My wife volunteered me to go because she knows what a difference Christian music has made in my life; especially his and in particular 1 song. She figured what a perfect time for me to thank him for taking on such a monumental task of adding to the most well known hymn of all time in Amazing Grace. But she forgot to factor in 1 slight little variable: me. Well mainly my inability to take anything seriously especially myself. Which for the most part has worked out well though it has a tendency to annoy my wife. When I met Chris I asked him where Louie was and that I came to lunch so I could meet him. He stopped signing my CD cover for a second as he was probably thinking...did he just say what I think he said? He processed what I said and said "Yeah I don't blame ya." We chatted a bit more while posing and that was pretty much it and yes I am taller than him. I joked on Facebook that we had discussed hair care products for our church's worship leader's sake. The Louie I was referring to is Louie Giglio who is Chris's pastor, record producer, co-writer, an author and founder of Passion Movement which has been attended by over 1 million university students worldwide since it's inception.
To fully understand let me rewind about 4 1/2 years and I was at a Chris Tomlin concert in Ames. Up till this point I was just kinda going through the motions in my every day life and my faith. Had you asked me if I was a Christian I would have said yes but I was doing nothing to "prove it". We were having a guest preacher (our pastor's son) coming the next week and it may have even been the next day it was all such a whirlwind but every time Michelle asked me if I was going I gave my standardized yes, no & maybe run on sentence of an answer so that way I covered all my bases.
And now a 2nd Chris Tomlin song is playing....now granted I went to lunch between the 1st one and this one so technically I may have missed one.
Now back to the concert. This is where all the "Just So Happened To Be's" started happening. Chris began talking about bumping into an old friend I think from school who happened to be sitting next to him on a flight who happened to be working on a movie who was looking for a singer song writer to add to a song. This movie as he mentioned was about the life of Wilbur Wilberforce. Which began the freak out in me. Being the history geek that I am (took history every semester in college just for fun....really) I knew exactly what song he was talking about. The song that at that point in my life I hated. The song I couldn't sing let alone listen too. The song that had been played at every funeral I had ever been to. You see Mr. Wilberforce was the man behind abolishing slavery in England and was very close to John Newton the former slaver trader and writer of Amazing Grace. To top it off just a few months prior I had lost a teen age cousin who was my little sister before my little sister was born so I was not ready to hear this song.
The next crazy part was it just so happened to be the pastor who was speaking at our church was going to be talking about "breaking the chains" that hold us back. Chris Tomlin eventually conceded to his friend and embellished Amazing Grace with this chorus: "My chains are gone I've been set free My God, my Savior has ransomed me And like a flood His mercy reigns Unending love, Amazing grace"
I felt like I was in shock when I heard these words as I connected all the dots of these past few months that got me to this particular place at this particular time to hear this message. Our pastor's son wasn't even supposed to come to our church it was supposed to be an evangelist from Brazil but something came up that changed his plans. That something was me....and this particular blog entry isn't the half of it but hey I need you to buy the book when I finish putting pen to paper (fingers to keyboard) which in itself is just another chapter of my story that just so happens does involve the afore mentioned Brazilian evangelist whose name is Rick Bonfim in case you were wondering.
3rd Chris Tomlin song. See I wasn't joking about the radio thing.
So on the way home my wife asks me if I had finally decided if I was going to the revival at church and listen to Jody preach. Before she could even finish I blurted out "Yes....I never said I wasn't going". It was that night that I truly understood God's Amazing Grace and decided to stop running from Him and to stop going through The Motions (Matthew West not Chris Tomlin...Google it). We even gave our daughter the middle name of Grace after Amazing Grace and it is now one of my favorite songs to sing.
So back to the concert this week. I got to have a really cool moment. I was running behind because of a soccer clinic I was running for 3-5 year olds. Turns out the opening band was stuck in Ireland so I didn't miss a thing but I had to park it seemed like miles away but as I got to the parking lot of the church I could hear the drums and music start up. When I came in and started up the stairs to the balcony (we gave away our 12th row seats so we could sit with friends up in the balcony) it felt like I was in this commercial as I can hear the music playing and then I step out into the auditorium and I could hear thousands of people singing together with one voice to God and it gave me the chills and I could have just stood there soaking it in but I had to find my seat so I could join them.
One last just so happened to be. Chris Tomlin has this back up singer who also sang lead for a few songs including Amazing Grace and she had the most amazing voice and I kept telling my wife this woman looks and sounds familiar...way familiar. My guess is Michelle thought I was light headed from running to get there on time. Well next morning I look into my premonition and it turns out I was right. Christy Nockels was her name and turns out she is very significant to us and to our daughter. You see it just so happens to be that Christy used to be a part of the husband and wife group by the name of Watermark who have a couple of songs of significance to our family that was introduced to us by our church's youth pastor at the time. She had given us the CD for the song Glory Baby but what she didn't know was that there was a also song by the name of Elliana on that CD which our daughter is now named after which is also the name of Christy Nockels' daughter because it is the song she wrote for her. Elliana means God has answered. So yes God did answer our prayer with miss Elliana Grace and she's a constant reminder of God's faithfulness.
So enjoy this rendition of Amazing Grace by Chris Tomlin.
His grace is amazing
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