It was a great wedding, I was given a chance to do a little MC work, though all I did really was introduce the Bride and Groom, then announce they are doing a garter toss, without the garter (Jason tossed a football with a prize, Meredith tossed a flower bouquet with a prize) and then to fruitlessly call for everyone to go outside to light sparklers to see the couple off. With four announcements, finally people started to move.
Fun fact... our friend Amy McL was supposed to be a bridesmaid, but was getting over strep throat so though she was there, she wasn't able to be a part of the wedding. Had she been in the bridal party, I observed that I actually went out with 1/2 of the bridesmaids from 1999-2001 (naturally before The Lovely Steph Leann and I started our romantic interlude). Thought it was worth a mention. Which is probably an odd statement, once you see where this whole thing is going.
I have satellite radio. I love my satellite radio, SiriusXM to be exact, and my main channel, in position #1 on the radio dials of Red Robin (my Kia Soul) is 90s on 9. Now, to add to that, you have to know I am a sucker for countdown shows... a local station puts a classic edition of Casey's Top 40 during Sunday morning's programming, and if America's Top 40 channel existed on SiriusXM, I'd listen to that a heckuva lot.
Coming back from the wedding, The Lovely Steph Leann determined that according to Google Maps, it would take 52 minutes to get home... and as I turned on Button #1, which was 90s on 9, and looky there, it's Downtown Julie Brown telling me that we are nearing the end of the Back in the Day Replay, where they play a Top 30 countdown from this week in a past year...
This was songs from 1990, the countdown from the weekend of 10/19-21... I was in 10th grade, it was probably around homecoming time and not being that popular, I was at home on the weekends listening to the radio.
The song that was on as The Lovely Steph Leann and I started listening? "Everybody Everybody" by Black Box. It was a song that I kinda knew, I had it on my Entertainment Weekly Maximum Music Dance Hits Disc 1, a CD set I got for free when I subscribed to EW like, back in 1994 or something.
So as we chatted on the way back, we listened to the countdown...
"Romeo" by Dino. I didn't really know this song very well, but I was very, very familiar with Dino's first hit, "I Like It"... "you told me that you loved me now girl show me, cause that's the thing I like to do... I never ever ever had such pleasure of giving up my love this way, I want you every day... take me by the hand, I will be your man, cause that's the way you make me feel... take me by surprise, look into my eyes, show me that your love is real... that's the way it has to be cause that's the way I like it..."
Another song that came up was Nelson's "Your Love and Affection (I can't live without)"... "I been on the outside looking in, let me into your heart, oh, there's on nothing on Earth that should keep us apart! I can't live without your love and affection, I can't face another night on my own, I give up my pride, save me from being alone, I can't live without your love..."
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| This is one of my favorite live albums, and the cover makes me wish I had somehow made it to this show. How cool does that look? |
I even observed that there was a little extra something on the lines Phil gave in the live version as opposed to the radio version we were listening to.
And of course, there is this little ditty... "take heed, cause I'm a lyrical poet Miami's on the scene just in case you didn't know it so fast other DJs say dadgum if rhyme was a drug I'd sell it by the gram keep my composure when it's time to get lose, magnified on the mic when I kick my juice, if there was a problem yo I'll solve it check out the hook while my DJ revolves it"... which I of course knew every single word, and sung every single word.
As James Ingram's "I Don't Have a Heart" came on, and The Lovely Steph Leann said "YES! I Love this song!!" some thoughts rolled through my own mind.
I just reeled off nearly every word to Vanilla Ice... Phil Collins... Nelson... a Dino song... I was getting through most of James Ingram's song on now... and when Maxi Priest's "Close To You" came on at #2, as we neared our neighborhood, I blew through it too: "I just wanna be close to you... do all the things you want me to, I just wanna be close to you... show you the way I feel... I feel love when I'm lying in the midnight hour... holding you is like a dream... love is never what it seemed... when we touched, and you're holding me the way you do, girl you make my dreams come true, YOU MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE!!!!"
How do I know these songs? How do I still remember these songs? Is it because I have attached memories to these songs? Is it because each of these listed songs has at least 15-20 plays on my iPod at one point or another? It is because I purposefully and willfully seek them out to listen to them when I can? Yes. Yes, to all of it. Yes.
And so do you. You know songs backwards and forwards, be it "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks to "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift, I guarantee there are a couple of songs you hold dear enough to remember not just words, but inflections, extra sounds, tones and so on... like Phil Collins "Yayee!" he tosses on the end of the live version's lines of "Something Happened on the Way to Heaven".
But what if...
...what if... Dear goodness... what if I held Scripture in such high regard?
What if I were able to flip up a few channels, to somewhere in the 60s or 70s, or whatever channels the Christian music is on, what if they had Piper or Beth Moore someone, and they were reading Scripture, and I was able to just "sing" or speak long with them?
What if, as Galatians 2:19-21 were being read, I could say "For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing"...
Or what if, when someone reads Romans 8: 1-3, when they said, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering..." that it wasn't like Taylor Swift's new song "Out of the Woods", where I only know the first verse, but stumble mightily through the rest.
To treat the Word of God with as much reverence, as much importance, as much dedication to learning it and keeping it on me at all times as I do Lisa Loeb's "Stay", of which I can fire off that entire song in 60 seconds if needed.
Confession, if you promise not to tell anyone... all the musical lyrics I listed above were straight from memory... all the scripture was looked up on my phone. And had to be searched for. Because I suck at my Christian Walk.
Just some food for thought... or some word for thought.
Oh yeah, the #1 song in America, on this weekend back in 1990 on SiriusXM's 90s on 9 Back in the Day Replay hosted by Downtown Julie Brown?
"Praying for Time" by George Michael.
To that I simply say... We have plenty of Time. We need to pray for what fills it.
"Confession, if you promise not to tell anyone... all the musical lyrics I listed above were straight from memory... all the scripture was looked up on my phone. And had to be searched for." Me too! You are not alone friend.
ReplyDeleteLove it... I dont think we are alone... same story, just different artists and songs!
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