What a performance

Last night, Mike, Jessie, & I loaded up and headed to the DTE Energy Theater to see Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith in concert. For those of you who might not know it, SCC lost his 5 year old daughter in a tragic accident in May. Last night, it was incredible to see such a broken man not only lead us in worship, but perform songs that were inspired majorly in part by his daughter. He was a plain and simple man, just like the rest of us, with a faith in God that even though it was shaken and stressed, still knows the promises of our God. I'm not sure I would be able to muster up the strength to perform for such a crowd only months after my child went to heaven. He opened with a song that Matt Redman sang at his daughter's funeral (Blessed Be Your Name-- look up the lyrics and listen) and spent much time talking about the experiences over the past months. It was a rainy night last night, he mentioned it has rained for his past five performances and related that to the symbolism to this rainy period in his life. But ended with the message that God reigns...notice the "eig" and not the "ai." He talked about the difficulty in determining whether he would ever sing his songs and perform again after his loss. Thank God SCC will continue. He wasn't asking for sympathy and a pity party, but appeared just as a man of God who has gone through great loss with his family, but has such strong faith in God. Neat too, was his song Caleb was playing guitar with his band. I knew this from watching interviews, that both of his sons (Will Franklin and Caleb) were now touring with him. Will Franklin is back in school, so he wasn't there. But very cool to see his son following in such amazing footsteps.

Michael W. Smith was also very good. Although it was easier to connect and be taken in by SCC, Smitty sang a lot of songs off his new record, and more or less, led us in worship. He's so passionate and energetic, it was nice to be able to not just look at him as some sort of celebrity on stage as with most concerts I've been to, but as another man of God, just like me, made to glorify Him. It was kinda more like being at church than being at a concert, but nonetheless, it was a great experience!



Our seats were great, 7th row from the stage on the right. Don't ask me how we got that lucky to get such greats seats, but we did. Directly in front of us was the lady doing sign language for the deaf. Now, I found it kinda ironic that a deaf person would go to a concert, but I began to understand it more and more through the night. At first I thought it would be a big distraction, but it was so neat to watch her use her hands to get across music, no words, no music. But, she used her body language, facial expressions, and expression of her hands to get the point of the music across and it was really, actually beautiful to see. I wondered through the night if she is with the tour or brought in locally. She knew all of the songs because she kept up, and just seemed to be trying to worship along with everyone else. I wanted to go talk to her at intermission, but believe it or not, I was chicken!

Today's gonna be a day for homework and getting that knocked out. Not all of it probably. I'll spread it throughout the weekend, but at least that freakin accounting I want to get done!