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Mind Blown… Michael Card… Mind Blown…, 18-19DEC

God blows my mind, constantly, but leaves just enough intact for me to write…

Mind Blown, Michael Card concert…

Michael Card coming at Christmas for a concert?… you know God has placed him on my radar screen this year… Hey, if your name is Mike or Michael, you were/are probably on God’s radar for me this year too… But I digress…

I didn’t have a ticket, no one from that church ever called me back after several tries, so I said WHY NOT just go down?!… And off I skedaddled from work because everyone was taking off early from the holiday party anyway, perfect timing…
1 hour trip from work, not too bad traffic, found a parking spot close… small church, giant tour bus parked in front.. I wasn’t worried that I didn’t have a ticket I figured the Holy Spirit was in charge now…take care of it or not  for me but I thought at  minimum  that perhaps I could slip a letter to him… I wrote and emailed Michael Card in March of this year… Never heard back… But here I could slip it physically into somebody’s hand who would get it in his hand…  BUT the rest I couldn’t have imagined, but God certainly has a great imagination…

Two hours early for the concert I thought maybe I could get a ticket or hear him practice so I walked up the steps, opened the door and he was immediately five feet in front of me!!!… they had just finished practice, so I waited patiently to chat because I KNEW at this moment that the Holy Spirit wanted me here!

Michael Card is in the category of one of my “cousins in Christ”, we talked like we had known each other for years… of course it’s not hard for me, I have an easy time stepping into a conversation, that’s a family trait…  and it wasn’t hard for him either,  as he patiently listened to my condensed  awakening story helped by  the lyrics of his “Come to the Cradle” song,  We chatted music, weight loss (he just doesn’t have a appetite and lost about ten pounds thus year), about blogs, and awakenings of course… you name it – we chatted bible – how the surprise in the Old Testament was how KIND God was and the surprise in the new Testament was how much a servant Jesus was/is… we chatted how I used to be ashamed  but I am NOT ashamed now of where I was in my faith… Michael quoted scripture “don’t put your lamp under a basket” Michael saw my before and after 55.5lb weight loss photos, and he said I glowed… And he said that will really resonate with people….  Holy Spirit activated this flood of Jesus spilling in and out…

We took a photo, he said grab a seat and I said “I don’t have a ticket I need to buy one” and he said “no you’re with me as a guest”…  no charge… I found out later it WAS a sold out show anyway so it’s a good thing – no it’s a GOD thing – that I didn’t have a ticket because I may have gotten deterred and not come if I had known it was sold out… Later I tried to pay the $20, but the pastor said no, that I was a guest. Sweet…

Well I was aghast with how God likes to blow my mind then allow me to sit and absorb all the delights that HE gives me… I was there 2 hours before the concert started which gave me time to integrate into the family of these wonderful believers. This church congregation has a few sites and three services – 1 English, 1 Latino and 1 Indonesian, the pastor says he has to go back to school  to learn the other languages to help facilitate their worship… Yeah, that’s dedication…

For 2 hours, Michael Card just mingled! He hopped around from person to person – and there were many excited kids running around… I chatted with “D”, with the former pastor and his wife, with “A”, her special needs brother “N” and their mom, with “J”, an awesome girl who has that wonderful extra chromosome which facilitates extra LOVE just like in my cousin, and with “L” sitting behind me, who lives in my hometown too and after the concert I chatted with so many others… it’s a family trait we just love people… I just don’t know anything other than making conversation… that’s what Michael Card did too he was so gracious before and after the performance…

So there are new lyrics for his Christmas version of “Come to the Cradle”… He told them to me in our 15 minute conversation, SO when I ran into him again as he was be-bopping around the room for 2 hours before the concert, I asked him “what were the lyrics again?” So he hopped up to the music stand and found me an extra copy and marked them up… I asked him to sign the paper for my friend “A”, who introduced me to Michael Card’s music including a presentation of “The Promise” — because that’s where I heard the first time the music speak to my heart… That’s how I REALLY heard the lyrics for REAL, Subaru-style… from the praise band on last year’s Christmas Festival CD that I copied, as gifts from the United Methodist women to out homebound… Must have listened to it a thousand times now, Subaru style… “Come to the cradle, come and find peace, alone in the cradle, simplicity sleeps”…I sang the song in my awakening as I was finding peace – but I did not realize then that I was “chosen” by God. God was trying to bring the Prince of Peace to me – and so I reached out for prayer to my generous guiding friends – and asked for prayers for discernment… fitting to the lyric: “So you were chosen, and called out for prayer”… YES, being called means God exploded in my head!!!!! Yes, I was called and I gladly thank God for the call…

The concert was amazing … it was so worshipful… it was precious because he was having trouble tuning brand new strings and said ‘ it’s okay to make mistakes, Christians are more apt to like you because you make mistakes.’
I knew it was going to be the most intimate Holy Spirit moving concert but when he started talking about song lyrics he wrote that says ‘give up your pondering… fall down on your knees…’ it brought tears to my eyes because  pondering is one of the major themes and words for this year. Oh how my pastor and I ponder… Pondering IS awesome but when you approach Jesus in the cradle and have to realize that Mary  gave birth  to the God who formed her – gave birth to her – well, you can’t figure that out – so just stop pondering!!! JUST accept God is God and there’s no way for us to understand it all…

He also sang a song written by Michael McDonald whom he sees in the grocery store on occasion in the Nashville area. He talked about how faith in the Old Testament means waiting and faith in the New Testament means following. And he so eloquently stated that “God with us” IS God’s ultimate goal… he recounted the Bible stories that essentially say God wants to walk with us… That is the ultimate goal of God, to be with us.

So the audience loved singing “El Shaddai”… then we finished by singing Christmas carols together as a congregation – it was the most worshipful …

On my way out the door I got my goodbye hug in and Michael told me he loves people, he could easily be a recluse instead and just sit in front of the TV flipping channels, but he loves people…

BLESSED…

Why does God like to explode my mind ??? God wants ALL of me… God wants all of you… God wants to “walk with us”!!!

BLESSED to have my mind blown, with no other explanation that God is God… No pondering needed…