Virtually Paul

The Best Thing Ever

January 26, 2007 on 12:05 pm | In Faith, Music, The Life of Paul |

“I wanna be a rockstar but I ain’t got what it takes.” - from “Rockstar” by Third Day

Wednesday night marked the third time that my favourite band, Third Day, have toured Australia. I first heard them in 2001 when they came to Sonfest in Ballarat. They were fantastic then and they just keep on getting better. Last time they toured, in 2005, I organised a small army of friends to go along and see them. I even drove out and bought tickets in advance for everyone. This time around, I was thoroughly disappointed that no one wanted to go with me. However, undeterred, I bought my ticket anyway. I wasn’t going to miss it. And I’m glad that happened because it was a key factor in what came next. Keep reading whilst I build the suspense.

See, as everyone knows, when you go to some sort of concert, people all sit with their friends. In a packed out venue, due to people’s somewhat impractical ideas of personal space, this generally means that there are lots of single good seats in really good spots where two groups have allowed a ’spacer’. After a quick chat with a very nice mum, who’s 12 year old son quite obviously didn’t want to sit next to a stranger until I made an effort to befriend him, I snaffled myself a seat in the third row on the aisle.

The support act, although their name currently escapes me, we’re pretty entertaining… but I was hanging out for Third Day. It’s been a couple of days since the concert so I don’t have a hope of remembering the set list. I like all of their songs. I’m a bit of an all-round Third Day fan. So there I am. At a Third Day concert. How cool is that! I’ve gotta say, their music really stirs me up and touches me. I’ve been doing the church musician thing for quite a while now… and in recent times, particularly in the last two years where a lot of us have sacrificed our own personal spiritual interaction in worship services, to run a church that has no permanent pastors, I’ve really felt numb to the music and words of songs with Christian spiritual themes.

In that process, where the music has still been happening every Sunday, I haven’t really had a pathway to deal with some stuff that’s really been bugging me for a long time. I have felt like I’ve been continually living in the fragments - the debris - of a church family that once worked well, that once wrapped its arms around me and embraced me… that once loved me. I’ve been a bit resentful since things became unsettled those few years ago. I think that’s normal to an extent. Close relationships change dramatically, in ways were people disconnect from each other, and we ask ourselves the question “Who is going to love me now?”. I’ve been waiting for someone to answer that question for me. I’ve been waiting for someone to be the answer to that question for me. It hasn’t happened. But the answer was right in front of my eyes the whole time.

“When you think your life is shattered and there’s no way to be fixed again, love heals your heart.” - from “Love Heals Your Heart” by Third Day

Third Day opened the floodgates for me again. The words to their songs and the absolutely fantastic musical arrangements broke through the walls that I’ve had up for a long time. It’s been such a long time since music was something that I let speak to me. And then, the absolutely unthinkable happened. Mac Powell, the lead singer, got the band to do something unrehearsed. “Who would like to sing for some Third Day Karaoke?” (thick southern American accent that is much cooler than Dr Phil’s). My hand was in the air before I could really think about it. I’ve actually imagined many times, what it would be like to sing with Third Day in concert. I’ve got their CDs, so in some senses I feel like I sing with Third Day all the time… but yeah… Mac picked me out of the crowd along with three others.

I’d been on the stage for about 2 seconds when he asked me my name, asked the audience to “give it up for Paul” and told me I was about to sing one of my favourite songs… “Love Song”. So there I am on the stage at Richmond AOG with Third Day, in front of 2000 people who I could see all looking at me. My legs were shaking like absolute jelly and I was worried that I was going to fall over. I couldn’t look. I shut my eyes. I didn’t even have to think about when to come in. It was one of the freakiest things listening to my voice boom out from the lead singer’s microphone. It was intense. And it was an absolutely beautiful experience. I even got a little bit of a cheer after the first line. I knew the words by heart but I would have gone completely blank, if it wasn’t for Mac saying the next line into my ear as each one passed.

“I’ve heard it said that a man would climb a mountain
Just to be with the one he loves
How many times has he broken that promise
It has never been done”

The rest of the verse which the next guy sang, goes like this:
“Well I never climbed the highest mountain
But I walked the hill of Calvary”

It was, of course, the chorus of that song, that answered the question I walked into the concert with… and the question that I’ve been wrestling with for these last few years… “Who is going to love me now?”. The whole, complete and all-consuming love of Christ, claims to be more powerful than anything that other people can offer us. That’s not to say that the love of others isn’t necessary. I’m still interested in having happy, healthy, loving relationships. But this - this is something more.

“And just to be with you, I would do anything
There is no price I would not pay
And just to be with you, I would give anything
Yes, I would give my life away”

-From “Love Song” by Third Day