Tag Archives: concert

A little quiet please

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Only a keyboard, guitar, and sometimes bass guitar.  Just the sound of clear voices and lilting melodies, an evening well spent.  I wish there were more like that.  I enjoyed the concert by Audrey Assad and JJ Heller (and her husband) so much and one of the biggest reasons was the simplicity and the quiet.  No giant stadium with thousands of people, but a church sanctuary with 200-300.  No electric guitars or drums or booming sound that makes your heart pound, but personal songs easily heard and understood.

I have nothing against loud music, being a big fan of that myself sometimes, but more and more my heart yearns for quietness.  It seems as I grow older I long for it more and more.  I wonder why?  I refuse to believe it’s because I’m not hip or cool anymore.  I don’t think it’s because I have narrow opinions or are old-fashioned.  I think it’s because the longer I live life amidst the clamoring of the world, the more I crave getting away, a reprieve, moments when there is nothing blaring at me and wI can think.  Sometimes, it’s because I’m tired.  When I’m tired I don’t want noise, I want stillness and solitude.

Jesus often went away by himself to pray and I’m sure to collect His thoughts, to process things that were happening and were going to happen, and to stay near God, his Father.  When I hear God’s voice whispering to me to come away and be quiet and I don’t do it, an agitated restlessness starts taking over.  If I try to soothe that agitation with other things, people, or activities it doesn’t work.  For some reason I just can’t give myself permission to stop “doing things” and rest.  That is a problem I need to let Jesus help me solve because it takes its toll.

Today I don’t feel well and I think it’s one of God’s ways of stopping me and forcing me to just be still and enjoy quiet.  Last night was the perfect head start.

The sun is shining outside and I hear one of my porch chairs calling my name.  I think I’ll take a book, in case I want to read, but mostly I think I’ll sit, soak in warm sunlight and stare out into the green grassy yard.  Thank you, Jesus, for quiet. You’re going to sit with me, too, right?

Only in returning to me
    and resting in me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.  Isaiah 30:15  NLT

 It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, 
      and work your worried fingers to the bone. 
   Don’t you know he enjoys 
      giving rest to those he loves?  Psalm 127:2-3 The Message

Give Me Jesus

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Have you ever eaten lots of “junk” and sugary stuff to the point that the next time you feel hungry you crave real food – meat and potatoes, home cooked, hot, delicious and nutritious real food?

That’s a pretty good description of how I feel (the feeling seems to have grown in the last few years) when I watch some of the Christmas shows and movies on TV or hear some of the songs that are played over the Muzak at work.  Not bad, not offensive, just no real substance.  There is that one song that for some reason makes me want to shoot the speakers with a BB gun.  You may have heard it, “last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away. This year to save me from tears I’ll give it to someone special…”  It kind of sets my teeth on edge.

For me it’s not enough to say Christmas is about children, snow, cookies, Santa, shopping, giving gifts, or about family, or about being kind, or about helping homeless or needy people.  Those are all good things but there’s so much more.

I feel a suppressed frustration, almost anger, that the meaning of Christmas has been diluted so much by some in our culture.  To cut Jesus out of Christmas for me is like asking me to survive on a diet of nothing but marshmallow fluff. Continue reading →

Jealous God

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I remember hearing years ago about Oprah’s turning away from mainline Christian faith into her confusing mixture of new age beliefs.  She was sitting in church and heard the preacher say something about God being a jealous God.  She thought to herself that if God was jealous of her, what kind of insecure god is that?  She ventured away from traditional views of God and into a nebulous tangle of self-deifying thinking.

I think she misunderstood.  I agree that the word jealous usually has negative connotations.  I was taught growing up that it’s not good to be jealous.  Someone should have told Oprah that God isn’t jealous of her as if He wants to be her, He is jealous of her attention.  He wants her heart and life to be centered on Him and not other things or people.

I caught a glimpse of what this means tonight.  I have these revelations in the oddest places in the strangest timing sometimes.  I was standing in a concert enjoying beautiful, awesome worship music with thousands of other enthusiastic people when I got clearer understanding about this.

I have some hurt over people in my life who have held me at arm’s length or refused my initiations at love or interaction.  When I see them react positively to others and not to me, I feel jealous.  I want that attention and love.  I felt God say that is how He has felt with me lately.

I have allowed myself to get caught up in busyness for a while now.  I’ve been restless and my prayer times have been short and kind of perfunctory.  I know that what I need and really want most is that nearness to God but I keep allowing other things take my attention and time away.  I don’t understand why I do it either and have felt very frustrated with myself.

Tonight I heard God tell me that He’s a jealous God and He wants my attention.  He doesn’t want me to hold Him at arm’s length, saying “later, God” or “I need to do this first” or “I want to give my attention to this instead.”

Can He forgive me for the fourteen-millionth time?  He said “Yes.”

Tonight at the concert Louie Giglio reminded us that extravagant worship happens when we are faced with God’s extravagant grace.  I fully agree.  When I remember my place and what God has done for me, His mercy and patience extended to me over and over again, the only reaction I can give with full sincerity is thankfulness and worship.

I prayed that the other relationship I long to have restored will be someday, but also that I will be thankful I have a jealous God who even notices I’m alive, much less wants me to spend time with Him and live in close relationship with Him.

Bummer

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img_0387Yesterday afternoon I hopped into our gold mini-van with my three daughters and two of their friends.  We headed happily down the road toward Ft. Wayne to see “Winter Jam” an annual concert event with 5-6 great Christian bands and a speaker.  My girls and I have probably been to 4-5 Winter Jams in the past few years and love it every time.  We had been looking forward to it for several months.

The cool thing about Winter Jam is that the tickets are only $10 each.  Of course, there is no reserved seating so you have to get there early to get a good seat.  We didn’t think about the fact that if enough peeps showed up, you have to get there early to get a seat period.  Well, we weren’t as early this year with the 2-hour drive and having to wait until school was out to take off so when we got there, the doors had already opened and there was a mile-long line twisting and winding all through the broad parking lot.  img_0393At least it was sunny out, even though still chilly.  We waited, walked a few steps, waited some more, hoped and hoped as we got closer that before long the line would really start moving and we’d be finding our way to some seats and an awesome evening of music, shouting, standing and clapping, and fun.

img_0390A guy came out and started walking from the back of the line up toward where we stood.  We heard him telling people something as he walked along.  As he got closer we heard him talking about an extra music appearance at a local church following the concert and then he turned to us and said, “You’re not getting in.  Sold out show.”  After a moment of shock and disbelief, the line started breaking up as the people around us began to wander back to their cars, vans and church buses.  We stood there for a moment looking at each other – “What?!”  “No way!”   Continue reading →