Making connection, making magic

I'm in Fort Collins, Colorado this week for the biannual CRU conference. So one night I went to a concert of the band, Needtobreathe.  Great name - the chosen spelling takes your breath away even as you read it! The week was packed with teaching and fellowship and entertainment, like this particular evening. It turned out neither the band nor most of the audience  knew what to expect from the evening....

Needtobreathe was started by two brothers from rural South Carolina- their daddy was a preacher and the boys played football and guitars.  A bass player joined them, they have a keyboard player and a drummer who tour with them.  They play very loud rock music and I couldn't understand most of the lyrics.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needtobreathe

                    needtobreathe.net


The band didn't know the reception they would have. At one point in the evening, the lead vocalist said they expected about 150 people to come. I'd estimate at least a thousand people were in the CSU Moby arena.


Low expectations.

I was going along for an interesting experience.
They had committed their band without assurance of numbers.  

Just letting life happen.

Magic.


Turns out some people did know the band and the lyrics. In typical rock concert style, the young adults stood at the front of the arena floor and yelled song titles, jumped up and down and sang the lyrics. They were close enough to smell the sweat of the hardworking musicians.  Some of us were more content to be further back, more removed from the crowd but the sheer excellence of the musicians revived that "I remember when rock music moved me like this..." and I just soaked in the notes.

But both generations of the audience were caught up with the lead vocalist when he couldn't hold back his tears and sang,

Daddy was a preacher
She was his wife
Just tryin to make the world a little better
You know, shine a light
People started talking
Just to hear their own voice
Those people tried to accuse my father
Said he made the wrong choice
Though it might be painful
You know that time will always tell
Those people have long since gone
My father never failed

And we all sang together,

 Even when the rain falls

Even when the flood starts rising
Even when the storm comes
I am washed by the water

At the end, we stood and clapped and stomped, and insisted on an encore.  Bear Rinehart returned alone and accompanied himself on a quiet acoustic guitar for "Difference Maker"

Yeah ain't it just amazing
How a god can tend a broken man
Yeah let him find a fortune
And then ruin it with his own two hands
Oh isn't it amazing
How a man can find himself alone
Calling through the darkness
For an answer that is never known
He walks on up the hill
The rock on which he stands
Looks back at the crowd
Looks down at his hands and he says
I am a difference maker

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/needtobreathe/differencemaker.html

He was singing to a crowd of Christians who have devoted either this season or their entire life to making a difference in their world.  And he knew it.  The three other vocalist joined him around a single microphone and when he lost the lyrics, he stopped and said, "I've lost the lyrics. I'm starting over 'cause I want YOU to get this.

Yeah I am on the fence about
Nearly everything I've seen
And I have felt the fire
Put out with too much gasoline
And we're all strangers passing through
Places one afternoon
And life is but a vision
In a window that we're peeking thorough
A hopeless conversation
With a man who says he cares a lot
It's a hopeless confrontation
About who might throw a punch or not
But we are all transgressors
We're all sinners
We're all astronauts
So if you're beating death
Then raise your hand
And shut up if you're not

The rest of the band joined them and we all sang, 

Oh I am a difference maker
Oh I am the only one who speaks to him
And I am the friendliest of friends of god

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/needtobreathe/washedbythewater.html

Is it perfect theology? No  Did I love the music? No. Was it still magic? Yes.  

Anytime people reach out across the divide and souls touch, I'll call it magic.  The band came to do a free concert  and expected a small crowd who may not have known them.  This isn't a typical Christian worship band. The lyrics are gritty and cryptic.  We didn't all lift our hands and sway in unison as we repeated the same line over and over.    But it was obvious that the connection was made- the crowd was receptive and the band members responded with a entire second set of wonderful music. 

What's my point?  I almost skipped this evening. I'm here to visit with old friends on staff and they weren't going to the concert.  I listened to a Needtobreathe song on youtube and I knew it would be loud rock music but  even I could recognize their musical ability. And an new friend, a younger believer, knew and liked the band. She wanted to go. 

 I love all live music- there is something about the ability of creative people to put their work and themselves on the line and be willing to risk the exposure that draws me in.  The intersection of creative vulnerability and my curiosity is always.... well, magic.