The director of my gospel band got married this past weekend. I was part of a pre-ceremonial concert of sorts. Among other songs (two originals and "Say a prayer for me"), I was also slated to play bass on Tye Tribbet's "Chasing after you". It was crazy because I never had a chance to arrange nor rehearse the song with the guy who sang it. Prior to the wedding day, I actually thought that he was going to be playing lead guitar while someone else sang the song. 30 seconds before the performance, the dude that was SINGING LEAD let me know that I would be playing as his SOLE accompanient. WHAT?!?!?!??!!?
There was obviously some confusion of the terms "Lead", "Soloist" and "Lead Guitar" in the emails sent out prior to the wedding.
Overall, the performance went well. Though I spent my time preparing to play the bass line, I also played around with the guitar chords (for my own personal edification tho...not for performance purposes!!). I was really wired for the 10 minutes after the performance (like.."unable to sit down" wired- LOL).
The wedding and the reception were good fun as well. When I first met the director around june of last year, he was engaged to a young lady in the group, so this has been a much anticipated day from day 1.
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I went out the farmer's market in baltimore again with the folk from my monday night bible study. Our day ended with a vendor/facilitator of the market approaching us with a police officer at his side and asking us to leave because we were "soliciting"...and the law requires that we be at least 300 ft or so outside of the market. Solicitation is directly related to selling something, all we were doing was starting conversations and infrequently passing out tracts, but whatever...
At that point, we decided to pack up and to go to the charles village chipotle. As we were walking out, I stopped another non-vendor lady who was passing out material and let her know that we were just asked to leave since "solicitation" laws were being enforced today. The officer was trailing behind us (not necessarily following us), so in an attempt to avoid any further conflict, I made a point to tell him what I was doing in having a conversation with the lady. The officer then (out of sheer curiosity) asked to see what I was handing out. I showed him the "good person" gospel tract that i had and he was like "I'm a christian too, and I wouldn't want to hinder anyone in the city from preaching the gospel, the city certainly needs it...but please stay on the outskirts of the market". What are the chances of running into a believing police officer?
The lady was given a pass by the same guy who asked the cop to ask us to leave. I'm probably going to write a letter into the baltimore sun or something to expose the discrimination.
OH - highlight of the day was during a conversation with a girl who spent 15 years in catholic school. I first asked her if she would be willing to have a conversation about spiritual things - she said "SURE!". I then asked her about her spiritual beliefs and she said (with an air of accomplishment) "I was a christian for most of my life - I spent 15 years in catholic school, but now i do whatever seems right to me". The conversation progressed into us talking about man's need for a savior and the salvific inadequacy of attending catholic school. She then put her hand on her forehead in a manner that was partially discreet and kinda weird all at the same time. Within 10 seconds, a friend of hers came on the scene and said "Oh, we have to go - i need her for something".
...
THE GIRL TOTALLY SENT OUT A DISTRESS SIGNAL TO HER FRIENDS!!! I've seen girls plan this out at parties, i've seen it on TV and i've read about it in newspaper articles, BUT I'VE NEVER BEEN ON THE RECEIVING END OF ONE!!
It was awesome! I shared a good laugh with the other laborer-folk after the fact.
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After leaving the chipotle and making my way home, i drove past a KFC on a busy avenue that had about 30 people in front of it with signs. I immediately was able to determine that these were PETA type people. They were protesting the GENOCIDE OF CHICKENS...IN FRONT OF A KFC!!!! seriously?
They had signs with pictures of chickens being "mistreated". They had catchy slogans as well. I didn't really have anywhere to be and I was still in a particularly outgoing mood so the thought crossed my mind to go and talk to them. The sign that made me park my car (aside: there was an abudance of parking spaces on the avenue, how could i not park?) was the sign that read "Thou shalt not kill".
I specifically approached the dude with that sign and was like "Thou shalt not kill? like...the bible, right?" And he was like yeah "God said don't kill and that we should treat all creatures with respect"
...
I challenged the guy's usage of that text by making a reference to the fact that God killed a lamb in the garden of Eden to cover the sin of Adam and Eve and that he also instituted the entire sacrificial system wherein countless animals were slaughtered and how all this served as a type/shadow of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. He jumped off that subject...so now we're talking about morality...and a fellow protester joins the conversation and is on some "We believe that people should do what seems right to them, you can believe the bible if you want"
And so I was like "Yeah, and the founders of KFC feel that it is right to treat chickens the way that they do, who are you to tell them that they're wrong? This is the problem with moral relativism...it is arrogant and it makes no sen..."
(a taller guy runs over and gives me some PETA tracts)
Had i not been full from chipotle (and unable to see that I wasn't going to be able to make any further points in conversation without being interrupted and given more PETA tracts), I would've gone inside and purchased a personal bucket so that i could have continued the conversation with a drumstick (or two) in hand(s).
In the future, I would love to be more investigative in my approach so that I could see what informs their convictions. Either way, this is Romans 1 being played out.
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