Captivated

I am so excited to be writing my first Chard and compass blog, here I go!

A well known fact about me is that I am pretty obsessed with Jason Mraz, and not just his music. He shares something special with this planet, he has a beautiful way of looking at life and I have gained much insight from him. (if you are a fan and not aware of his rad blog check it out here)

Let me explain further - I had an ah-ha! Mraz moment last week when I attended a Shawn McDonald concert at my old church, University Covenant Church in Davis. I had been looking forward to the concert for a long time to catch up with old friends and to experience Shawn’s music in person. Shawn has written some wonderful songs that are my life theme songs (am I the only one who has theme songs? – I know I am not alone - you know you do too!) anyway back to the concert, I was waiting to hear Take My Hand, and as soon as the first chord started I whipped out my camera to record the song through my cameras video feature and I saw many around me do the exact same thing. Cell phones and cameras were all around me. All these people were digitally trying to perfectly capture the moment. There I was front row at an amazing concert, filled with God’s presence and what was I doing but watching and experiencing it all through the little screen on my camera, to make sure I captured this moment on my little camera and I had a sudden memory that jerked me back to reality….

A year or two ago while at a Jason Mraz concert, Jason stopped playing and turned on the house lights and chatted with the crowd. He wanted to tell us a story. Once when he was traveling in Egypt he was spending time at the Pyramids, he was taking his time to soak in being in such awesome presence of these monuments. Jason watched as many tourists came through to see the sites and would be carrying their camera, pulling it up to try and capture the perfect picture, being unhappy with the lighting in the first, deleting the picture they had taken and then trying again, after that process finally finding one they were content with and then the tourist would walk away from the pyramid looking at the image on their camera screen, not at the actual thing standing in front of them. In this moment Jason decided to LIVE life and SEE it and he lives in a way that is not rushed and tries to capture moments in his memory not memory SD stick. At his concert he encouraged us to do the same, stop taking his picture, stop recording the song and feel the music, to be in the moment with him, to dance and sing and to experience life in the instance. I was shook to reality in that moment and I thought about all the times I was so focused on capturing an image on my camera I did not fully experience the moment, the music, the view, the people. I tried to change, yet I found myself once again trying desperately to have Shawn McDonald on my little camera screen and in doing that failing to enjoy the entire moment and being in that place at that time. I need to continue to remind myself to be in the moment, to slow down and enjoy the moment that God has made.