Up On The Roof

Last Wednesday for the staff meeting "The Shining Light Team" of our staff took us on a tour of the church that ended with us "up on the roof." I had never been up here before. Quite a perspective. As spring is coming the leaves are starting to fill out on the trees. The neighborhood looks like a completely different place -- looking at the rooftops rather than the front doors. It makes me wonder about whether I am too often looking at things from the same perspective. How does my perspective need to shift?

My friend, Marc, sent me a link to an incredible video on YouTube -- Here it is. Please click on it and watch. Here's the description Marc sent of it:

"This is a video of a group in New England called Young@Heart. It as an octogenarian’s choir that sings modern songs (I once saw this group sing “I Wanna Be Sedated” by the Ramones!!). They key elements that I gathered from this group, and this video, is the tremendous amount of fun this group has together as they learn and perform songs typically created and listened to by kids young enough to be their great-grandchildren. Evidently, through their fun and work together, they have established great care from one another, which is clearly portrayed in this video. In this video, an 80 year old man with congestive heart failure (on oxygen) sings the song “Fix You” by cold play with the vocal backdrop of the Young@Heart Choir. The fascinating dynamic here is that he was supposed to perform the song with his friend, Bob, who passed away just before the performance. The irony here is the subject of the song which deals with loss in a graciously joyful manner. Bob’s family are sitting in the audience crying which creates a moving dynamic to the whole scenario. So, I may be pulling this a little too far, but I really think that because of this community and their relationships with one another they are TRULY grieving together through the power of this song, its performer and their connectivity. It appears to be a real step towards healing."

This got me thinking about what opportunities we miss that are right in our hands. Who would think to look at a group of octagenerians and see a group of folk who want to sing songs by Cold Play and The Ramones? What are the opportunities that are right there in our hands that we aren't seeing? Is this not a living example of seeing the world with all new eyes -- with the eyes of the gospel?