l'arbre bleu est venu

Bluetree came and played at our Fireseeds Conference tonight. It was magical.

I didn't know they were the composers of "God of this City" but I am sho nuff glad they is. And I was gladly to hear the backstory of its composition.

I haven't heard much of the Irish accent in my stay in this Kingdomain so that was a nice addition.

I was inordinately impressed by the cohesiveness of the group - all six (seven?) of them. I find that oftenly with bands over a certain number (four!) it's hard to make all parts equal or indispensable. I strongly dislike wasted voices or sounds. These guys pulled it off. Masterful! They had a bass which was RAUCOUS, a drum kit, an electric which specialized in the overlay(?...descant? ornamentation, if you will), an electric for the lead singer which was chordy, a keyboardist who did mad other things that I don't understand and a ...synthman? who did even MADDER things that I probably won't try to describe. Ah. Ah, oh great.

I was there for the songs they played during the main sessions which were just great. I stood in awe most of the time. You don't see Christians rock out like that, you don't! They were headbanging! Firstly, I don't even see headbanging anymore. But add to that the fact that it was actually part of how they worshipped and was second-nature and you've got something marvellous.

Then there was an afterly optional session in which another band was playing and I...lost my patience. I hate to say it and I tried to rationalize it all the way back to my room but I just couldn't handle more than the four or five songs I listened to. :( Oh, sad.
But then, maybe half an hour later, I heard the chords of "God of this City" wafting through my window (it's a five-minute walk...they were loud) and I realized what I was missing. Dang. SHEEEESSH, I can even hear music now! THAT BETTER NOT BE THEM. Le boo.
I was already bedded and such when I heard them and debated for maybe five minutes whether it'd be worth it to re-dress and go out.

It was so stinkin worth it I BE GLAD I took the shance.

Their music is fantastic....God has blessed.
It warmed my heart to see people rock so hard (I do rather love rock music) but be ridiculously deeply committed to and transformed by Christ. What a great combination. I like that....Jesus can be worshipped through this format and I like the impact the group is making.

I fink it's cool that they're passionate about missions work (it makes sense that they was at our conference, then don't it?). The leadery man - who had a really cool white belt which made me starting thinking about how I would like to NOT work in full-time missions so that I could get a bigger salary (an uncapped one!) and buy the clothes I want - mentioned this in several ways on several occasions. I appreciate this. I think he was calling out to others more than me and THAT is a pretty nifty feeling.
I've been called out in a similar fashion many times in my life and in this context it just seemed odd to be sent from where I've been sent but really? you never know. (credit: M. Woodard)

He said, "Maybe you need to go to Russia or Tajikistan," and in the same paragraph, "just take hold of that thing God's calling you to do." I thought it was great that he expanded the charge for those who just plain aren't called to go away (right now). We all have a something, don't we?

He encouraged us to, "Just start pushing on doors and God will open the right ones." Let me be frank: I am sick of door & window open/closing analogies in Christendome. BARF! They make me want to barf EVERYtime. They're.... nasty pleasantries. DON'T LIKE THEM! Whoo...calm down.
This version, however (I wanna call it a variation or permutation or mutation or SOMETHING that doesn't make it sound like it's on par with the other junk)
shoot...I can hear them coming into the building downstairs. hahaha that's so cool. ha. :
This variation (think music motif styles), however, was accompanied by a perfect image in my head and just worked for me. It's better, it's better! Pushing on a door makes more sense to me than either a) trying to walk through it as if you're expecting it to open (ouch to the nose) or b) standing in your Alice-in-Wonderland corridor waiting for one to call out to you.
Do what you want. If one of those options makes more sense to you, that's cool. You relate to God how you do. Me, I'm happy for this new imagery. (Sheesh, I'm happy for imagery in general. Side-note: I decided that the next time I need to explain what my post-secondary education in English Literature was like or is for I'm probably going to compare it to special features on most DVDs. The way they [production crew, director, actors, whoever] dissect films and tell you why this and why that and how is just what we do to texts. Yeah. MMMMMMM yeah. It warms the cockles du mon coeur.)
I could push on doors. I'm OK with that. I actually really need God implant the fulness of this idea into my heart because I KNOW I'm not getting it but I am ever so content to wait until He'll essplain it all. I'm lookin forward! He doles out how He doles out and I trust.
Dole is a brand name for a company that brings bananas to the no frills I have shopped in. This post is stream-of-conscious styles, yes it is.

