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last night was crazy...

My friend Luke and I went to see the Dave Matthews Band last night at Crew Stadium. The evening was interesting to say the least. First, Luke and I had major conversation on the ride up and back. It is great to have diverse friends, both young and old. Luke is about 15 years my junior, but we have many things in common. We are different in the same respect. He is much smarter than I, so it makes for enjoyable conversation. I received a really cool text from Jen giving me a hard time for going to see DMB without her, it made my day. We grabbed a bite to eat and then enjoyed a few minutes of one of our shared favorite past times.... Guitar Center! We played a few guitars we could not afford and then it was off to the concert.

Next we arrived at Crew Stadium to find it to be lacking air conditioning, ok.. I am just admitting it was hot! We walked into the Stadium to immediately find our good friend Devon and his girlfriend. We took a moment to talk about how much better our seats were and then it was off to A2, 17, seat 23 and 24. The stage production looked amazing! I could not wait until the sun went down to check out the lighting. I giant video wall was the back drop. There were 2 tall thin side stage LED video screens and 3 large LED screens that could be raised and lowered to variable heights depending on what look they were going after. Dave walked out to introduce the opening act about an hour before he took the stage. The opener was good. Very talented vocalist.

I started my barrage of DMB tweets on Twitter just before the show started. I received an array of harassing tweets, emails and phone calls from friends who were all very jealous of me at that moment in time :) Some to say..."you are a jerk!" others to say, "dang you are lucky" and even a " I can't believe YOU are at a DMB concert!" The three large LED Video wall was lowered to create a screen for the band to come out and the crowd starting going crazy. The lights came on and with a bang, the screen started raising up over Crew Stadium and the Dave Matthews Band kicked the show off with "Don't drink the water"!

I was impressed with just how little Dave interacts with words with the crowd, but his songs are highly interactive. There were people dancing, jumping, raising hands, pumping fists and singing at the top of their lungs. Most everyone around me knew every word to every song. The band is pretty impressive. It is a great mix of flat out jamming and amazing musicianship. This band is tight.

The concert sort of went like this... Dave sang, band jammed, Dave danced, band jammed some more. Luke is a Dave Matthews Band historian. He spent most of the show shouting the words to ever song, trying to guess which song Dave was going to play next, and letting me know we were witnessing Dave Matthews Band history when Dave decided to play the outro to "so damn lucky" different or share a rare "Water and Wine" moment. DMB covered Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer". WOW! Great cover!

As I stood there singing "Everyday" with the thousands of people, I realized something. Dave is an amazing worship leader. He was leading this giant choir of souls. There were people who were messed up (in more ways than one), broken, beat-down, oppressed, depressed, rejected, confused, hurting and sad. Dave has this ability to help these people forget about the craziness of life for a few hours and just let go. It was a very spiritual event for me. I remember telling Luke, "I am not sure I can continue to lead worship the same way anymore." I think I need to take more risks in worship. I am finding myself in a comfort zone. Not pressing. Not moving forward. Not taking chances. Not writing. Not growing. Not changing. I hate change and at the same time I love it. I am called to change. "Take these chances, Place them in a box until a quieter time, Lights down, you up and die". That is not what I want to do with my chances. Thanks Dave.

Last, Luke and I grabbed a soda at Buckeye Donuts and then went home to crash. Luke knew I needed a little shove and realized Dave was just the guy to do it. God knows I am getting stagnant in worship and He realizes Luke is just the right guy to give me a shove. Thanks Luke.

Finally an update...

