I trust you are doing well. Truly. Things here are beyond happy, thanks for asking.
The thing is this, I'm about to see you! Right!? Well, that's my hope. Here's the deal - the Neon Steeple Tour is officially ready to commence! This thing born from dreams of grace and recompense, of mistakes and amends, of faults and reparation turning into songs; singing like we know what it is we're singing about; songs with the stuff of earth and heaven all mingled together; singing like we're old friends with history, miles and years, toils and triumphs shared, because we're the same, we are here, and we are human, and there is Jesus.
I want to invite you over so we can catch up and reassure one another that there is love, and there is damage, and there is the opportunity to remember that love is bigger. And since I can't have everyone over here, I'm coming over there. But, I'm bringing my porch. Literally. Now, I know that the word "literally" is literally overused, but I intend it in its literal sense. Like, we have literally built a porch, and I am bringing it along. And, this is an invitation to join me on the porch for a bit of singing.
Porches are cool. They are like, literally, as close as you can get to inside the house. It's a domain between outside and inside. Family, friends, passersby, all are welcome on the porch. And, it turns out, the banjo fits nicely there next to the screen door.
It will feel like home, or a hint of it. I mean, here we are, on planet earth, and yet, we know, and agree, there is more. That there is home, and we're just here between the inside and the outside. And so, we shall gather and sing about it.
Did I mention there are lasers!? No?! Oh, well, there are lasers. And, inflatable turkey legs. And, you can purchase items from the mobile mercantile that we are toting along with us like wildflower and okra seeds, and bandanas, and beard oil, and hats you can wear that are suitable for front porch sing-a-longs, and such. Did I mention it will be a hillbilly dance party?! No? Well, it will be, exactly, a hillbilly dance party.
So, come on over for a group sing. I'll see ya on the porch. Mi casa es su casa!
"Grandma's on the front porch with a Bible in her hand, sometimes I hear her singing take me to the promised land."
- John Cougar Mellencamp
"The twilight was blurred and soft. Supper was almost ready and the smell of cabbage floated to them from the open hall. All of them were together except Hazel, who had not come home from work, and Etta, who still lay sick in bed. Their Dad leaned back in the chair with his sock-feet on the bannisters. Bill was on the steps with the kids. Their Mama sat on the swing fanning herself with the newspaper. Across the street a girl in the neighborhood skated up and down the sidewalk on one roller skate. The lights on the block were just beginning to be turned on, and far away a man was calling someone."
- From McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, in Out on the Porch
"Nobody thought much about the front porch when most Americans had them and used them. The great American front porch was just there, open and sociable, an unassigned part of the house that belonged to everyone and no one, a place for family and friends to pass the time."
- Rochlin, The Front Porch, in Home, Sweet Home
"Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar. Let them say, 'Spare your people, LORD.' Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"
- Joel 2:17
Grace and Peace,
Crowder