dance.

living in the "Live Music Capital of the World" has provided me with lots of opportunities to hear some amazing music. not the least of these was austin city limits. it's a legendary event, and i was completely blessed with the opportunity to go and be involved with it. there were at least ten thousand moments that weekend that were pure beauty. at each concert, whether i knew who was playing or not, there were so many pieces of beauty. the music was all breathtaking, the sight of each of the bands there completely surrendered to what they were doing and completely enjoying it, the thousands of people unified by a simple tune. it all added up to an unforgettable experience. and the culmination of it was sunday, which included two of the most memorable experiences i've had in austin so far. one was being blessed by an old man after the eagles show, which is an experience i'll definitely be writing about later. but the one i want to describe here was at the edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros show on sunday afternoon. at the end of the set, they played their song om nashi me, which means "oh infinite nakedness," "no meaning," or what i think best describes the experience of the song, "no boundaries." as the song built and built and built, we threw our bags down, discarded all hindrances, and danced. we freed ourselves from the constrictions society places on us, what's right, what's proper. it's one of those perfect moments of complete disregard for what anyone else is thinking of you. if you've never expereinced this, i'm sorry. i'm so sorry. everyone needs to do this at some point. just dance. i like the way david crowder says it in his book praise habit: "dance. dance until we can see your soul." that's the complete surrender we need to live out all the time. and because we can't be dancing around constantly, although that would be the best world ever, it's good to be reminded of this every once in a while. whether it's at an outdoor festival, sweating, singing, loving, screaming, dancing with 65,000 people or alone in your dorm with the music turned up loud, DANCE. forget what everyone else is thinking about you for a few minutes and let go. let go of the stress and the restraints that hold you down. dance so that you can look back and remember that moment and live in that freedom. cause that's the freedom that christ calls us to live in all the time. i don't know about you, but i find that incredibly exciting.



"Om nashi me
I love you
And I love you forever
And I'm loving you now "