here are 2 pics that were not from my point of view

i find these impressive aerial shots of a U2 show I was at...thanks politico

my first U2 show and other musings

The word musings was used intentionally. Plus, this blog has a good bit of pics...it will be a long one, today.

Firstly, (this is the musings part) I am very excited for the new show Modern Family on ABC tonight. I shall be watching it. I think this show has the potential to be a modern day picture of what the Cosby Show and The Simpsons did 15-20 years ago in identifying cultural tension and subtle norms. That being said, many people in my sphere of life, the church, will be uncomfortable. Identification and exposure has never been comfortable, though.


Anyway, on to more important things:
Last night, I got to cash in on the birthday present my wife, Shauna, gave me last July. (For any of you wondering what a great bday present looks like, it is a U2 ticket...but amazon wish lists are good ways to judge as well).

I will document my experience in two forms: first, the tweets that I sent that didn't go through (commentary will be in parenthesis like this); and secondly, the poor quality images from my wife's phone with limited commentary (my camera on my phone is broken). These will be both used at the same time, btw.

I tweeted the whole time, only to learn that my tweets were cut short after like the 4th one.
Here is a run down (in chronological order) of what I tweeted...(thanks copy/paste function on my phone)

• 4:36pm: In line and waiting to get in to U2 (I read horror stories in forums about how you had to get in line at 9am to get anywhere close to the stage. We arrived at 4:36)
• 5:37pm: Literally 50 foot from the stage...Gotta love gen admission at U2 (my fears were not realized..we had a great spot...and we stood our ground for the next 6 hours)
• 8:02pm: Muse is the best opening band I have ever seen (and I mean that..thanks, Stacie for letting me bum all of their music from you; also note, Muse just walked off the stage when I tweeted this)
• 9:07pm: U2 just took the stage (and it was glorious...opener was from their new album; check out that screen to the right! it expanded and contracted and moved up and down and was 360 degrees...it all flowed)
• 10:09pm: Bono just brought a kid on stage and they are running around during city of blinding lights (very cool moment...they were running by us like 20 ft away)
• 10:23pm: Sunday Bloody Sunday (apparently is now about Iran; Middle Eastern Guy with US flag brought on stage to sing with Bono from crowd)
• 10:35pm: First encore begins now (and yes, it was planned...great video that set up One)
• 10:46pm: We are now singing Amazing Grace...80K of us...nice way to end the nite with Streets (we sang with Bono acapella and that segued into Streets...wow)
• 11pm: Wow it goes on...With or Without You
• 11:12pm: What a phenomenal U2 experience...thanks Shauna for the best bday present!
• 1:11am: Nothin like the Double T diner at 1am

So there you have it. The night through tweets that never got to twitter...

Last thing: here is a picture of a really bored/devoted student reading and studying minutes before U2 took the stage. This struck me as odd and strangely heroic. An appreciated weirdness, I suppose.

That's all for now. Great evening and I am convinced Bono led 80K people in a spiritual/worship experience and most of them didn't even know it. In fact, I saw several raising their arms crying as they sang out "Amazing Grace."

Maybe there is hope? Maybe there is connection happening of which we know not. I keep getting the lesson I am not in control anyway.

a view from our table

This past weekend, I was able to spend some great moments with my creative arts directors. We traveled to South Bend, IN (think Notre Dame football) to a church called Granger Community Church, for a conference called Innovate.

The conference was good, entertaining, helpful, and personal. I enjoyed it very much and I believe our little band of directors took away many helpful things.

My favorite times of the weekend were, however, just our hanging out and picking on each other. It honestly felt like college guys eating a lot and staying up late and laughing until we hurt. Man, each one of us needed this weekend. Just to unplug and connect with each other was worth it for me.

We did spend the entire day (like 9am until 10pm) on creative arts development for our church, ALC. If you are a creative arts leader or team member, I really think 2010 is going to have a huge impact on you spiritually, developmentally, and, if you want, the way you lead. Get ready!

reading

I haven't posted in a while. I am posting now out of sheer embarrassment of not keeping my blog up to date. I am also currently watching the Chargers/Ravens game, my fantasy football team, and just finished a nap. Ah, Sunday afternoons.

I am fortunate to work at ALC and teach from time to time. This weekend, I was able to talk about one of my favorite subjects and use one of my favorite authors (I quoted him a lot): Solitude and the strength of transformation it brings. I think my favorite thing about the subject of solitude is what Henri Nouwen (hint, the author I mentioned was one of my favs) says: solitude is the furnace where transformation takes place. So true. Being alone and forcing my thoughts and focus to be on Him and just "BE" takes the false self and exposes it. Upon exposure, the image of the life rooted in Jesus proves to be the real life... and the transformation brings about compassion.

May my life and hands and feet and eyes and ears mature and welcome the transformation. I feel this may take a while...