In the span of one week, I went to different house shows in two different cities all to see two different people play two very different types of music.

1) Ben White & Gab: Very thought-provoking, and what used to be salvation-seeking. Good audience interaction, two very talented guys who have been hit with an on-going season of doubting and figuring it out for themselves what it means to be connected to God.

2) Bradley Hathaway: Spiritually heavy, a little bit haunting and completely full of the truth that goes past all the doubt, confusion, hurt and sorrow right into the core of your heart and you are left feeling just a little more burdened than you were before, simply because every word is true and you know it, you connect with it, you get it.

They were two of the most incredible nights that I have had this past year, filled with open hearts, open minds & open windows into the souls of others. I am completely and forever moved by the words of Bradley, and I don't mean this in a "fanatical" way. I simply mean that I can relate in the sense that he has a way of describing things that my soul hardly can begin to comprehend.

And I can relate to this because this is what everything in me is aching for:

"In her fairy tales and sweetest dreams, she found Jesus on her own.
And He told her that He loved her and that He would be her home.
And He danced and He sang His songs over her as she slept at night.
And she felt His joy, she felt His peace, His gentleness and His might.

She believed that He bore her pain and that He bore it in His side.
But to believe He loved her so was just so much that she would hide.
For His love was too dangerous and how could He dare to love her the unlovable..? It just didn't seem fair."

(from "She was Raised by a Man with a Sickness")