MercyMe What a Concert!

As promised, I'm back to jot down a few thoughts I have about one of the highlight events of my summer.  Seeing MercyMe in concert.  First a little history of my love for this band.

The first time I heard of them was the night they won a Dove Award for I Can Only Imagine.  I remember wanting someone else to win and thinking, "Who are these guys anyway?".  Later in the show they performed the song.  After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I said, "OK, I can see why they won."

My next experience was seeing them at the NYS Fair.  MercyMe opened for Michael W. Smith.  Mind you, at this time I only knew one song.  We were there for Michael.  But when they sang Here With Me I fell in love.  You can hear it here.  If that title isn't familiar to you, you must take 4 minutes right now to listen to it.  You won't be sorry, I promise.  In fact, whenever this song comes on the radio and any of my family is around - I remind them that this song is the one that made me fall in love with MercyMe.  They tend to roll their eyes, often cutting me off before I even finish with "I know Mom,you tell us every time we hear it".  I don't get it...I simply feel that is important information about me that they need to know.  (repeatedly)

At that point, there was no turning back. I had then become MercyMe's #1 fan. CD after cd, this band keeps knocking it out of the park.  I'm drawn to their music because it is obvious in the lyrics of every song that they walk closely to the Lord and have a very mature faith.  I dig that.

Fast forwarding (aren't you thankful?) to August 17.  Because I had been waiting five years since seeing them last, I was pretty excited as you can imagine.  I even started an impromptu "name that tune" game in the car of all the MercyMe songs on my ipod, which is pretty much every MercyMe song recorded.  I didn't play - Drew and Scott said it wouldn't be fair. That's true. Still, they both did well.  We'll call it a tie.  It served as an excellent warmup to the main event.  Just ask them.  I know they enjoyed it too.  :)

Whoops.  That was a little departure.  Back to the story.  We had been given the tickets so we had no idea where our seats were.  I kept telling Scott that I didn't care if the seats were close, but I needed to be able to stand (to worship properly) if necessary, and I knew it would be necessary.  So we arrived at the theater, collected our tickets and found ourselves in the middle of the balcony.  Standing would be awkward and upsetting to our row-mates if they weren't wanting to stand as much as I wanted to.  What to do?

As 7:30 neared, we noticed down closer to the stage, but still in the balcony, plenty of empty seats.  As soon as the lights went down, Scott and I looked at each other then high-tailed it down there.  Front row right of balcony.  Perfect!  (see pic - not bad, huh?) A few people followed, but no one was behind us.  We stood for almost the whole concert.  It was glorious!  I think we worshiped our faces off.  Definitely would have embarrassed our kids.

About half way through the concert (the only time we sat down) Bart, the lead singer spoke for awhile.  His words were ministering to my heart so much that I rummaged around to find something to write on for fear of forgetting all this good stuff.  Here's some of what he said:

• In a personal testimony, he said it's bad to get into a place of routine.  We can become complacent, rely on ourselves and certainly not expect God to do anything different or awesome.  Not a good place to be.
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• We claim to serve an awesome God and sing songs declaring such, but then we pray weak prayers.  We beg God for a little tiny bit feeling unworthy and maybe don't even expect Him to answer.  We should expect bigger answers because  He is a BIG God and is completely powerful to do anything.  Do we believe it?  Then let's pray that way.
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• Many of the prayers we do say are prayers that have already been answered.  Imagine God answering you like this.  When you pray:  "God, give me strength."  God says, "You have My strength." When you pray: "God, I want to be holy."  He says, "You are holy.  I've made you holy."  "God, I want to be whole."  "You are whole and complete in Christ."  We already have everything we're asking for.  Now we just need to act like it!
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• My sin can't pull me out of the hand of Christ.  
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• We should be dangerous to the enemy because we have access to the King of Kings.  We have everything that He is.
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• See yourself as God sees you.  The Holy Spirit lives in you.  You are worth more than you think or feel.  You  have been set free.  What more are you waiting for?

