Last Saturday night the local Christian radio station, KVNE, hosted an incredible Leeland, Francesca Batistelli, and Brandon Heath concert on the Kilgore College campus.  Leeland being one of my favorite bands, I made solid plans to go. I didn’t have any expectations for this concert. Only to go and listen to some incredible Christian musicians show their stuff. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.

The three of them started the concert out by worshipping together with a song they wrote called “Follow You.” I immediately had tears in my eyes. I can’t describe with words what I felt that night. It was the single most real thing I have ever felt at a concert or a camp or a retreat or conference or anything. Listening to Leeland’s music I knew how passionate they were but I never knew just how much. Watching the band’s namesake sing with tears rolling down as he worshipped our Lord brought hot tears to my eyes and made my heart overflow with passion and love for the people in that room and for my Savior. They weren’t faking to make us, the audience, feel good or fuzzy or make us think we feel Jesus. His excitement and he jumped up and down as he sang and praised, his huge grin, his wet eyes and his choked up words made me realize that God isn’t some fuzzy feeling. He is a real Almighty God. Something about Leeland is more real than other bands I’ve seen perform. Something about them made me feel the passion and realness they felt when they wrote their songs. That something is the only real thing in this world: Jesus Christ.When my fiance looked at me and saw me grinning from ear to ear with tears in my eyes he knew exactly how I felt. He said, “The same passion you see in Leeland, I see in you.” Ladies and gentlemen this is why I am in love with this man and am going to marry him. 🙂 He knows me to the core. (But that’s another blog! :))

I have never seen so many people in a band feel as passionately about what they do as Leeland. I felt encouraged, blessed and loved as I stood in awe of what Christ was doing through those men. As Francesa Batistelli says in her song, “When I was just a girl, I thought I had it figured out. That my life would turn out right and I’d make it here somehow. But things don’t always come that easy and sometimes I would doubt.” You see, I doubt my life all the time. I know I have this incredible passion to worship God in song, but I think about how I don’t have the opportunity to move to a big music city like Nashville or Los Angeles to pursue my music career. I think about all the artists that got their start younger than me and are successful now at my age. But then I remember that God gave me this talent and passion for a reason. He will use me in His mighty way in His good timing. That puts my doubts and fears to rest. 🙂

I pray that all of us would find that realness that we can only find through our Lord.