If You’re Gonna Play in Texas, You Gotta Have a Fiddle in The Band…
unless God tells you to travel to a small Baptist church for a Youth Crusade…
and unless your with the band Modern Miracle.
This past weekend I had the privilege of traveling with my family and speaking at a youth crusade in a small rural town in East Texas.
I was honored to worship with the band Modern Miracle at the youth crusade, and I’m still stunned at how talented this special group of musicians really is. Their rhythmic, hard-rock sound with superb composure and timing was impressive. I admire their devotion to God and I can only pray that God allows us to do more of HIS work together in the future.
From the moment I stepped off of the stage Saturday night, I wondered if God allowed me to move anyone more toward a relationship with Christ. I wondered who this mission trip affected. I wondered if God would allow me to know who it was.
HE allowed me to connect with some pretty amazing people that night. I love HIM so much for allowing me to reach them. I left the service that night feeling like God did allow me to reach someone but I still felt somewhat uneasy. Enigmatic turmoil.
And then, as the next 36 hours of my life unfolded, something truly fascinating happened.
After Church the next day, the team ate lunch with friends at a small Mexican Restaurant which seemed to have a blessing from God all its own. That evening, my wife and I took turns driving through the night, and finally returned home at 6 AM the next morning.
As I wore out my new, two-song Modern Miracle CD while I finished the final four hours of the drive, I wondered why God chose me, a small Baptist Church, and East Texas. I honestly may never know the full impact of our mission, or what our presence this past weekend from Ocala, FL, to Jefferson, TX, proved to accomplish. Solid proof that the God who created the heavens and the earth has sense-of-humor enough, that he would send me back to the state where my brother and I experienced horrific acts of violence, simply to preach.
Though I honestly fear God as I should, I still find it amusing and I smile just thinking about it.
I am truly in love with Christ, and the significance of preaching in a state that I associate with pain makes me acutely aware of God’s amazing, albeit bewildering plan for my life.
The Interstate seemed never-ending between the ninth and thirteenth hours of driving. The more I drove, the more I reflected on the past few days. While the highway’s dotted line seemed to pass in rhythm with Modern Miracle’s song, “A Medium Gleam of Variable Speed”, I began to see more and more the servant whom this mission really affected.
“Thank you for loving me God. You really do have pretty good sense of humor. I love you.”
