Green Day and My Chemical Romance

Last night I was blessed to go to a Green Day concert last night in Norfolk, VA. For those of you not familiar with the area, it's about 4 hours drive from where I live in Northern Virginia. Well, 4 hours give or take, since we did the trip each way in about 3 1/2 hours.

Anyway, I went down to Norfolk with three teenagers (Christine, Kim & Tina) who took the day off of school to go see the concert. We left about 1 pm and got to Norfolk about 4:20. Had an incident with a Shell store clerk (that's another story/tirade on people respecting others instead of making themselves and their companies look bad). Then drove around and checked out Norfolk. It's pretty nice, reminded me a lot of Baltimore.

Anyway, the concert was great but a bit loud. I am definitely getting old, my next concert I'll definitely be bringing ear plugs (unless it's a band concert at River Bend or something). The most interesting part to me was the opening band, My Chemical Romance. As Christine put it, they had a very limited vocabulary, every few words they threw in f*ck and f*ing. But one thing stuck with me which I really liked.

They first called out to all the girls in the audience, getting them to scream out proud. Then the lead singer said "If someone comes up to you before a concert that may look like us (but not be nearly as good dressers) and say they'll get you to a backstage party if you show them your [chest] (they used a more crass word) spit in their f*ing face and tell them they're f*ing a**holes, since you're worth far more than that!" I got to say, that along with some of the lyrics to their songs (what I could understand) really did move me. Here were guys playing to an audience of people from about 8 years old to 50 (seriously huge age range, but Green Day's been around for 14 years).

so, at the moment I'll close here. A whole lot happened and I could write tons. But I'll just save them for a couple different entries. At the moment the question I can ask is simply this:

We all have an impact on someone else's lives. Whether it is through parents leading our children, god-parents leading kids, aunts and uncles leading their nephews and nieces, leading lots of teenagers or most important, how we lead our friends. All conversations we have with others are our way of leading, even if you're leading by saying very little, you're still helping mold the relationship and communication.

So, my question for you is, how do you lead these others. Do you share the good things in your life with those around you? Do you lead these people toward God in your communications? You don't have to spout "God is great" in all your conversations. Sometimes leading people to God is as simple as not saying negative things about others. Sometimes it's just smiling at someone as you pass them in the hall.

How are you spreading god's message? I certainly hope I'm doing a decent job.

Peace.

posted by Tom at 3:53 PM