Pursuit of the Dream

This weekend i had the blessing to fulfill what for me in high school was a dream of mine. I got to mix FOH for Michael W. Smith. It's hard for me to think of another person who i didn't know personally who had a greater impact on my life during my high school years.

We only found out a couple of weeks ago that Smitty would be coming to Willow and it made me pull out my old cd's. I ripped them into my ipod and started scanning thru the songs on The Big Picture. I always remembered that this record had a huge impact on me but as I listened to the songs i forgot how huge that impact really was. I grew up in a very legalistic religious environment and i was ready to give up on the whole God thing until i discovered Christian rock and artists like Michael. The Big Picture was released as i was finishing the 8th grade and ended up being the soundtrack for my life in highschool. It got me thru a lot of struggles as well as made me dream about what God's plan was for my life.

As i entered college and pursued the audio side of things the specific dream of mixing for Michael faded but i still always wanted to use my audio skills and passion for Christ. Eventually that came to full fruition when i came on staff at Willow. Now to have had Smitty on our stage and to get to mix him it made me think of how cool God is and how he does care about our dreams. Sure it took over 20 years but he still took the dream of a 15 year old and made it come true.