Making memories and getting chills

Last night, we had our ABF Christmas party... I could spend a huge amount of time describing all the hilarity that went on. Since tales of parties are always less funny when re-told, I'll simply say you should've been there. Nothing more fun than watching grown men and women try to convince one another why the Palm-tree ornamented toilet seat would be a perfect addition to *your* house and not theirs.

It's funny how each of these little soirees has left me with a different memory that carries forward. And it's also funny how sharing, even in the patently silly, can draw people together. We've been awful blessed to fall in with this lot of people. Toilet seats, bad 80s cinema*, and all.

We share humor, but there is a special thing about making good music together. I can still recall clearly the best bands, the best shows, and all the people (their hoots, hollers, and laughter) involved from when I was gigging.

Had another of those moments this morning during our pre-church rehearsal. We were running a song (Amy Grant's Breath of Heaven) that we had rehearsed briefly Wednesday night. This just happened to be one of those weeks when three of the best musicians we've ever had were on the stage, and all were involved in this tune.

The first 'take' was pure magic... Give you chills, make you tear up, leave you just shaking your head kinda magic. And it is permanently etched in my memory.

You wanna know what's even cooler? Any player will tell you there are these sublime moments where you are on the moutaintop one night, one set, or one take and then desperately trying to break out of mediocrity the next run... Struggling to make it up to the summit one more time.

These three managed to repeat the 'awesomeness' for both actual services.

That's God's grace in action through ppl's talents. I wish I could attribute it to my masterful page turning, but I think that'd be false. After all, during the magic take at rehearsal I flipped the pages upside down.

Pardon me, I've got to put that song on repeat in iTunes.

(*No matter what "The J-Man" (r)(C) says...)