It has been a long time since I updated my blog. I have had a great deal of things going on in my life and have had many things worthy of a blog entry. I just have not had anytime to sit down and write. So here is a run down of the last 2 months of my life. Maddie has had soccer practice. She went to a tryout for a U11 Girls team. We are preparing for the fall season. She loves it. Caroline is in gymnastics. Gymnastics takes place during soccer, so Jen and I usually have to split up to cover each. I had been preparing for a Chrysalis Flight. Team meetings and the actually weekend have taken up a great deal of time. The flight went off without a problem. It was a terrific weekend. I huge burden of weight pulled from my shoulders upon its completion. The Band has been playing a lot more lately. The Band looks much different than it use to for the simple reason that we attend River Valley Community Church. It is hard to maintain 2 bands, 2 practices, 2 gigs and keep everyone happy. We have played at a youth detention center, a small festival, a few churches, youth events, and a summer camp. It has been incredible. The core group has been pretty consistent, but we have had a few different bass players sit in with us (Mason, Eli, Brady, and Jesse). I feel a little bad that I am stealing away a few members of the worship team from RVCC and making them play in my band. I think they enjoy it though. :) We have had moments where we have all look at each other in the midst of worship and go... WOW! God you are awesome! Great stuff. We hope we are giving people a more clear path to worship God. We have started Remedy! A young adults gathering that basically is a small fellowship/discussion group with a little bit of music thrown into the mix. It has been terrific. I love the people who are coming, and it appears they are testing the waters to see if it is a safe place to start inviting friends to come check out. I can't wait for those moments, when we see real people living real lives and sharing those lives with others in a open and honest way. We bring a lot of junk to the table, remedy could just be the cure for some of those ailments. I am excited to see what is in store.

positive blogging

I really like Mark Lee's post about positive blogging here. I have not been blogging a lot lately due to not enough time...and I am honestly tired of all the negativity. I really enjoy reading blogs about random thoughts, music, books, family, funny stories, etc. I really do not enjoy reading negative blogs. It is destructive. It seems that blogs have become a place where you air out your frustrations and I am good with that, but i think there is a fine line. I don't think it is a place to be judgmental. I read blogs everyday that basically judge others and hide it behind their ideas and religion.

So from this point forward, my blog will continue to be about the good. ALL OF IT. I will refrain from negativity and destructiveness. I had a great life lesson this week and it was awesome. I hurt someones feelings, I talked bad about someone and personally did not practice what I preach. I think Gods can use anything to help us grow, especially our own stupidity. He showed me something really cool and gave me some correction and insight I have never had before. I am not perfect, will never be perfect. I will make stupid mistakes. You think I could use my spiritual gift of discernment to figure that out before i make them, but it doesn't work that way. Discernment does not equal psychic. Thanks Sarah.

I am thankful for a friend that I became much closer to this week. Thanks Bob. I am thankful that even though I may have found myself frustrated and ready to quit something very important in my life, someone else was reminding me why I do what I do. Thanks Luke. I am happy that I know what I am getting Jen for her birthday... before it actually gets here. Thank you JESUS! ;) I wish I had a better worship set for Sunday, but hey ...God will work that out. Thank God!

Positive blogging...like Mark said... They will never put up a statue of a critic in your town square.

last night...

Yesterday was sort of a good day turned bad. I spent most of the day in a good mood.  The craziness of work spinning around me.  I feel as if I have no where to turn or go. But I do. I know I do.

I really miss my grandparents.  They are all gone now. There is no one to fill that void in my life. I have been thinking about them a lot lately.  I know that most people have these same feelings, I am not alone. My Grandma's were wonderful ladies.  They were great cooks. They loved me a lot. I think that is what I miss the most, just them loving me. My Grandpa's were terrific gentlemen. They understood me even when I might not have even understood myself.  They always had the right things to say to me. The best advice a grandson could ask for.  I forget how often I actually talked to them about my life. I remember my Grandpa Ford scolding me for the way I was treating my parents. He did it in such a loving way, he made it easy for me to see my parents point of view.  Wow, I miss those relationships.

Last night, I had band practice in Waverly. My friend Eli and I have become accustomed to having these great short conversations while I take him home after practice. Last night I told him I really wanted to swing by the grave site before I head home. The cemetery is on the way to Eli's house.  He said, "Stop by on the way home, I am not in a hurry to get home." So that is what we did. 

I pulled up near were Papaw and Grandma Ford were laid to rest. The flowers looked nice. There was a Mockingbird sitting on the the headstone. It stayed in the same spot until we started to pull away. I told Eli stories about my Grandparents and the other family that are buried nearby. It was good to share. It was good to laugh about funny stories.  it was good to remember the day we buried Papaw Ford. Eli looked over at the head stone and said, "Martin Lewis..". I am sure he knew that is who I am named after, but I think it connected when he saw the name on the stone. I am not proud of many things in my life, but I am proud to have his name.

As we pulled away, I said, " I wish they knew Maddie and Caroline."

