A blues and jazz party...

So we practiced a few tunes for our Fat Tuesday Blues and Jazz Party gig on Tuesday, February 21st - the day before Lent begins.  More and more local bands of all varieties - alternative, Appalachian folk as well as rock and soul and jazz - are eager to be a part of the fun.  It is likely we're going to have 30 musicians on stage!

Now two things strike me about this:

+ First, joy is infectious: people want to be a part of a good thing.  Our Thanksgiving Eve gig was not only a ton o fun, but great music and financially successful for those needing emergency fuel assistance this winter.

+ Second, doing blues and jazz creates an opportunity for ALL types of tunes to be a part of the mix.  I was fooling around with both "Jesus Just Left Chicago" a la ZZ Top as well as the country classic, "Satan's Jeweled Crown."  Man, they all fit - and given some of the cats we have playing with us.... I can't wait to experience what they come up with.

It made me think of what Eugene Peterson wrote about Psalm 126:

And now, GOD, do it again ~
  bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
So those who planted their crops in despair
  will shout hurrahs at the harvest,
So those who went off with heavy hearts
  will come home laughing, with armloads of blessings.

It is clear that in Psalm 126 that the one who wrote it and those who sang it were no strangers to the dark side of things.  They carried the painful memory of exile in their bones and the scars of oppression on their backs. They knew the deserts of the heart and the nights of weeping. They knew what it meant to sow in tears.

But one of the interesting and remarkable things that Christians learn is that laughter does not exclude weeping. Christian joy is not an escape from sorrow. Pain and hardship still come, but they are unable to drive out the happiness of the redeemed.

A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the never ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointments by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment.

Well, it not only doesn't work, it also makes us angry, empty and addicted to distractions - or worse. As we talked about at last night's "play-fullness" study group, our journey through life is NOT about getting rid of pain, but embracing it in such a way as we are open to what it might teach us about compassion and trust and integrity.  Each person who gathered last night wants to become more play-full.  That is, open to the fullness of God's love in the midst of their real lives:  ups and downs, fear and hope, wounds and and healings.

Tonight we played funny blues - a psychedelic Delta thing with 13 bars - alongside Etta James' classic, "At Last" at the same time one of our guy's brother is facing serious cancer treatment and one of our singer's momma was in surgery at age 85.  We laughed and wept and sang and entered into a space of compassion that was palpable.  And needs to be shared as part of the healing of the world.  We are young and old, male and female, pro and amateur, classically trained and jivers and everything in-between.  Join us, if you can, for our BLUES AND JAZZ PARTY ON FAT TUESDAY.