He is Coming!

Last night the Regent Gospel Choir, of which I am a part, had their final performance. For those who don't know, the Regent Gospel Choir was formed by this fellow named Ben Keyes who came to Regent to do an arts thesis on gospel music. Because you can't just write gospel music, but must perform it, Ben formed the Regent Gospel Choir to perform his songs. Last night was the final presentation of his thesis and let me tell you the Spirit was in the house. In a way I don't know why I'm blogging about this because the experience really can't be put into words. You really have to hear the CD (yes, the night was recorded). Ben is perhaps one of the most talented people I have ever been close to. When he sits at the piano, its like the piano becomes a part of him. And his songs, lyrically and musically, are astoundingly good. All his songs are full of this tension between suffering and hope, between this life and the life to come, between sin and grace. Hopefully I can share the recording of the evening with some of you some time.
I thought I would try to describe one of my favourite parts of one of my favourite songs. The song is called "I will wait on the Lord". After singing verse and chorus a few times we come to this vamp (if you don't know what a vamp is, I don't know how to describe it, so you'll have to look it up). It begins with the bass section singing this deep consistent "I will wait, I will wait, I will wait on the Lord." They repeat this and continue to repeat it when the tenors come with this high, urgent proclamation "He is Coming! He is Coming!". They repeat this and continue repeating when the alto come in with "Help me to wait on the Lord." And they repeat this and continue repeating when the sopranos come in with this beautiful melodic line "He is here. He has always been by your side." And every one keeps repeating and building. So you get this juxtaposition of these different seemingly contractory but true phrases repeated on top of eachother and building.
"I will wait, I will wait, I will wait on the Lord."
"......He is....Coming!......He is....Coming!"
"......Help me to wait on the Lord......"
"He is here! He has always been by your side."
After repeating this a few times, the band cuts out and it just voices and clapping....
You really have to hear it. But it just brings tears to the eyes. Really. That vamp actually sums up my year pretty nicely. I feel like I've done a lot of waiting this year. Not by choice and certainly not patiently. But have been forced to wait on the Lord. Waiting for him to reveal himself. Waiting for a lot of things in my life which don't make sense right now to make sense. And then to hear that He is here, He has always been by my side....