Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Observations from the mountains

I had a funny moment in the mountains. Brian's gig was a youth convocation; there were about 400ish youth present, as well as their 50ish chaperones and leaders. The sessions were held in the conference rooms of our hotel. The youth met in a huge room, while the adults met across the hall. I liked having separate youth and adult tracts, by the way, but that's not what was funny. What was funny was this - the youth had, of course, an ubercool worship band with dyed black hair and feauxhawks and a well-planned media presentation. The adults had Brian and three of his musician friends, with Brian being the youngest on the stage by a good twenty years, and a few slides during the lecture. We arrive at the hotel after maaaanny hours of driving through the woods, and Brian immediately begins unloading equipment and rehearsing. Which makes this just like every other gig. Except that I haven't been to a gig in a long time, and I forgot about the warp time that one enters, during which 2 am is a logical time to rehearse and sound check. I awoke at 1 am and went downstairs to check on Brian. I hear drums and rock band noises, and out of habit follow the sound of electric guitar. It's not Brian. It's the feauxhawk guy, ten years younger than Brian, doing their sound check in the middle of the night, too. I went across the hall and the band looked like a 20th reunion tour ... I expected to open the door and hear Puff the Magic Dragon. Maybe I'm not describing it well, maybe you had to be there, but it cracked me up. Here we are, ten years later. Still playing, but with a different crowd.

This leads me to my first observation from the weekend. I had the privilege of spending the weekend with a man who can best be desccribed as a fifty-something hippie religious musician. This man could have done anything music-related with his life. He could hold his ground against any musician in Nashville on a stringed instrument, but here he is, leading worship for fifty adults, pastoring a small church in Alabama, and working in an elementary school. There is an honesty and a wisdom and an idealism and an integrity found in his life that I don't see anywhere else. I hope you have the opportunity to know someone like him in your life. I know three - three fifty-something hippie Christian musicians, and each of them have devoted their lives to serving others. Every time I am around any of them, I learn more about who God is, who I am, and who I hope to be when I'm fifty.

That's all for now. More observations to come.

3 comments:

Cindy said...

BEAUTIFUL post.

Anonymous said...

There is something to be said for using ones gifts to serve others, rather than to serve oneself.

Liz said...

wow, when did brian cross the threshold to old? :) just kidding of course. but that is funny to see the shift, but to know that he is still using his gift, and using it well!! i miss the days of following the boys and their gigs - its how i really got to know you, and mechelle, and mary. good times. :)