Good Friday - yes it was

While many of you were getting ready for a Good Friday service tonight, I was driving Eliot and 4 of his buddies up to "The Attic" in Dayton to see one of their favorite bands - "A Skylit Drive". This day had been long awaited and the excitement was mounting along with the odors from these sweet boys crammed in my Ford Explorer. They're a good bunch... I love that my son pics friends that are keepers. I really enjoy them. :)

We arrived and I got a tour of the place as I'd never been there... a guided tour no less, because for security purposes, they

don't just let anyone go in and wander around. The space was ginormous and had two stages, a snack bar, pool tables, tons of couches and booths for seating and lots of wide open space for "moshing" and "circle somethings"... can't remember what they called that. The dimly lit room could not hide the fact that I most surely stuck out like a sore thumb in my very adorable little plaid pink jacket, ponytail and light blue converse sneakers... of course, there was also the fact that I was, well... old. Surrounded by colorful hair, eyeliner, mohawks, tattoos, piercings (& lots of them!) and more black skinny jeans than I've ever seen in one room, I came across this painted on a large black wall....

I loved it. It made me stop and think... it made me realize why I felt perfectly comfortable in this place where I clearly didn't really fit in at all... not even a little bit-but I'll get to that later

.

I found my way to A Skylit Drive's merchandise booth and scored some points snagging the beat up 5 dolla drumstick signed by Cory himself (Cory La Quay is ASD's drummer if you didn't know) and the ASD Breathe Easy rubber wristband I knew Eliot would love. I started chatting it up with one of the guys behind the table only to find out it was Joey Wilson, the lead guitarist for ASD. Within minutes the boys returned from changing into their new ASD wear and I introduced them to Joey and we got our first pic.

I decided to step out for a bit... let the boys enjoy the experience without the old lady hangin' around. I meandered through a nearby Marshalls while text messages trickled in on my phone from Eliot about how rad it was and that The Attic was saweet! & there may or may not have been quite a few of these :D but the best part was where he thanked me so much and said I was the best for taking them. Yup... cried a little right there in the Marshalls. It's kind of awesome when your kids give you that beautiful gift of genuine, heartfelt gratitude... kind of awesome indeed.

I decided to head back to The Attic in hopes that we might head home even earlier than we'd planned. I arrived back just as ASD had finished their set. Immediately I saw Eliot and his cronies emerging from the crowd. The look on Eliot's face was priceless... utter happiness was bursting out of his eyeballs behind his non-prescription black rimmed glasses! His blonde hair was drenched with sweat, and he could not have stopped smiling if he had wanted to! he rushed over to me and without a thought, threw his soggy, sweaty arms around my neck... and I didn't mind a bit.

As the stage set up for the final band of the night, we lingered and waited in hopes that maybe some of the ASD band members would come out to meet some of their fans. We waited... and waited... and waited.... apparently loading their bus takes a fair amount of time. Eliot's friends were beyond gracious as many of them were ready to roll long before we finally did... but eventually, the waiting paid off. Eliot spotted Cory La Quay as he headed stealth like through the crowd towards us. Without any hesitation, Eliot approached him, commenced a cool handshake and they began talking. Not wanting to miss my photo opp, I smiled and leaned in and said "we've been waiting for you". His response caught me off guard. His voice was soft and gentle... almost timid. He lingered in conversation with us, in no hurry to move on and thanked us repeatedly for our accolades and our support of him. In spite of the impression the steel piercings and the blanket of inked tattoos would lead one to believe, he was a genuinely sweet guy... so sweet that I decided I wanted a picture with him too! Thank you Cory :)

We'd asked Cory if Jag (Michael Jagman-lead vocals) was coming out too... he said he thought so but that he'd go get him to make sure (see... wasn't that sweet :) Sure enough, moments later, Jag appeared and headed our direction. Eliot loves this guy's voice... I mean loves it. He apparently has a range and tone that is very unique. So he was quite excited to meet him... it pretty much rounded out the evening of fantastics that filled our night.

In all the ways that this night would not be something would pickmyself, I loved it. I loved being with Eliot and his friends and watching them have so much fun together. I loved that his friends had my kid's back in the moshing. :) I loved that I found that in being open to something that on a not so good day can make me crazy... I can be stretched and be surprised in new ways I didn't expect. I love that whatever our differences, whether we wear blue converse or black boots, ponytails or mohawks, pink plaid jackets or studded leather ones... we're really not all that different. We all have more in common than we ever take the time to understand.

It brings me back to that design painted on the black wall... the hand... with a hole... a nail perhaps. "Love" written beneath it. God made all of us so uniquely... so different... but with one exception... we all are broken. We are all so much less than we can be when we let God join us in our journey... not as a dictator but as someone who understands us because he made us. On our ride home tonight, one of our friends commented that he didn't care for how one of the bands was so intense in their comments about God (he was kinda hollerin')... I didn't care for it either. I don't think God wants to beat anyone into liking him... I think he just wishes we knew that if we gave him a chance, maybe we wouldn't feel so alone all the time... that maybe, if we have the balls to throw all our crap out in front of him, he'll help us make some sense of it all. I think he loves us like crazy no matter what we do... or don't do for that matter.

It's Good Friday... the day we remember that Jesus died for us before he kicked death's ass a few days later! He died for all the things that keep me from him... all that sin and brokenness that would create a barrier between his heart and mine....in a nutshell, that's love... at it's best.

I hope you had a Good Friday... we sure did.