I caught a glimpse of heaven tonight.
So I'm at this Rock and Worship Roadshow thing, right, because I was invited and the ticket wasn't bad and I generally like David Crowder and Mercy Me...and my friends Jennie, Katherine, Chris and I are surrounded by teenagers and I'm feeling like I'm probably past the point in my life where I should be attending teeny bopper worship tours and it's noisy, which I don't usually dig, and crowded, and everything is expensive, and the bands are trying to get us to jump but I don't want to jump and I'm just a bit annoyed... then.
Mercy Me comes on. Within three words, it becomes painfully apparent that something is up with the lead singer's voice. It actually hurts my throat to listen to him. He struggles through the first song and then confesses that he woke up sick this morning. As the next song starts, he tries to sing the first verse, but it just isn't happening. So the crowd takes over. Loudly. I know crowds always sing at concerts, but what's different here is he just stops. He stops singing and hurting and he lets us take it. And the look on that man's face, hearing strangers carry the song for him, well, let's just say you could see God show up for him in that moment. He couldn't stop smiling. Tearing up, but smiling.
Community, right? I think this broke me because it's been so evident to me lately how blessed I am, how blessed we are, to have people who will carry the song for us when we don't have a voice. Without hesitating, without even thinking, people step in. I think this is when God is at His most glorious and apparent in our lives - when He places people around us who are walking, talking, tangible ambassadors of grace. Because having God is amazing and humbling and indescribable, but he's difficult to hug and not always easy to hear. So he networks with ordinary everybodies and gets the message to us through each other. Which is nothing short of awesome.
I think the lead singer guy was enjoying hearing us sing to him, because he started making requests. During the second verse of Amazing Grace it hit me that we were participating in an amazing act of grace at that very moment, and that this sound, the thousand voices singing sound, would be a pretty great sound to hear for the rest of eternity. Some days are hard, and my throat hurts, and I'm tired, and I'm frustrated, and I'm sad, but some days are full of amazing grace.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: God is good all the time.
love.
