MomminginMinistry

I had five performances on my bucket list. U2, Lion King, Mumford and Sons, Miss Saigon, and I'd like to see Avett brothers perform live at the Red Rocks Amphitheater. I have already checked off the first two. I have tickets to see Miss Saigon later this month and Monday night I checked off item number three with an unforgettable performance from Mumford at Talking Stick Arena. There's nothing that compares with hearing those songs that have made the soundtrack of your life, live in a crowd of people with their own stories of how these lyrics have spoken into the silence at just the right moment. I listened to them clutching the hand of the "lover of the light" that I've been given to "have and to hold." We sang along to the words that have sometimes been a prayer or a lament or an encouragement. But the band went through a phase recently. Wilder Mind. The album where they rebelled against themselves, who they were and who their fans originally fell in...

I was studying for a chemistry test at the breakfast table. And then the world stood still. And nearly our whole entire class failed that chemistry test. Because it didn't matter. The power went out that night. I crossed the street to my sister's house and sat in her back yard with my feet in the swimming pool, staring up at the empty, starry sky. It felt so apocalyptic, like we were watching for Jesus' return at any moment. Days later the kind, Sikh man who owned the gas station at the end of our street was murdered because hate begot hate. Our little street in Mesa, AZ made world news and the neighborhood rallied with an unforgettable display of grief, showering the family with cards, flowers, candles and a line of vehicles parked along the street that symbolized our presence. Many of us were certain we were witnessing the end. But I'm realizing that just because it's happening to me, isn't what makes something apocalyptic. It's not the first time an e...