end of February post

It's too bad that I can't post music on this post. I know some blogging websites do but I guess blogger is not one of them. Sad.

If I could post music, I would post a song my husband wrote. "Bouyancy" is what it is called although I call it the "Do-do-do-do-do-do" song. It gets stuck in my head. Constantly.

We're playing a for-real show in a couple weeks at 'The Refuge' which is down in Overland Park. It's a cool space. This will be our first time playing together (us and Cameron) since we moved to Hannibal. This will also be the first show where instead of playing guitar, I'll be singing. Yes. For-real singing. I finally feel confident enough to get on stage in front of lots and lots of people and sing. Of course, Jered will be singing with me but that's not the point. I cannot believe I'm doing this.

Jered's been writing some very beautiful music these past few years. I'd forgotten how impossibly cool his songs were until we were hanging out with Cameron last week and I was shuffling through his songs and picking out ones I wanted to hear. I picked out five. We only have time to play maybe three or four. Sad for us. I'm pretty excited, though, that he gets to finally play this music of his-- and that I get to be with him on stage.

Perhaps my newish-found confidence comes from my job. Or running races. Or leading young women in our youth group. Or maybe it's just 'cause I'm 29 and life moves ever-on and to be frank, there are lots and lots of terrible singers out there who either 1. Don't know they're terrible or 2. Love singing and they don't care how bad they are. Either way, I'm not too terrible and I do like to sing so. . . there we go.

One of my favorite places to sing is in church. I love singing hymns. One of my all time favorite hymns is "Christ our Lord has Risen Today!" which is an Easter song I guess, but I don't really care. When we sing this song, I think of First Presbyterian in Hannibal and I think of that gigantic, old organ and those fabulous stained glass windows that let in the bright yellow sunshine to bounce around that grand high-ceiling room. Oh man, that was pretty darn cool. I remember the first day we accidentally went to that church one Sunday (funny story if you'd like to hear it sometime. . . how we found ourselves in a very traditional Presbyterian church the third Sunday we lived there) and we went to Sunday school and it was nice and all but we were whispering to each other about how we'd made such a mistake and we would certainly find the church we'd been looking for next week. . . but man, when that organ played. . . And we stood in that huge hall with it's mahogany pews and tall, golden stained glass windows. . . And the people sang those beautiful songs and there was such Reverence. The Doxology was beautiful. The Apostles' Creed was beautiful. Everything was Holy and Beautiful.

One of my other favorite hymns is "In Christ Alone" which we used to sing at my church back in St Louis. I've never heard it sung anywhere else with the passion that those people sang it with. I loved how every verse and chorus of the song would build and build and build. When it got to chorus:

And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ. . .

People would cheer. And this was not a cheering church. This was not a jump up and down and shout and lay hands and slay in the spirit and all type of church. This was a very nice church full of very nice middle-class Webster Groves people. But, when the song would build to the power and victory of Christ, there was barely a dry eye in the congregation. It was pretty powerful. And apparently left quite the impression.

I realize I blog a lot about music. And running.

So today I was running and listening to music. I was listening to this Moby CD that I'd heard before and it hadn't really moved me in any way, but then Jered and I listened to it again this past Saturday while driving out to have dinner with friends and the music was just So Cool! It's music to move to-- that is the stuff Moby does, I know-- but we were cruising down Shawnee Mission Pkway heading toward the Plaza and moby just fit the mood of the evening so well. And that's what I was listening to at the park today and it just fit my mood so well. And it fit the sky so well. And the breeze. And the feeling of matching my step with the music just put me in sync with the Universe Itself.

And to think I almost didn't go to the park today. I wanted to go home right after work and see my husband. But working out on the elliptical for all it's cardio benefits doesn't quite move the soul the same way.

Jered just played me a song on the computer, "Good Morning" by Mandesa and TobyMac. He prefaced the song with "Now, I don't normally listen to songs like this. . ." but he said the song reminded him of me. Having listened to it, I agree with both points. He wants to play this song before morning youth every Sunday. I might claim it as my own personal anthem. Except I don't normally listen to songs like this. . .

but then who really should limit the power of music?