One of God's Tiny Presents

Singing a song in choir is one thing, but singing it in front of the poet who wrote the words and the composer who put them to music is another.

On Friday, October 23, 2009, I was able to do just that. For our fall concerts, the Marietta College Concert Choir sang a piece titled “Tiny Presents” taken from a collection of pieces called “Songs from Bonnie’s Heart.” Bonnie Donnelly is a poet who also happens to be a Marietta grad and William Beulow took her words and composed several beautiful pieces. So to have them both in the audience while we sang one of the pieces was a truly special moment.

As we began singing our first line, “In the middle of the park,” I looked just to the left of our director and there sat Mr. Beulow three rows back next to the aisle singing right along with us. It warmed my heart to see him in such a relaxed mood hearing his creation brought to life.

I looked two people to his right and there sat Bonnie with a grin for the world to see. Her smile was further-complemented by the tear that rolled down her cheek.

The piece went on and never had we sang with such intent to bring meaning to the words. The song concluded and we were applauded, but no gratitude was shown like that we received from Bonnie. With hands over her lips she stood and sent kisses our way with “thank you” interspersed. I couldn’t help but smile as I saw the most genuine gratitude and appreciation expressed that I had ever seen. Her words were now a part of us all.

It makes me wonder if God doesn’t feel the same way.

When He sees His creation bringing His words to life don’t you think He’s watching, smiling and singing along with us? When we put our hearts and emotions into His service, don’t you think He stands at the end of the day or the end of our lives and says “Thank you”?

I witnessed human gratitude that spoke volumes of emotion and it makes me wonder about the magnitude of Perfect Gratitude. I can almost hear God whispering to his children “thank you” as one reaches out to feed another, as one takes time to genuinely love the unloved. A tear slides over His smile as He watches His creation bring “music” to the words he spoke.

My heart has been broken.

At the end of January, I posted about an amazing concert that is heading to Ohio.  The Rock and Road Show is featuring five great that I would love to see perform, most notably Tenth Avenue North and Jeremy Camp.  Things were looking great as far as going....

Until yesterday...

Do you ever overbook your plans?  Or just assume you have the day free?  Well, that's exactly what I did.  I have had April 16th set out for three months as the day to go see some great bands.  Intense anticipation mounted in my heart each day until it was broken yesterday.  What's the conflict, you ask?

A STINKIN' CHOIR CONCERT!!!

Yes, choir!  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy choir, but this shatters my entire universe.  I was sooooo pumped to go to this concert with some great friends of mine and I just realized yesterday that we have a choir concert with a conflicting date.  The choir date has been set since the beginning of the school year.  I just never thought to look.

I don't think there's a moral to this story other than conflicts suck.

Above the Golden State, Part II

Back in November, I reviewed Above the Golden State's rookie self-titled release.  Now, 4 months later, I get to write about a live performance.  It was interesting...

Saturday, March 21, the Truth, Hope and Love tour made a stop at North Parkersburg Baptist Church in Parkersburg, WV.  Building 429 was headlining and previous acts consisted of Kimber Rising, After Edmund, and ATGS.

I was honestly there just to see ATGS.  I actually left during intermission, before Building 429's performance, in order to make it back to campus for some birthday socializing.  But anyways, the concert was interesting for more reasons than this...

I eagerly awaited ATGS as Jared, the MC for the night, walked on stage to thank Kimber Rising and announce the next act.  "So help me welcome Michael!" yelled Jared.  Wait a second.  Michael?  Just Michael?  What about the rest of the band?  I came to see Above the Golden State.  Not Michael.  Boy, was I in for a surprise.

Turns out, the rest of the band was back in Oregon doing ministry with their churches.  Okay, I guess I can excuse that.

So Michael ended up giving us a five-song acoustic performance.  I'm not gonna lie - I'm glad the rest of the band was back doing ministry.  Not just because ministry is a great thing, but because the acoustic performance was awesome.  I already know all of their songs off the album, so to hear them live and acoustic was really cool.  Now I also see how playable they are, so I have some work cut out for me.

After his set, I also got to talk to him for a bit.  For more regarding that go here.

photo courtesy of newreleasetuesday.com

Winter Jam 2009

On Saturday, Jan. 31, some friends and I headed west to Columbus for one of the best concerts I've ever attended.  The Monday prior to the concert, I had no idea the thing existed.  A simple FCA announcement turned into my weekend plans and how grateful I am that they did.

The Winter Jam, a seven or eight band extravaganza is currently on tour and for the convenient cost of free (tickets were only $10 but we got our hands on some free passes) I experienced all of these bands, concluding with a eardrum-throbbing performance from tobyMac - but I'll get to him shortly.