If you skimmed that part, go back and read it again.  I'll wait for you.  I pray it will encourage you too.  That it will challenge all of us in the way we pray and the way we believe God sees us.  My heart needed to hear all those things.  Had I not been writing furiously in the dark, I might have had a good cry.
 
Next they sang a song that will be on the radio soon called You Are I Am.  Scott and I made eye contact.  It kind of took our breath away. We've listened to that song at home a whole bunch of times, but what a difference!  Scott remarked later that he was amazed how God will use such familiar songs (did I mention Scott, the kids and I have memorized every word of every MM song whether on purpose or not?) to speak perfectly into what's going on in our lives today.  I love that too. Waste no time and listen to it here.  Then buy it. You'll want to listen to the whole The Hurt and The Healer cd over and over again.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I loved this concert - every minute and it was too short.  It was worth every penny we didn't have to pay for it. They pretty much sang every song I predicted and wanted to hear. And what was spoken was every bit as important was what was sung.  I left happy.  Very happy.  This is why I go to concerts given by Christian artists.  To worship loud with big crowds and to be encouraged in my faith.  You should too.  I'll let you know the next time MercyMe is close by. 

You Are I Am

I've been the one to shake with fear
And wonder if You're even here
I've been the one to doubt Your love
I've told myself You're not enough
I've been the one to try and say
I'll overcome by my own strength
I've been the one to fall apart
And start to question who You are

You're the One who conquers giants
You're the One who calls out kings
You shut the mouths of lions
You tell the dead to breathe
You're the One who walks through fire
You take the orphan's hand
You are the One Messiah
You are I AM

I've been the one held down in chains
Beneath the weight of all my shame
I've been the one to believe
That where I am, You cannot reach

The veil is torn
And now I live
With the Spirit inside
With the same One
The very same One
Who brought the Son back to life!

Hallelujah, He lives in me!

Surrounded by Beauty....Our Vacation in Pictures

Hi my friends,

It's been a long time since I've written.  Decided not to do so while were away and I'm sure it was the right decision.  Today ended our two week vacation - back to work.  We had such a good time.  I'm so thankful to be in this family with my most favorite people...and that most of the time, we behave that way and have tons of fun together.  Many experiences made me think "I'll have to blog about that" because you were on my mind.  When you live in community with people you love and just plain like, you think about them all the time and wish they could  be experiencing what you are when you are.  That was kind of a run on sentence, but you understand, right?  So, if you're interested, keep on reading.

The backdrop leading up to vacation was that Ben and Ally had been away for two weeks back to back.  One was a teen leadership conference in PA and the other a week of camp at Word of Life Island.  They came home in between for one short sleep, a few loads of laundry and they were off again.  Turns out we missed them....a lot.  Especially Drew, I think.  He may have been getting tired of being the sole recipient of all the parental love and attention around here.

Also, three days before vacation started, I went on a little pre-vacation mini-vacation with a friend of mine.  Sandy's sister lives in a house by the beach in CT.  I loaded up on library books and went on a little girlfriend road trip.  We sat on the beach nearly nonstop for 2 days.  It was wonderful.  The sounds and smells are soothing.  I even kept a short list of words we rarely speak in these parts.  Like barnacle, high tide, low tide, reef, and more. I know that's nerdy, but I like words!  I read Ruth Bell Graham's biography.  I was moved and stirred by her life and the impact she and her famous husband Billy Graham, had on so many. Made me glad that I counseled every night at the Billy Graham Crusade in Syracuse back in 1987.  I prayed that we would be a couple and a family that lives so intently for the single purpose to make God known.

Early mornings on an empty beach cannot be overrated.  I would walk and talk with God about everything on my mind and heart. I felt better just saying it all out loud, knowing he listens.  I prayed for everyone I love and some I'm not so sure about.  And because there really was no one on the beach I brought my ipod with me and sang my praises to God.  Yes....out loud.  And LOUD.  Why not?  The waves drowned out my voice should any human have overheard.  Big deal you might say, but it is a big deal when on a normal day one is not encouraged even by those closest to her to sing loud, or even out loud.  Take that!  I think God liked it.  Nothing like the vast seashore where you can see forever to stand with arms open wide and sing "God is bigger than the air I breathe..."  Oh yes, He is!  I was fully rested and ready to spend the next week with Scott and the kids and not require much alone time.  Make a note - do this every year.  However, upon my return, my husband informed me that I would not be going on vacation without him ever again.  I guess he missed me.  I'll take that too.

