Hello all, it has been a few months since I have kept this going, but that is no reason to not pick up where we left off—
Just three days ago I looked at a map of the United States and a schedule of the tour, just to see where I’ve been in the last two and a half months, and it turns out that there are only three continental states I haven’t been to: Utah, Wyoming, and South Dakota. I have seen this country from Atlantic to Pacific, at twenty years, from Canada’s edge to Mexico’s border, from Seattle’s coffee to Nebraska’s corn; I have seen so much so young, and am incredibly blessed to call this life my own.
To tour with an Americana roots rock band is to take part in a world unknown to 99% of the population—the amount of work, the schedule, the business transactions and complexities, the way in which relationships are formed and then kept or cut off, the whole process something I can’t explain in a blog (I suppose that is why I’m writing a book about the tour). Because of this, and because the last few months have been a time away from spiritual fellowship, I’ll take a minute to describe what is going on spiritually in my life.
First, know a few things—it is hard, very difficult to be away from a church and Christian community for three months after growing up in such a Christ-centered environment and then continuing that in school. Also, despite the difficulty, allow me to say that this experience has caused me to grow like no other, in unique ways, and never have I felt so strongly about what I believe and the power Jesus has to make everything right and good and beautiful and perfect and full of grace. Truly, I am blessed.
The hardest part, spiritually speaking, of the tour was losing the sacred. I strongly believe that God is holy beyond our comprehension, that in Him there is no sin or wrong, and I think in a well-developed, sincere Christian culture that holiness is reflected. In Iowa City, for instance, at RUF (my college ministry) or One Ancient Hope (my church) there is a desire to please the Lord, to seek righteousness, to be holy and sanctified like Him; consequently there is a purity of heart, an innocence that is preserved. There are things that, due to God’s commandments and desires, are sacred—not to be meddled with. In a purely secular world, however, there are few (if any) things that remain sacred. Going to church this past weekend, I was reminded and refreshed by the fact that, in the midst of this life, God remains holy. Pure and holy.
Short and sweet—the more I take this tour in, the more the posts will come.
With love.
