Amidst the smoke, the noise and the
screaming fans, I watched him turn an old patch of farmland into holy ground.
I think it was somewhere in the middle of
Michael’s worship set, when he got up from his piano, walked up to center stage
and started a soliloquy from God’s Word. Infused with passion, and pouring from
an awe-filled heart, the Psalm seemed to strike the very center of me in a way
that I'd never experienced, and definitely not in a way that I was expecting.
“You
hem me in, before and behind, and lay Your hand upon me...”
He
recited all 24 verses from memory and then moved into some corporate praise
songs, but I was so undone, I couldn’t come along. Somewhere around verse 11 or
12, I was so pierced by the spoken truth that I simply knelt down in the grass
and began to weep. I cried for my unbelief, for my judgmental spirit and for
the acute awareness that God was near.
Now,
maybe this was so profound for me simply because of my love for theatre or my
love for words, but I like to think that it was something more than that.
Something spiritual. Something supernatural. Because after all, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing
through the word of Christ.”
Since
then, I’ve been extremely blessed. I’ve had countless opportunities to do what
Michael did that night—leading people in worship and carrying the broken on the
stretchers of song to the foot of the cross.
But
you know, there hasn’t been a night that’s gone by that I don’t think about
that night in the field and my first show with Mr. Smith. For it wasn’t until
that starry night in June, kneeling down in tears and earth, that I realized my
privilege to declare the Word in the same way that it was declared to me.
So
now, in every worship set, there’s at least one time that I’ll break out into a
few lines of Scripture.
“I have
hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you…”
I
thank God for using Michael that night at Creation Fest to show me the
preciousness and the power in the spoken Word, to show me that you can walk
onto large platforms and main stages, and still treasure Christ, above all. May
the Lord teach me to do the same. —MIKE
DONEHEY, TENTH AVENUE NORTHMike Donehey is
the lead vocalist and lyricist for new Reunion Records band Tenth Avenue North.
Over and Underneath, the band’s debut, releases May 20. Log on
to tenthavenuenorth.com to learn more.