JOY IS CONTAGIOUS
Look Up Child
DRAPER’S PAPER ROUTE
JOY IS CONTAGIOUS
by Adam Carroll Draper
If you haven’t ever listened to a Lauren Daigle song, take the time. My favorite is “Here’s My Heart.” I am not a musician, but that doesn’t stop me from saying what I like. That just means no one but me cares about my opinion. It is sort of like how I am with wine. I am also not a sommelier, so Wine Spectator could care less that I like a St. Francis Cabernet. But if you like a full bodied red wine with muted tannins, it’s good – no matter who says it. Lauren Daigle reminds me of Adelle. She has that same kind of raspy mellowness. I don’t know what the tutored call that, but I love listening to her. I would listen to her sing “C is For Cookie.'‘
Lauren has Louisiana flair. She flares NOLA. Most of her songs are Christian. She made the churchy, dignity police mad not too long ago when she said that she was not exclusively a Christian artist, but instead wanted to be known as an artist who is a Christian. I could look up why people got mad about it, I guess, but I don’t really care.
Stef’s mom, Anne, asked us if we wanted to see Lauren at the Greensboro Coliseum last weekend. A friend of Anne’s had tickets for one of the suites. She couldn’t go at the last minute and offered them to Anne. Of course, we went. Lauren filled that coliseum. I loved it!
For the crescendo of her encore, Lauren sang one of my favorites, the traditional “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” I had been afraid she was not going to sing it, so it made me happy. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.” She flowed from there at the end to the chorus of “You Say.” Everyone in that packed coliseum was singing with her. It was something. I felt it. Made me think of heaven. “You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing. You say I am strong when I think I am weak. You say I am held when I am falling short. When I don’t belong, oh you say I am yours. And I believe, oh I believe what you say of me.”
Stef and I were at a Hillsong concert in that same coliseum in 2011 singing “With Everything” with another fifteen thousand worshippers. I thought the sky was going to part. It makes me imagine what it will be like in heaven. It also makes me wonder what an impact it would make if we could fill stadiums all over the world with people singing their hearts out to God at the same time. Glory happens!
On our way home from Lauren Daigle’s concert, Stef was reading an article about some more trouble the artist had gotten in with the churchy morality police because she sang on the Ellen DeGeneres show. I am going to say this: really? Do you think it was a bad thing that the people who watch that show (and Ellen herself) got exposed to music that necessarily draws your thoughts to God? Can you give it a rest? Lauren has given her life to the Lord and she is singing that joy back to him. Can you let her do that without attacking her?
Another thing: what’s it to you? There is a reason the world is wary of Christians and it is not just the evil bent of the dominant, secular culture. They hear us talk about love, but see us savage the innocent for the most innocuous things.
If you got anything out of this missive, please give it a thumbs up, comment and/or share it. It helps. I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to read it.