My Rocky River Concert

The concert went well.

I was very nervous when I was introduced and had wisely decided to do a sing-a-long to kick things off. I did the familiar hymn "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms" and the audience sang along and smiled, so I was able to relax.

My next two songs went well - "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall and "When Time Did Not Exist" by my old friend Rick Hoyle (I sped Rick's song up some and changed several lyrics).

The highlight of the concert to me, though, was "Holy Love" which I performed with my good friend Greg Burriss. Greg played the mandolyn and added a tenor harmony. Since their was a taste of bluegrass added with the mandolyn, I sped the song up a little and let it go a little twangy. It was fun and the audience seemed to enjoy it. An article had appeared in our local paper the morning of the concert that talked about Greg and I reuniting musically during the concert twenty-four years or so after our last performance together (see my last blog entry).

The rest of the songs were just o.k., nothing special. I talked too much and looked down or had my eyes closed too much. I need to break those performance habits.

I was blessed with a nice love offering as well - just in time for the phone bill!

The best joke of the night came when I explained why I had a second guitar on the stage that I didn't plan to use. I had it there in case I broke a string or something. But I told the audience that my guitars were named Mary and Martha. The guitar I was playing would be doing all the work, so I called her Martha. The other guitar, Mary, would just sit and listen. Of course that's a reference to the Bible story of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha.

The biggest surprise of the night for me came at the end of the concert when I learned that my old friend Jenelle had come to the concert. I sang with Jenelle back in 1980 in my first band, Malachi, and we were in High School plays and musicals together. Except for running into her at a restaurant several years ago, I had not seen Jenelle since around 1981. I recently reconnected with her via Facebook and I hope to be able to lead worship sometime soon at her church in Greensboro.

And I also enjoyed seeing Greg's wife, Vicky, again for the first time since 1987 or so. We had a great conversation and the years just fell away. She has always been one of my favorite people.

Greg's mom was there, too, along with lots of memories of how gracious she was to me and my friends when I was a teenager hanging out at her house.

And so, the concert ended up being of secondary importance to me. When I drove home I wasn't thinking about how well the concert went. I was thinking of how sweet the fellowship was. The reunion of friends was the highlight of the evening for me. It was like a taste of heaven, of the time when we'll be reunited with all those friends and family members in the Lord who we have known and missed.

And, really, the evening reconfirmed to me that what really matters is knowing the Lord, making Him known, and enjoying sweet, deep, eternity-long friendships in Him.

What a sweet blessing that concert was to me. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. I'm so thankful for this reunion of friends.

God is good.