Chattanooga.

I wish I had a video of Dave Barnes doing the “Chattanooga”. I think it is a version of the “Charleston” with a little “Old Folks Home” mixed in. And maybe a splash of Tourettes.

As promised early in November, I finished the month the best way I knew how- Dave Barnes Matt Wertz Take 2. On Friday night. In Chattanooga. And it was oh so good.

Now, I know in the past, I have been one to sing the praises of Dave Barnes. Hilarious. Great writer. Smart. Etc. Tonight, it shall be Matt Wertz on which I bestow the blog honor [blonor? honog?].


Quite a shirt. In a Ron Burgundy voice- “It’s a deep V.” (As in “deep burn”. Come on. Who doesn’t love a little Anchorman spice thrown in there for flavor? Can you talk about God after an Anchorman quote? Not sure. Something in the cosmos may combust. Let’s see.)

This is the song, “Red Meets Blue”, that stuck out to me. Tatum has heard Wertz talk about this song before, how he wrote it on the road, about God. Not a girl. And that is one of my FAVORITE thing about the genre of song writers (i.e.- Bebo Norman) – the poetry that comes from the mystery of their love relationship with God.

You’re distracting me with that beauty
Leaving me wanting more

Reminding me of my duty
To lock these eyes to yours

I’ve never known a love so true
I want to see all of you

When green meets red and red meets blue

I want to see all of you

Sunlight dances with the distance
In her squinty eyed shoes
And I’m chasing down horizon

In hopes of being danced with too

Daylight sings all that morning air brings
And I’m lost
I’m lost inside you

Good, huh? Well done, sir. Well done.

They decided to go sans microphones/plugs for this song- it was a perfect venue- small, stadium seating, apparently good acoustics or something. I don’t know. Ask Mikey B. But it was awesome.

During the song, some college girl cat-called in their direction and I wanted to holler at her. Something like this:
“It’s not about seeing someone naked! It’s about seeking out the presence of God!”
But I didn’t yell that for fear of ruining the moment. I guess we all live with regrets. Cause it would have been a GREAT story.

At the end of the song, as it fades out, Dave and Matt sang this over and over:

Never known a Love so true.
Never known a Love so true.
Wanna see all of You.
Wanna see all of You.

And when they sang that, something in the room shifted. To me, at least. They stopped performing for four hundred in order to perform for One. Their faces changed. Their stances changed. I couldn’t even move my camera to capture it. It drew me in. Completely. I felt my heart lifting to God, saying “That’s it! Because of how true Your LOVE is, I want to see all of YOU.”

Obviously, I’m not in their heads, I don’t know exactly what they were thinking about, but in my “knower”, I felt the Holy Spirit wash through. And I’m telling you, things felt different. I think I experienced the aroma of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:13
For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

I want to be the kind of Christian that changes rooms without even having to say the name of Jesus. I want to worship Him and people feel different. I want, for lack of a better term, to smell like Jesus.

I love that God is always at work, showing up in the coolest places, tweaking my plans, slowly altering my course, revealing something new for me to grab on to. Using things like a concert, a conversation, a blog, a lyric, a songwriter, whatever He can, to show me His love and His best plans. It just blows my mind that I got to go to a concert that I thoroughly enjoyed AND got a new experience with the living God, all at the same time. Two Birds/One Stone. Ha. That’s so right.

Conclusion: It was a good night. Rich and good. As if the high quality lyrics weren’t enough, these guys were hilarious. Intimidatingly hilarious. A direct quote (though I won’t reveal the source)- “I mean, Annie, you are funny, but even you couldn’t think up something as funny as them.” Touche. Probably true. Though I’d try.

On a completely different note, I think I hate my new camera. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

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