First, we got to Shottenstein center in Columbus around 4 p.m., an hour before the doors opened.  Lines were already backed up at each entrance to the arena and we picked the shortest line we could find.  But there was a reason it was short - it was already in the teens temperature wise and we picked the line in the shade.  Bad idea.

But after the wait, we managed to grab decent floor seats in what would eventually be a packed out Schottenstein Center, which seats over 20,000 people.  The only seats were in the nosebleeds way behind the stage.

The music got started shortly after five with a pre-concert from Stephanie Smith - an up-and-comer who didn't disappoint.  The rest of the evening went in this order:

Pure NRG - hats off to three kids at 13, 14, and 16 years old.

Francesca Batestelli

NewSong

Barlow Girl

Brandon Heath - unfortunately, he only got three songs, although he was still awesome

tobyMac

Okay, so now tobyMac.  Prior to the concert I had never really listed to Toby.  I didn't have anything against him (I know now that I would have loved his music) but I just didn't listen to it.  I knew a few of his songs but couldn't tell you more than one title.  But that all changed after Saturday night.

When tobyMac took the stage, it was obvious that my face was about to get rocked off.  His stage crew, Diverse City, was right there with him, laying down beats and lyrics that had the crowd throwing their fists and bobbing their heads.  It's had to put into words what the concert was like.  You could listen to his CD's, but they don't do a justice to a live performance.

Enhancing the already stellar lyrics and music was breakdancing, turntable solos, synchronized steps (not your typical N-Sync moves), and a finale crowsurf from Toby with confetti as icing.  The most gut-wrenching feeling was when the bass reverberated through my body.  This wasn't the typical feeling from the pounding of a bass drum.  This was some type of synthesized base that was felt for a couple seconds each beat.  I could feel several short pounds for each throbbing note.  I'll just say that it's a good thing I went to the bathroom before the concert because I didn't have any spare underwear on hand.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better performance.  Especially since I got the whole deal for free.  tobyMac - you have a new fan.

Great Lineup

Here I am, two weeks down the road from my last blog entry.  I really do want to keep this thing updated.  Procrastination is the stinkin' devil.  Anyways...

April is a good ways off, but within it is a concert that I will hopefully be attending.  On April 16, a lineup of five bands will be performing at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio as a part of the Rock and Worship Roadshow.  The performers are:

Jeremy Camp

Tenth Avenue

 North

Addison Road

Mercy Me

Hawk Nelson

I don't know who is headlining this thing.  But I don't really care.  Those are five pretty awesome bands, especially the first two I listed, and I'm seeing them for ten bucks!  Yeah, $10 at the door and that's it.  First come, first serve.  

I was just recently opened up to Tenth Avenue North and I love them.  They have great lyrics which to me is the primary thing.  I have always been a big Jeremy Camp fan, as well.  Simple yet powerful lyrics and relatively easy songs to play on the guitar.  I've actually seen Addison Road and Mercy Me before, but another performance can never be a bad thing.  And for Hawk Nelson, never really listened to them.  Nothing against them, I have one of their CDs it's just not a top priority.

Unfortunately, Thursday is my busy day as far as classes go.  So we'll see how that plays out.  But I just have to be there.

He's by our side

First off, in response to my last post, my dad did figure out the CD player. Phew - that would have been a long trip without music.

I wanted to share some lyrics from a song that has recently been playing over and over in my mind. It's "By Your Side" by Tenth Avenue North. I've been struggling lately just in feeling close to God. This distance is large in part due to a lack of being in the Word and in prayer. I was talking with a buddy of mine, Anthony Mossburg, a few days ago and he mentioned this song. I had heard of it before (it's quite popular on Christian radio) but I hadn't really listened to what it was saying. The song is an encouraging note from God's point of view of not turning away from Him. Please read these lyrics and let them sink in as God's Truth to us and an amazing gift that He and only He can give:

Why are you striving these days?

Why are you trying to earn grace?

Why are you crying?

Let me lift up your face

Just don't turn away.

Why are you looking for love?

Why are you searching as if I'm not enough?

To where will you go, child?

Tell me where will you run?

To where will you run?

And I'll be by your side

Wherever you fall

In the dead of night

Whenever you call

And please don't fight

These hands that are holding you

My hands are holding you.

Look at these hands and my side

They swallowed the grave on that night

When I drank the world's sin

So I could carry you in

And give you life

I want to give you life

I'll be by your side

Whenever you call

In the dead of night

Wherever you fall

And please don't fight

These hands that are holding you

My hands are holding you

'Cause I, I love you

I want you to know

That I, I love you

I'll never let you go

It kind of reminds me of 2 Timothy 2:13 - "if we are faithless, he will remain faithful."

Amen!