Fiddle lessons and tattoos...

So I went to the Miranda Lambert/Dierks Bentley concert last weekend (the really awesome husband of my really awesome friend provided a free girls' night for us! Score!) and it was great fun. The 3 of us girls ate dinner first at TGI Fridays, had good seats at the concert, took lots of pics, and laughed and danced and whistled and sang, and lost our voice - all that good concert stuff.

And I left wanting to take fiddle lessons and get a tattoo.

Miranda sort of has that effect.

I've always wanted to see her, because I've enjoyed her music for years. I discovered her when she was brand new with "Me and Charlie Talking", and have followed her career closely ever since. She just seems so real and approachable, (and is only one year older than me) not to mention the lure of her edgy lyrics. And now that her image is mellowing a bit since getting married, getting older, and winning every award known to the country music industry, I REALLY like her more ballad, slow-song stuff. (Plus, she and Blake are just adorable. Loved when she won something a year or so ago, and it was like her 4th time on stage, and she looks at Blake and says "We need to start going to church!" hahaha).

Anyway.

While I was there the other night at the concert, I got caught up in the "girl power" of it all. That feeling of independence and "I've got this" and "who needs you anyway" that screams of gasoline cans, shotgun shells and all things woman-scorned.

Wow. Dangerous doesn't even begin to describe.

But it seems so innocent, right? So feel-good. Caught up in the moment of it all, what woman can't relate to that message? That desperate need to grab a gasoline can and/or a shotgun and let loose on all the hurt that's been bottled in her for weeks? Months? Years? Decades? Or even let loose on (gasp) the person that did it?

Miranda says in her songs what we're (as women) all thinking/feeling and are too afraid to say. And if you argue with me, I'll call you a liar. It's in all of us, whether we're willing to admit it or access it or not. Why do you think she's so famous??? Because we GET her. We GET it. And we sing along to express it.

But guess what? At the end of the day, Miranda's make up comes off, her guitar gets hung up, and her spiked boots get exchanged for pj's and house shoes like the rest of us. At the end of the day, the walls come down, or maybe even crumble against her will. The beer doesn't last forever. Neither does the high of a stadium of people applauding. Because - she's a real girl. She's cried on stage before. She's cried in interviews. She's cried in award shows. She's a real woman with a real heart and while I have NO idea of her relationship with Jesus, she has the same fears and insecurities the rest of us do, the same struggles and trials and outside of Jesus, she has no lasting answer for them. She just sings what we're all afraid to even hum. And that's why I'm drawn to her, and probably why you are too. We're drawn to that "bad a**" image because we long to be like that. To be that hard and guarded and protected because it looks easier. less painful.

It's not.

Here's truth:

I went home on a "I am woman, hear me roar" (and watch me cut up and burn things) high, and the next morning, felt empty again. Because any high from the world doesn't last. It can't. It's temporary, and fleeting. "The morning after" is ugly. Always. Think about it - hang overs. One night stands. They all go away and that's why people get addicted, they have to have that feeling again, they have to rebuild the wall and decorate it yet again before anyone sees what's inside. Before anyone sees the vulnerable places.

How exhausting.

There's so much I can say there, but won't right now because of lots of reasons, so how's that for being cryptically vague? ::wink:: But I will get real enough to say THIS (because it's more important anyway) - that the next night I went to a women's ministry event at a local church, and the speaker (Lisa Revere) is the author of a brand new book called Girls With Swords.

Talk about girl power, huh? lol

Oh NO. This book, and this speaker, and her message, is so far beyond any temporary high of "girl power" you could ever borrow from a concert. She brings in the message of women accessing God-power, and it's so much more permanent. And, well, powerful. She sheds light on the concept of wielding the sword of the Spirit (Word of God) in a new way that is just, so....YES. You really need to get her book if this is striking a chord at all!

http://messengerinternational.org/?gclid=CIqd-Kr6yLYCFQWynQodNE0A_Q

Instead of hardening your heart, I heard a message on the power of being vulnerable and real. Instead of revenge, I heard a message on the power of forgiveness and second chances. Instead of shutting down, I heard a message on the power of opening up. How God uses all of those things in our life that we view as weaknesses for His glory and our good in HIS strength.

That's what I want. Because there's no "morning after" in that. There's new mercy every morning there. There's joy. There's hope.

And God's Word is not just a feel good platitude. There is REAL power there that we, as believers, are not dipping into, out of fear or lack of faith or lack of belief or just pure laziness. What a tragic waste! It breaks my heart. For others, and myself, because I'm just as guilty in part of the above list.

That's going to change.

Will it for you?

Check out the book, please. Check out Lisa's website. Check out  John and Stasi Eldredge and Ransomed Heart Ministries. http://www.ransomedheart.com/ All of these messages from these speakers, while not directly connected to each other in any way, go together and offer life - because they offer Jesus.

I'm still a fan of Miranda's music. I'm still drawn to her and would love to meet her one day and ask her if she knows Jesus. Would love to hang out with her and ask her about the stories in her life that have led her to write the lyrics she writes. Would love to see her stay married to Blake for 30 more years and have 2 or 3  adorable, cowboy-hat wearin' toddlers. Would love to go boot-shopping with her and see if she has any tricks regarding shooting a bow and arrow.

But she doesn't have the answers.

I know where those are.

**HOWEVER, I'm not completely dismissing the idea of fiddle lessons and tattoos ;)  **