unashamed tour

Last night, Mikey and I went with a couple of our friends...Jacoby and Kyle, two interns with our church's youth ministry...to a concert in Florence.  The show was a part of the unashamed tour put on by Reach Records.  It was so amazing!  All of the artists were so talented, and not only were they excellent performers, they were also very sincere and eloquent in sharing their faith.  It was awesome to see the huge diversity of people at the show...all ages, races, and backgrounds.  And it was great to hear some of what these artists had to say.  One illustration I particularly loved was shared by Tedashi:


A little girl in the fourth grade got a little snake for her birthday.  She always wanted a snake, and her parents finally agree to let her have one.  She loved it so much that she took really good care of it, always feeding it and cleaning its cage.  It even slept curled up next to her at night.  Cute, right? ;)  Well, after she had the snake for a while, it stopped eating the food she normally gave it, so she tried a new kind of food.  He wouldn't eat that either.  Not only did his eating habits change; he also stopped curling up at night.  He started stretching out long-ways next to her.  After a while of this, the little girl got worried, so she took it to the vet and explained the situation.  The vet listened carefully and then looked worried by the time she was finished.  He told her she needed to come home and kill that snake immediately.  The little girl was stricken. She really loved her snake, and she wouldn't agree to this until the doctor explained why.  The vet explained that the snake was not eating because it was starving itself.  And it wasn't curling up, and was instead stretching out next to her, because it wanted to measure itself against her...you see, the snake was preparing himself to eat the little girl whole.  He wanted to starve himself so he would be able to, and he was waiting until he was big enough to do it. 


That snake is like sin.  At first, it may seem harmless.  We find ourselves defending it, feeding it, caring for it as it grows in our lives...still seeming tame.  But it's important to not forget that it is still a snake.  And that snake can grow and can devour us.  It is not enough to think about changing our lives...we need to go home and kill our snakes.  Whatever they may be.  Because those snakes can kill us, can steal our life.


And THAT is just one little piece of the night! It was amazing!!!


Here are a few pics and videos from the concert:

 Trip Lee

 Lecrae

Mikey and I after the concert :)

All of the artists CDs are on itunes, and you can go to reachrecords.com to check out more!