Tonight I Took a Trip to NYC

After dinner, I took a quick three minute trip back to Bowery Mission in New York City. It was spontaneous and most unplanned, but there I went, off on my own. No air fair, no taxi, no car, no bus, just me, myself, I, and Christy Nockels.

I believe in a previous post I mentioned that in May of 2010 I sang the song Healing is in Your Hands by Christy Nockels as a solo during chapel at the mission and tonight Jordan, Anne, and I were messing around, singing at the BCM building and this song started to play.

I promptly trotted up on the stage and belted it out. As most people could tell I've had a somewhat less than smooth sailing week and really needed some time to just sing and get everything that's been weighing on me off my shoulders. And it really helped a lot. For three glorious minutes I was back, sitting in a hot and stuffy chapel behind a pulpit in front of a hundred people I called strangers. For three wonderful minutes I was shaking in my boots (figuratively, of course, as I was barefoot tonight) because I was so scared. And for three amazing minutes I was looking at the faces of these men who I would soon call some of my closest friends.

It's so completely crazy how something that most people would find as insignificant as a song can take you back to another world that you never even dreamed existed.

To be perfectly honest, I was terrified when I stepped foot into the Bowery Mission building. I was terrified when I read on the bunk beds that the rats were the size of my head. I was terrified when I saw all the people I'd be singing alone in front of. But when I finished the song, I was no longer afraid. I had this amazing rush of calm - and of blood to the head because everyone was clapping and I was blushing.

And tonight I went there for the millionth time in my mind. There was Javi sitting in the front row cheering me on. There was LeShane in the back of the chapel, laughing it up with some guys, and bobbing his head back and forth as our group lead Ain't No Rock. There was Ali clapping his hands and yelling the occasional, "Amen!" There was Israel, quiet and content as ever in his third row seat.

And then I opened my eyes and I was in Farmville, Virginia. How quickly something wonderful can fade away.