Winter Jam 2011

My younger days can be defined as the concert experience.  Being a young man of size getting a job as security for concerts was never much of a problem.  It worked out well you get paid and you see the show for free sort of.  Outdoor concerts usually meant free flowing booze and rowdier crowds.  It also meant a nasty sunburn. 

Being as how I live a milder life stile these days, on devoted to serving Christ I don’t define my existence as the concert experience.  I do still enjoy music.  In fact I am the only parent I know that has kids that scream at him to turn the music down.  Hey I grew up in the 80’s and my hearing is shot from all those concerts.  Not to mention I owned one of the first Sony Walkman’s and they could just pain get deafeningly loud.  Still I do enjoy the thundering feel of being enveloped in sound. 

I decided since my wife was unable to attend this years Winter Jam with me and our friends Burney and Caroline I would take my oldest two girls with me.   Since it is festival seating or stampede seating as I prefer to call it.  We got there at noon for a 7pm show.  You know introducing my girls to the concert experience of camping for tickets.  It was 1 degree out side actual temperature and about 10 below O my Lord with the wind chill factor.  Don’t worry I’m an old dude, I don’t do cold.  We waited in the modern miracle known in Des Moines, IA as the skywalk system.  It is heated and carpeted and genuinely nice.  We made our way to Wells Fargo Arena where there is no carpets to wait on a nice cold, hard slab of concrete.  But hey we were still inside. 

The girls seemed to keep themselves occupied and as more people got there the funneled us to the stairs to get ready to take our money.  Mind you this was still 4 hrs away at this point but we were making progress right.  As we waiting singer Chris August came out and performed his song Starry Night for the early birds and I got a chance to talk with him and take his picture with the girls.

After the gates open and we were all herded into the area like cattle, we made our way to what would prove to be awesome seats.  Now I like to consider myself a cool dad.  I like the music my kids like for the most part.  I like it loud and don’t freak when the performers are wild looking.  How scary can they be these are Christian artist right.  Well the first act was Chris August we net him cool.  We give him two thumbs up.  Girls happy, Dad happy, Everybody happy.  Then the Sidewalk Prophets.  Clean cut Guys, great music, still happy!  They had a young rapper come out while they prepared the stage for the next act.  He was cool.  Dads hip right, I was diggin’ it.  Still Happy.  Then it happened.  The next act comes out to a loud thunder of wailing guitars that made my flesh scream oh yes!  But their was something not so right going on here.  In the midst of all the pyro and loud music and the stage with demonic faces perturding from the set and the drums, was a mass of noise that made my sprit cry out where is the holiness.  Where is God being glorified.  My oldest daughter Brittany loved it.  Out of no where suddenly a generation gap that defies my ability to bridge.  Subtract several cool Dad points.  Subtract much of the hearing I also had left.  In fact several days later I am still struggling to hear things that were not  a problem before Friday.  The rest of the bands were good.  David Crowder in particular was just awesome.  His approach was more of a worship leader than a performer.  There was also some thing awesome about 12,000 people singing along with Newsong as they sang ONE True God.  Made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up.

How ever the best part of the night by and far happened that Sunday.  As we waited in line I met a couple of people that were form out of town and I asked them where they went to church.  They said they are splitting between two different  churched and were having trouble feeling at home at any church.  I told them about our church and invited them.  They asked me where it was and I gave them directions and left it at that.  Latter the man asked for my name and cell so he could get directions and then they showed up Sunday morning.  You just never know how God is going to use you, or where or when for that matter.  It was the best part of the weekend for me for sure.