I sold my car, so it's been a Motorcycle Summer.
We had an adventurous little week.
It started on the way to Ignite festival in Chicago. 15 minutes from the venue, right past the downtown skyline, the freeway flooded. The interstate was a river. We could see trash floating where cars should be driving. It took us 90 minutes to snake our way through neighborhoods and shopping centers to get to the baseball field where the festival was held. No sooner did we arrive than we were on stage playing our 30 minutes of music. Then we were done. Time to turn around and head back home.
A couple days later, we were in Little Rock, AK for FamilyLife Ministries’ staff conference. It was an uplifting time. We led worship in the morning and played a concert in the afternoon. Oddly enough, as long as I’ve been in the band, we’ve never actually led worship as a band. While I believe playing Sanctus Real songs is a form of praise and worship for me, it’s an entirely different world than playing “praise & worship” music. It was a refreshing change of pace.
During the morning session, radio host, Bob Lepine, talked with Matt about the story of “Lead Me” (you can hear the story at sanctusreal.com). In contrast, he then asked about my story of being divorced. This was my first time speaking publicly about it, and I felt self-conscious…especially in a room of 200+ people who work for a thriving marriage and family ministry. It was difficult, and I’m not much of a speaker, but it was good for me. It was good to vocalize it. Everyone seemed very understanding, and afterward people had many gracious things to say. It was encouraging. You can read more about my divorce on the first blog post.
Then on our way out of town, we stopped at Chickfila, which believe it or not, you can also hear about courtesy of Lisa & Eric at the K-LOVE morning show. I have to say, I’m impressed with accuracy. Listen here & then for a different vantage point, here.
20 hours and 2 new bus tires later, we were in the great city of Pittsburgh, PA. This was a really fun show…my first in the area. I hope to make it back there soon.
Then came the marathon. Two shows in two different states in one afternoon. Can it be done? Somehow. The first was Heavenfest outside of Denver, CO. We played at noon. Honestly, we were shocked at how great the response was. It was early. It was hot. People showed up though, and they sang along. We really had a good experience, albeit too short. Hopefully we’ll be back again to spend the proper amount of time.
As soon as we finished playing, we grabbed some more Chickfila from catering and headed to the airport. The second show was at Six Flags amusement park in Dallas. Our flight landed, and we had just over an hour to get our gear (hopefully all of it) from baggage claim, drive to the park, and soundcheck before we were up to bat. This plan could have gone wrong in a 1000 different ways, but it didn’t. The flights were on time. The airline didn’t lose any luggage. The traffic moved right along. It was one of those things where you absolutely know angels were on the lookout.
After us, Skillet played. They had fireworks and elevators and giant balls of fire. It was rad. I felt like a chump because we didn’t have any of that.
Great Balls of Fire
Oh well, maybe one day. Until then, I’ll keep getting my fireball kicks out by playing Super Mario Brothers.
The next morning we flew to Detroit, and I rode the motorbike home. It was cramped on the bike, but everything fit. I took shower and went to bed. A very exciting finale, I know ;)
The End.
