The year Mike and I got married I bought my first CD. It was Mr. Peterson's first, Carried Along. It has carried me through so many experiences. Through the years I have collected CD after CD choosing favorite songs and those sweet melodies that ring the truth loud and clear when my world is screaming around me. He has written books and last May we had the privilege of meeting him as he was the guest author at Mike's school. We were all giddy with excitement and so humbled to find that he was every bit the sinner and saint that his music claims he is. In short, he's the real deal.
So, last night we got the little girls all squared away and headed out for our evening with Andrew. Y'all, it's just good. It's the Gospel to music that is intricate and beautiful. His lyrics are smart and sensitive. He has the right combination of scoundrel and saint. You know how some music is all, "We are so bad and so bad and so bad," where other music is, "Awesome, awesome, awesome"? I love a combination. A song that says, "I am so bad...so lost and so wretched, but in Christ I am glorified, forgiven and free." I also love the stories behind the music. I have always loved music and poetry and growing up we had a TV in our room (at my Dad's). I'd watch VH1 and MTV after a long day at the beach to see the stories behind the songs. I love to hear how something got to music. Andrew Peterson's concerts are full of those explanations and joy in the Lord. I could go on...but I am bordering on creepy, right? So, all this to say I was a little sad that I didn't send out mass e-mails annoying everyone about going to this concert. Typically I am alone in my tastes (John Denver anyone?) and it usually ends up being more work. So, I selfishly took the easier route. Sitting there I thought, "Man, my friends would so love this. They would be so refreshed by this ministry of music." Then I thought, "Who wouldn't love Heaven?" When was the last time I invited someone to Heaven? When was the last time that I got super fired up about the Lover of my soul, to the point of reading and memorizing His words, as much as I do Andrew Peterson's? I cannot listen to his music and NOT sing along. I do not, however, know all of God's words. I know some of them, but I've got some to go! I wonder will I arrive in Heaven and think, "OH MY GOODNESS ______________ WOULD LOVE IT HERE!" It was a little challenging. My heart was a little sad. I just wanted to say I was sorry for not telling so many folks about the concert....and Heaven. I am going to be praying for more opportunities...no, I know I have opportunities perhaps I just need to have eyes to see them...and the kind of passion that is only cultivated when you spend a lot of time listening to Someone's Words.
Am I alone in this? Does anyone else get way more excited about the next new thing while the Creator of Heaven and Earth is preparing a place for us? More thrilled about the amazon.com box that finally showed up than having an opportunity to bring Living Water to thirsty souls? More fired up about the next election or sermon series looking to anything but Heaven to bring deliverance. Guilty as charged. That's part of the struggle of living on this side of eternity. I want to say that I don't know what the solution is, but I think I know...it's spending time thinking about Him. It's listening to His words and allowing His finger to pen them on the tablet of our hearts, engrave them on our doorposts and be our very food. It's loving Him. So simple, and yet we are so divided. Our hearts are crooked little liars leading us to almost always choose the good over the best. The good won't kill us immediately, but over time it will dull our desires until we settle for drinking from broken cisterns. So, next time, I'm hounding you all because if there is anything an AP concert does for me is 1. Make me want to know Jesus more, and 2. Make Him known.
New to Andrew Peterson and interested in starting your own collection? :) Seriously, one of our family's favorites is the Behold the Lamb of God CD. It is a skillfully crafted story of The Story from Abraham to Jesus. It is, absolutely brilliant. After that...there are treasures on every single CD. Do you have a favorite?
A few of my favorite lines...only a few....
From Just as I am on Love and Thunder (I think...they all run together)
All of my life
I've held on to this fear
Its thistles and vines
Ensnare and entwine
What flowers appeared
It's the fear that I'll fall
One too many times
It's the fear that His love
Is no better than mine
(but He says that)
Just as I am and just as I was
Just as I will be He loves me, He does
He showed me the day that He shed His own blood
He loves me, oh, He loves me, He does
He loves me, oh, He loves me, He does
Fool With a Fancy Guitar on Counting Stars (It's the whole song...its so good!)
It's so easy to cash in these chips on my shoulders
So easy to loose this old tongue like a tigerIt's easy to let all this bitterness smolder
Just to hide it away like a cigarette lighter
It's easy to curse and to hurt and to hinder
It's easy to not have the heart to remember
That I am a priest and a prince in the Kingdom of God
I've got voices that scream in my head like a siren
Fears that I feel in the night when I sleep
Stupid choices I made when I played in the mire
Like a kid in the mud on some dirty blind street
I've got sorrow to spare, I've got loneliness too
I've got blood on these hands that hold on to the truth
That I am a priest and a prince in the Kingdom of God
I swore on the Bible not to tell a lie
But I've lied and lied
And I crossed my heart and I hoped to die
And I've died and died
But if it's true that you gathered my sin in your hand
And you cast it as far as the east is from the west
If it's true that you put on the flesh of a man
And you walked in my shoes through the shadow of death
If it's true that you dwell in the halls of my heart
Then I'm not just a fool with a fancy guitar
No, I am a priest and a prince in the Kingdom of God
I could go on...but go on...but I have too many! Let me know what you think!
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