He mentioned something he'd heard on tour in none other than my own home and native land :) that there are two kinds of people in the world. (He was expecting saved/unsaved or male/female - something predictable.) The speaker said there are those who do and those who don't do. Singerman didn't know how absolutely true that was but it got him to thinking. Quelquefois we spend so much time begging God for something that we can almost get into heresy where it's like we're saying, "It's YOUR fault that this situation is so terrible; it's on YOU to move."

Profound much?

There's a delicate balance to be struck - I'm disovering more and more lately - between Our Part and God's Part. This guy was getting at that in a way that's been clearest to me yet.

I forget the immediate context but it was still on this topic of doing & not doing: he said, "There's probably a better choice of words but sometimes we just don't have the balls to do anything." Shoost. I wish I remembered the exact phrase. Either way, I shall take this opportunity to highlight some of the things I like about the British Christian.

They have freedom in a few areas that we do not (and I suppose I'm obligated to say that's OK). You don't hear Christians talking about balls overly often but you DO hear a distinct lack of legalism for language in general which I appreciate. "Ass" is not a cuss over here.
Also, Christians go out for pints just like the rest of British society which makes my shoulders smile, feeling that freedom.

---What's more, there isn't SO MUCH laxity that Christians get tipsy or flushed or steep their speech in profanities, just cuz they can, just cuz no one's going to call them on it.
It's not like they started out like us (lil more prudish, if you can believe it) and then moved to moderation or whatever. So you don't have the same weird constructs of accountability or "to each his own"-ness. Is that a Shakespeare quote? Maybe I'm thinking of, "To thine own self, be true." I should read more Shakespeare. I mean that!
It just is what it is. I can't express how happy this makes me. It won't come to North America, I don't think. I shall enjoy it while I'm here.

In his Belfastian accent that guy confused me in a verse of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" when it seemed to start with "waher". But apparently that's how the Irish say "were". It's almost like "wear", actually, but the R is hollower and an unruly Y sound has slipped in the middle somewheres. Wayhr. Yes! yes...wayhr. hahaha that is a German surname if I ever saw one.

They had an awesome finale...it boggled my mind more than slightly. And I smiled alot. Their lyrics are awesome.
Then the crowd chanted, "One more song," as the band conferred, deciding how long they had to stand in a huddle to make it look like they were actually debating whether to play the encore they had anticipated and pre-planned. Then some cheeky bugger chants, "Ten more songs," and I laugh.
They say they'll do one chill and one fast. I don't know if he said "fast" but chill is a cool word. Didn't know they used'er here.
The chill one was called "River", I think. The chorus seemed to say, "Death to the past," and, "God's not done with you yet." I wish I remembered the lyrics better and all of them but it was a good one to listen to. Listen, I mean.

The non-chiller was....well absolutely mental and I don't remember too much of it... cept the headbanging and crazy faces and jumping and...yeah. Too much fun for those kids.

Leadydude kept...I should look up his name. Aaron. Aaron kept assuring us of the awesomeness of the finale and I didn't really undersatnd why they had chosen to follow an awesome song with anything BUT an awesome song. They gathered all the peeps to the front of the aud, right up by the stage and put their instruments down. It looked like they was going to body-surf. It wouldn't have worked. Four (five?) of them stand in the middle of the stage and then point to the DJ (Petey!) and tell him to giv'r.
Then that dance song whose nameIshouldreallyknowandprobablyjustruinedthestorybyforgettingitsname started blaring and EVERYBODY danced (jumped) like lunatics. Twas delighful. All the blokes on stage were crazy, dancing too. It was....hahaha. It was funny. They were having fun. C'est good.
Then at a part in the song where there's a drum break (fast beats leading back to the verse) DJ Finkelstein speeds up the beats to 2x, 4x, 8x and maybe worse then slows it down to a blurbettyblob and cuts er of. Great ending. Great show. GOOD TIMES!

(Incidentally, with this experience I have decided that DJs are legit and I will both stop hating on them and start informal research. Word.)

[EST]
and
dance party