfect.