Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Spontaneity



so normally, i like to plan things out, in as far advance as i can ... but i'm finding that more often, being spontaneous leads to better times!! the longer i plan something out, the more i can obsess about it, and plan for every thing that could or couldn't happen (i'm guessing that's the "C" in me coming out - you GF people will know what that means).

so my friend christine and i started talking about going to see chris tomlin in philadelphia back in november. but it was just a passing conversation like "we should go to philly to see chris tomlin in january" "yeah that would be tons of fun" and that was about it.

well on thursday of last week, we decided to actually go to philly to see the concert. on friday, i got the tickets, she found a great hotel at an even better price, i planned to drive and she planned to get snacks.

we had it all planned out in about 30 minutes and it ended up being a great trip!

we left on Sunday after 1st service, made it to Philadelphia in great time, checked into the hotel, did a little shopping / exploring (i love this city!!), ate dinner and then made our way to the concert.

what an amazing show!! i was a little wary of the opening band, israel and new breed,
since their most famous song is "I Am a Friend of God" and since that's not a particularly favorite song of mine (a lot due to my friend Jeremy's dance) i wasn't sure what to expect. well other than playing that dang song as soon as we walked into the Electric Factor, they were a pretty amazing band! lots of soul and gospel music, very talented musicians and tons of energy. they were a decent opening band

chris tomlin rocked. i have no other words. it was the best i've seen him - and i've seen him quite a few times before - he was funny, a little sarcastic, full of energy and played all the songs i was hoping to hear.

what was so cool about being at the Electric Factory was seeing the diversity in the room! there were lots of people predictably older than me, but just as many my age or unexpectedly younger. Every other chris tomlin show i've been to has had a predominantly white audience. This time, it was a lot more diverse! I'm not sure how many people were there, it holds 2500-3000 people. i'm guessing there were around 2000 there ... it was awesome to hear "how great is our God" being sung by everyone (but the band)!! a small taste of heaven perhaps

all in all, the trip was very short - we stayed over and left by 8AM on Monday but so much fun!! and definitely worth the 4 hr trip each way!

moral of this story: rachael needs to add more spontaneity to her life!!

final thought: in the immortal words of j.mulder at soulfest a few years ago: "chris tomlin is God's worship leader"

2 comments:

Alexis said...

Oh, I'm so jealous of your trip to philly!! It's such an awesome city and I miss living there! (and miss the opportunity for spontaneity! two babies kinda nix that! ha!)

lost in thought said...

Amen for Spontaneity! im all for it :) i could use a lil of your planning in my life :)Ok- i love PHILLY!!! i tell Mike all the time we can move there if he wants to...it's one of my fav big cities! And i love the Electric Factory- we saw keiser chiefs there a few years ago, they were good (never heard of them b4 the concert- yes that is a theme w/me) pretty sure Chris Tomlin was betta!

good for you (im doing the im a friend of God's dance rite now in honor of it :)