What A Reunion

Sometimes when we’re struggling, any glimmer of light is a good thing.  Well, tonight I got to experience a complete ray of sunshine.  It was such a shot in the arm for me right now.  It seems that God will reach in and surprise us at times from places that  we might least expect it.

Tonight I got together with four other musician friends and played.  These are not just four ordinary guys.  These are friends of mine from our high school days.  The last time we played music as a group was about 26 years ago.  We had a band that changed names and faces (as garage bands usually do) so many times that to try and name this group would be strange.  We had the following names throughout our “career.”  We were Crossroads (everyone thought we were a Christian band), Stillbrook, and finally Allusion.  We had a total of three guitar players, two bass guitar players, a couple of lead singers, one keyboard player, and one drummer.  All of this in about a four year span.

We have been talking about this for a long time, but tonight it actually happened.  We started with “Spooky” and as soon as the first note was played, it was like magic.  We hadn’t forgotten anything and were much better musically than we ever were back then.  We played, Skynyrd, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Styx, Doobie Brothers, Cars, Rick Springfield, Beatles, and more.  It was a blast!

We have noticed some changes in these 27 years.  Everyone played sitting down.  There were lots more gray hairs on top of our heads.  Darrell brought a heater to stay warm.  And about 10:30pm, we were ready to call it a night.

One of the most important changes came after we were through playing music though.  We all stood around and talked.  The conversation was not riddled with profanity like in the old days.  There weren’t off color jokes.  There was not a hint of alcohol or drugs.

There was, however, conversation about our faith in Jesus.  There was encouragement.  There was a brotherhood that was so much stronger than ever before.  All of these guys are people of faith now.  Life has happened to all of us. We’ve all been through some hard struggles and have come out on the other side of them with a faith in God that is awesome.

I just wanted to share with you one of the most joyful events in my life lately.  It, to me was every bit a time of worship.  No religious songs or services–just some guys happy to be in Jesus and enjoy a night of fun together.  It was a night I shall not soon forget.

The picture of the group shows (from left to right) Rusty Moody (Singer song-writer, guitar player and owns a sporting goods store in our town), Moi (Drummer, Singer, Preacher), Darrell Triplett (Guitar player and owner of a guitar store in our town), Mark Narmore (Singer, Song-writer, Wrote “Moon Over Georgia”, “What I Love About Sundays” and has about 60 cuts with major country music artists), Mark Sandlin (Bass guitar, works for TVA in our town).  The picture of the one guy is our friend Bill Hyde.  Billy lives in Huntsville, AL.  He was our sound man in the old days.  It was great to have him there too.