Music of My Past

Whenever I'm listening to the radio in my car and a song comes on that I haven't heard in a long time I'm automatically transported back in time to a memory that's associated with that song.

On Friday I got the sudden urge to buy a Third Day CD. For those that don't know, Third Day is a big Christian band. There are two things that are strange about that. Number one I don't usually buy CD's and number two if I do buy CD's the chances of it being a Christian CD is slim. I decided to go a long on the urge and went down to my local Christian book store. When I went to the Third Day CD's in the store I was surprised to see so many of them. I couldn't figure out which one I wanted, not because that I thought they were all good, but because I had no idea which one was good. I ended up getting a worship CD that had one of my all time favorite song's of theirs "Your Love Oh Lord".

I finally popped the CD in tonight and that experience of going back in time happened to me. The weirdest part was that not just one memory came to me, but every memory of the good times I had with my youth group came to me. I remembered the first time I heard Third Day in concert at my first Creation Festival, (Christian music festival: three days of camping in a desert) almost five years ago. I remembered the last time I heard Third Day in concert, they closed the festival, which is big deal, a couple of years ago. I remember everyone in my youth group being excited about the concert, all of us curled up in blankets under the night’s sky filled with the brightest stars, singing along to the songs with smiles on our faces. One thing I didn't realize when I picked the CD out of numerous ones that the band had was that it was the same CD my youth pastor had had on his wake boarding boat. Every memory of being out on that boat in the summer, wake boarding and inter-tubing came back to me. As I listened to the first song on the CD I was once again back on that boat laughing and joking around with my youth pastor, (who is no longer the youth pastor, and is to this day a good friend) and my friends from youth group. I can hear the laughter, with Third Day in the back round, as they all watch me screaming, on the inter-tube, at Mark to slow down or he was going to kill me. I remembered how it took me two years to figure out how to get up on a wake board, and how everyone triumphed when I finally did, with Third Day playing in the back round. I remember Mark turning Third Day up to as high as the system on the boat could go and all of us on the boat singing along as loud as our voices could go. There are many more memories, one for every time I listened to the same music I listened to tonight.

After all those memories came back to me I realized that those were my greatest teenage memories. A lot of them I had forgotten or purposely pushed back; I wish I hadn't done either. I can't remember being as happy as I was when I was with my youth group. I know I'll never have those same experiences, it forever changed when Mark stepped down seven months ago as youth pastor and became a husband and father. Now, whenever I hear Third Day I will remember all the laughs and good times I had with people I loved only because we shared one common belief: God's son Christ.

Third Day will forever be the music of my past. With hope it will aslo be the music of my future.