The real irony was the Mockingbird.  I have thought for a very long time, that my Grandpa was just like Atticus Finch. A pretty cool moment that turned my day good again. It was 5 minutes out of my day, but a lifetime for my soul. I drove home to the family.

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a few weeks ago...

A few weeks ago a large group of us went to see Third Day over in Cederville. It was the last night of the tour and they sounded great! It was a great evening with great friends. I really enjoyed the new songs from Mac, Mark and the guys. I had the opportunity to open up a Sanctus Real concert a few years ago, so I knew the Sanctus guys would rock the place. "I'm not alright" and the very worshipful "We need each other" were my favorites.

The Band I was most impressed with was Decemberadio. They are a throwback band to the 80's with a fresh twist. They broke into "Wayward Son" which was awesome! They played a song called, "Drifter" which has had some radio play locally for the past few weeks. Great tune! Check it out...I could totally see Bon Jovi doing this tune.

Friends....

I had a quick conversation with a friend of mine today. I had not talked to him in a really long time. He has gone through alot of changes in his life over the past couple of years. A new place to live, a new life essentially and my guess he has new friends. One of his first comments to me was, "just thinking about you...I have been a bad friend." To me it was a funny statement. I questioned why he was concerned that he had been a bad friend to me. I honestly had to ask him what he was talking about? I think he was concerned that it had been so long since we last talked. My mind went into a flurry of thoughts that mostly centered around how I treat my own friends.

I have many friends. I like to imagine that I have many friends. All of these people I call a friend might have different opinions. A person I may call a good friend, might think I am a casual acquaintance. I believe there are many levels of friendships and that it is difficult to judge where you fall in that order with your friends. I find that depending on the situation, the level of friendship can change. "Hey Marty! Do you know John?"..."Yeah, John is a great friend!". A week later with another person...."John is a friend of yours...right? Did you hear that he got himself into some major trouble?" I might respond to that differently. It is human nature to disassociate yourself with friends when it might look bad on YOU. I hope I never do that to my friends, but I am afraid I may have in the past.

I have friends that are merely acquaintances. I may have met them a few times, know them through another friend, or just want to associate yourself with them. I sent out a twitter today that talked about my friend Mark Lee from Third Day. We are not really friends. We met a couple of times. He does not know me from Adam, would not recognize me from the Baby Taylor signing, but I like to think of us in that light.

I have friends who are very close. They know intimate details about my life. I talk to them when I have problems. We live life together. This is obviously a small group of people....maybe even not half a handful. These friends are precious to me. They are even closer than family at times. I laugh with these friends. I cry with these friends. I fight and argue with these friends. These best friend types of friendships are often volatile. I say that because they are so deep. They can't be superficial. If you find they turn into shallow relationships, then they dissolve. They go away. In these intimate friendships, all senses are involved. They are sensitive. I find that i can be angry with them at one moment, but forgive them in the very next breath because you know how important they are in your life. You need them, they need you. I have these relationships. At any given point in time, I am at every point in the spectrum with that friend. I love them just the same.

I have many friends that fall anywhere in between those to extremes. They are there because I choose to put them there or maybe they choose to be there. Sometimes these friends grow to become friends in that upper tier. Sometimes distance, time and life get in the way and you just can't be as close as you want to be or allow you to grow apart. I can go years without seeing some of these friends and the second we have an encounter, it is like we have never been apart. Others friends...it is like starting from scratch. It comes down to the amount of "life" i do with these friends. Lets be honest, how many BEST friends can you really have at one time?

All of this is why I thought it was funny that my friend felt like he needed to apologize for being a "bad friend". He did not choose to be my friend. Our life circumstances brought us together, through music, chrysalis, church, etc. I honestly wanted to be his friend more than he probably wanted to be mine. I really appreciate what friendship we do have at this point in our lives. We don't get to talk everyday. That is not my expectation. He doesn't make sure he sneaks a visit when he is in town. I am not offended. If he sees me on line and says "hey". I will reply and not worry about how many days since our last conversation. I do not worry about things like that. I am a forgiving friend. I hope my friends are as forgiving of me.

My fellow skier...it was great to catch up with you today We need to hit the slopes, then we can relax and play some tunes on our guitars. If we never get to catch up and do that....well...it will still be a great friendship.

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