So, vacation started immediately after church on Sunday.  We high tailed it out to SpiedieFest to hear Mark Schultz in concert.  We enjoyed it very much - though it was way too short.  Then we had lunch with fun friends and had this (see gyro and homemade potato chips in right pic).  Oh my....vacation eating commenced. Later that night we got the kids back and packed up.  Monday morning we set out very early because I was determined to get to Bingham's Family Restaurant for their unbelievable weekday special.  2 eggs, homefries, breakfast meat, a large homemade cinnamon roll, coffee and juice for $2.50.  You'd get up at 6am for that too!  We made it on time (by 6:45am) but unbeknownst to me, the special wasn't on Mondays.  Well, I was made fun of for days for that little blunder.  Nevertheless, we got an early start.

We arrived at Virginia Beach around 2pm to pouring rain.  Then we got a room much smaller (less beds) than we reserved - so we just went to Chick-Fil-A to settle down.  The next 3 nights we squeezed into that tiny room watching the Olympics and playing games.  It was fun.  Even with big kids.  Ally said the room was too cold, but hey, you've got to enjoy air conditioning when you can. We spent our days doing this....and the whiteys burned even though the sun barely shone. 

I have so many pictures exactly like this taken through the years.  I couldn't resist.  Even big kids need a nap sometimes.

They seem proud of those sunburns....amateurs!

We then spent a few days with Scott's sister and her family in Northern VA.  This was fun and comfortable and included a trip to IKEA where my husband bought me counter space.  Can I tell you  how happy this makes me?  Space to work!  YES! I started baking immediately upon arrival at home.



 Unfortunately, we had to come home for the 2nd week of vacation because the kids needed to be at tryouts for soccer and volleyball.  I wondered how this would go as I don't sit still for long very well and worse, I don't watch others sit well when we are at home and could be doing house jobs (some refer to this as slave driver behavior.  That would be spoken by unmotivated procrastinators).  After a few days, I had the notion to paint the dining room, which led to the living room and my bookshelves.  I even got my firstborn to paint my hutch.  This baby has been natural wood, red, and dark brown over the years.  Now it is antiqued in this color...and I loooove it!  Worth all the $25 we paid for it at a garage sale.

A very special and talented friend took Ben's senior pictures this week - as well as a few family photos.  If you're interested, you can look at some of them here.

We could have sat here for a few more days!

 At the end of the week, we parted ways again for the last time this summer.  Ben and Ally went to NYC with their youth group to feed the homeless.  Did I mention how thankful I am for the amazing opportunities these kids have had through our church this summer?


Scott, Drew and I headed up to the Adirondacks to watch Drew graduate from his 2nd year at Word of Life Bible Institute.  This was the view from our chalet.  WOW!
Talk about being surrounded by God's created beauty...took our breath away!

Just like last year, I found myself overwhelmed with gratitude that God would let part of my story be written into Drew's story.  We prayed that God will preserve all that he has learned and experienced and multiply it into major spiritual growth and fruit that brings God much glory!  I'm convinced we just can't cram too much God and Bible into our kids' lives as long as we do it with the same passion in which we are pursuing Him in our own life.  

That's about it for our 2 weeks.  Packed full.  We are all grateful for a little respite, time away together and being surrounded by beauty in many parts of our little world. Everything points to God and He is so good.  Thank you for hanging with me this long and enjoying it with me, but in all fairness to you, I must confess that I left out a MAJOR event in this vacation (mostly because I wanted you to be free to get back to your life!).  And also because I want to give it more space.  What's the event?  That would be the MercyMe concert, of course!  Oh my....I have so much to tell you - I even took notes during the concert so that I wouldn't forget anything.  Stay tuned.....