"She sings..World, I've Overcome You."

This has not been my week. There’s been things that have frustrated me and situations that have laid heavy on my heart. There’s been a lot of wondering “what is right? what is true? What is worthy?”

Mostly, when I’m in a bad mood, ice cream and sweatpants will do the trick. But this week it was a John Mark McMillan concert. By myself. Solo in Chicago. It’s amazing what some perspective will do to change an attitude. Yet another reason why I’ll never give up concerts for Lent.

I secretly like going to concerts by myself from time to time. Tonight was one of those nights. I could take in all that was around me, get annoyed by the girls who slipped in last minute to jump right in front of me and talk the whole time. (Remind me to write that concert etiquette book). It was obvious who was there just to hear “How He Loves” and who was a true John MM fan. It was only slightly annoying and I chalked up my annoyance to all the drama and stupidity of this week. But then John made a comment as he began “How He Loves” that totally put it all in perspective. He played a few chords to prompt all the fans to start recording and said... “Aren’t you guys sick of this song?” The crowd responded “NO!: (that’s why we paid $12 to come--I was thinking). “Well if you aren’t sick of it (long pause) then I’m not either, but this song is 10 years old. Anyway, here we go.” and the he started the song.

I’ve always said “How He Loves” isn’t his best song on the album, but I do believe the song’s message is a strong one. Most of the songs sing of deep lyrics of movement, of not just standing still but of overcoming this world to get to God. “How He Loves” is simply a reminder. One of movement from a recognition of the fact that God loves us, to a movement of really believing, and then ending with a proclamation in truth of the love. While I don’t know if this is the real focus of the building of this song and repetition, that’s how I interpret it.

Overall the show was great. The theme of “overcome” showed up in many of his songs, including a new song called “We Have Seen A Darkness.” The fight between light and dark in the spiritual world is nothing new, but I loved his connection of hope coming alive after despair. (It’s on YouTube, check it out).

John stopped near the end of the show to tell about an opportunity to help raise $18,000 for a well in Africa. He stuttered and looked nervous the whole time, as if he is shy and hides behind the song. He said many times that he gave his life to the song, and was sorry to speak, but he wanted our money. Guilt money or not, to save children in Africa. It wasn’t rehearsed, it wasn’t overly obvious, what was truth was that he deeply cared for helping others and doing something about it. Usually I get annoyed by the 5 minute break to tell us about who sponsors the tour, but this was different. I respect John and his plea to bring clean water, to bring life, to an African town.

My favorite JMM song is “Ten Thousand.” I was close enough to see the set list and noticed it wasn’t on there. In typical fashion, a song suggestion was yelled across the small room in the midst of the quiet, awkward “let’s change out guitars and tune them time.” (Yelling out a song request is so not appropriate concert etiquette). But John approved the request and promised to maybe, possibly but possibly not play the song. My song. “Ten Thousand.”

And so John ended with this beautiful song of hope, a song of movement, an anthem for how we should move forward in the midst of this world. And it was beautiful. He turned the mic to us and together we finished out the song: “We sing, world, I’ve overcome you.”

This week, as I deal with the drama of this world, I’ve been reminded that I’m not made for this world, that I’ll overcome it and conquer it. I just need to not let it get me.

When John was talking about the unfair life of children in Africa, he said...

“We were all created--there are things inside of us know when something isn’t right. We can argue about the details but we know at the end of the day what isn’t right.”

He went on to say:

We have three options when we are faced with things that aren’t right:

1. We can laugh and be cynical.
2. We can weep at the destruction and stay in depression
3. Or we can do something about it.

“Feeling bad doesn’t make you do good. You gotta do good because you feel empowered, because you see a purpose, because you see something better than you that you want to be like because you love it. You have the power to be a part of it, to make something better. And so you do good.”

Ahhh... so in the midst of this week, I was happy to hear some perspective. To be reminded that I can choose to be cynical, or choose to weep, but really I should seek to do something about injustice, whether to myself or to others.

All of my dramatic tragedies this week aren’t big. Honestly. They are tiny white girl middle class tragedies. And while I own them and mourn them, I must do something about them. And not just do something, but also have some perspective. There are others with bigger tragedies, bigger issues of reality in the worlds of people around me that I should be focused on.

Let us put on love this week... get outside of our own little tragedies and start helping those around us. Let’s start figuring out how to really do something that helps another person “overcome their world.”