What a Day!

Saturday. What a long day, but man, what a day it was!

I woke up at 5:45 to the call of nature. I was going to go back to sleep until I had to wake up at 7, but I started thinking about work, and I realized my heart was pounding hard. I asked God to help me put work out of my mind. He did. Since I can't go back to sleep, I look at some of my 600 emails (no exaggeration there).

7:40 I realize I need to be at church at 8:00 for this thing I call the "prayer loop". It's kind of like a prayer walk, but we drive around the loop. I wasn't sure anyone besides me was going to show up, but there were two others. We got going about 8:20. We started with a prayer of safety once we got on the loop, then read from Luke 19, where Jesus prays over Jerusalem. And then we let the Holy Spirit guide us in how we should pray.

>From the beginning, I felt the Spirit filling us, almost to the point where we were completely insulated from everything around us. And suddenly we were around the loop, and over an hour had passed. I was totally blown away by what we prayed for and how we were lead, but even more blown away by the sense that we had somehow stepped into the presence of God at work, that this little thing we did called prayer truly connected us to the heart and mind of God and empowered us to speak as needed. I think the three of us were awestruck at the end. I could hardly contain myself.

Then I watched the balance of The Bicycle Thief. It's an Italian film released in 1948 about a man searching for his bicycle that was stolen in Italy. Excellent movie.

A bad thing was passing on the art day I had set up with some friends. We weren't going to get started until 1, and there was a concert I was going to tonight; we were leaving immediately after church to go downtown to the little coffee house where Mute Math was to perform. Anyway, that would have only been 3 hours I would have been able to spend doing any art with the extended travel times here in Houston (especially with the construction closure in the name of progress).

So, I went to Saturday night church for the first time in several months. Again, I was totally blown away. I truly felt the presence of God. The worship was such an incredible time for me. I realized tonight that because of the vile contempt with which I have been holding against myself, that I was separated from God from all that self-hatred. God has been working on that in me this week, to the point where I can separate how I view myself from how God views me and step away from that negative self-talk (sorry for the psychological mumbo-jumbo). My connection with God was so much closer tonight, maybe closer than I've ever been or felt. I was moved to tears, but they didn't quite make it out. That emotional response in recognition of God's working in me was something I hadn't expected. Dr. Brooks then preached a fantastic sermon from John 10:10ff about the abundant life Jesus came to bring.

And then, Mute Math. The opening band blew me away: a tight set, good vocals, and good lyrics for the little bit I could make out. Mute Math, though, how can I describe them? This might possibly be one of the best concerts I've ever seen. [Though I think there was too much distortion in the sound; my ears were almost bleeding.] These guys played aggressively, in particular the drummer. Before they played, he had his ear-piece on [monitor stuff?]. Then he took the black duct tape out, unrolled some, and started wrapping it over the ear-piece under his chin and connecting back to the top, almost like having a bonnet on or having his head in a sling from a bad tooth [remember those old, old TV shows?] We figured we were in for something wild. And they did not disappoint. Simply stinking amazing. The drummer was soaked 20 minutes into the set, and the lead singer wasn't far behind. The two guitarists were less animated, but I don't think the crowd could have handled more spectacle, and besides, there was no more room for more animation -- there was barely enough room as it was for what went on.

Thank You, God, for an utterly fantastic, awe-inspiring, humbling, powerful day!