Life, Love and Other Mysteries

Yesterday I went to Thomas Road Baptist Church, which is the church founded by Jerry Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was totally awesome. I really loved it. It is, to date, the largest church I have ever been in; I don't know how many thousands of people were there....somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000, which is unbelievable. So not only did I really enjoy the service, but something absolutely wonderful occurred (I think it was one of those "in the right place at the right time" kind of things). When KB and I sat down with his mom and brother there were announcements scrolling by on a screen on the wall in front of us and one of the flyers said, "Point of Grace in Concert Tonight at 6:00 p.m." You might be asking yourself, "Who is Point of Grace?" but let me tell you that they were my favorite band growing up. They're an all-female contemporary Christian band. I had every cassette tape that they had (I was a 90's follower). I knew every song by heart. I sang at least two of their songs in church at LCF growing up, "You Are the Answer" and "Who Am I?" (with the soundtracks, duh) and I basically wanted to be Denise and Heather simultaneously, but Shelly and Terry were cool too. I think I stood in front of my mirror giving concerts in my room about 3 days/week, giving "Check 1-2's" in between songs just to make sure my hairbrush was on and the levels in the monitors were good. I love love loved them. Back to Thomas Road. The worship team was leading everybody in song and after two songs, the lead vocalist gives a few comments, you know, making sure everybody was along for the ride and everything and then he says something about "talking to the girls," and I'm thinking, Who are the girls? Well, the girls, were Point of Grace (Heather and Terry are no longer with them, but they have a new girl) and they roll out onto stage in the middle of worship to sing a newish song called "How You Live" and the great oldie "The Great Divide" (the choir sang with them on that one). It was amazing. I think my jaw was hitting my knees the entire time; I was literally in shock. Although I didn't get to go to the concert because life's odds and ends beckoned, yesterday's worship service was pretty much the manifestation of my childhood/tween dream. And it was awesome.