please excuse this interruption from our regularly scheduled broadcast

i have much more to write about Israel...but would like to take a small break to write about something else today.

my all-time favorite band:

i stumbled upon them, i think, in the 8th grade when one of their songs was on a $1.99 sampler CD from the christian book store. i had saved my lunch money for months and purchased my very own CD player that year. since that was before i had an income other than lunch money and before itunes and barely in the time of the internet, i just listened to the one song repeatedly.

since then they have added 2 guys to the band, released 7 more full length albums (8 total), and toured seemingly non-stop.

as the albums were released the band seemed to grow and change. but what kept me on the SF train for so long is that they seemed to grow and change in the same ways that i was growing and changing. when i worked for Habitat they did a tour that benefited Habitat and wrote a song in regards to the topic. i did not get to go to a show on that tour, but none the less i was a proud fan.

the sound on the most recent album, Vice Verses, is quite different than that of the first, Legend of Chin.

although it is debated as to if they are a christian band or christians in a band, to me their music connects somewhere deep inside that other music and lyrics cannot.

i have seen them 5 times live in the past 10 years. 3 of these times my friend chelsea was in attendance (1 of which i did not yet know her). the other 2 my friend haley was in attendance (i did not yet know her at the first either)

haley and i attended my 5th show (her 7th) this week and they were as good now as they have ever been, better really.

during the song 'where i belong' there was a more worshipful presence to me in that room than at most church services i have ever attended. the song is pretty self explanatory in that it is about this world not being our home. toward the end the lines that really seem to reach that deep down place inside are this:

And when I reach the other side
I want to look You in the eye
And know that I've arrived
In a world where I belong

someday, we get to reach the other side and look God in the eye and know that we are where we belong. before singing this song, jon paused to ask that the people near someone in a wheel chair would kindly move so that they could be sure to see. someday there will be no need for wheelchairs. someday God will bring us all back to the original state of his creation. someday.

i feel like i could write more about my journey through life with switchfoot, but this post is long enough for now.

so to my fave band and possibly the only thing that i have consistently liked since the 8th grade, thanks for a good show monday and the encouraging and soul touching lyrics that are present on every album.

in one of their photo books the drummer, chad butler (my fave, who i share a birthday with 10 years separated) is quoted as saying something along the lines of: 'there is nothing worse than a clear photo of a fuzzy concept. so here's to fuzzed out photos with clear concepts and the fantastic memories that go with them.'

i think i have the words a little wrong, but you get the idea. since reading that quote i have always loved the above photo from the 4th show that i saw them (along many of the other terrible photos i have that bring to mind a wonderful memory).