Five Iron Frenzy

is my absolute favorite band......ever.......even though they are no longer together.

Now, my mother has been a Sunday School teaher as long as I can remember (yes, there's a backstory ^^) and thus I was forced to go to church for most of my beginning years.....but I never really WANTED to go. That is, not until I experienced Creation . If you followed the link then you know that Creation is a Christian music festival held every summer......sort of like our woodstock. Anyways, since I was forced to go to this I figured I'd just chill out and relax near our tents......holy crap was I wrong.

Now, some of my friends dragged me to a bunch of shows as well as a few seminars and I learned some interesting things/viewpoints I had never before considered. And then Friday (i think it was Friday) came, and I saw a ska band by the name of Five Iron Frenzy......my life was never the same after that. For whatever reason, their songs broke through that wall of teenage anger that we all seem to build up in our early years, and filled me with a hope that I had previously thought impossible. It was here and then that I dedicated my life to bringing this kind of happiness to as many people as I could.....after all, happiness is more fun when you spread it. So needless to say, I spent half of a week in PA one summer, and I came back a completely changed person......especially after the candlelight vigil that evening......just try to imagine 10,000 people on a mountainside, all holding a candle, all singing together for something they love (o wait you don't have to...just look here candle and then click on the candlelighting ceremony)......i can't wait to go back

So of course when I got home I immediately bought all of their CDs that I could find and memorized them within a week.

Ever since then I started teaching Sunday School, doing mission trips, etc.....although I haven't found a church here at Drexel that I fit into, and have even been kicked out of a few Bible studies bc my beliefs didn't "fit" their idea of what it meant to be a good person.

I did however, get to see FIF on their final tour which stopped by IN NJ ON MY BIRTHDAY......it was awesome, I couldn't hear nor speak for a full 48 hours afterwards.

here's the song that at EVERY show, they always play last (it's the final version not the older one if any of you are fans as well):

On Distant Shores (Every New Day)
I have been scarred so deep by life and cold despair, and brittle bones were broken far beyond repair. I have leveled lies so deep, the truth may never find. And inside my faithless heart, I stole things never mine. If mercy falls upon the broken and the poor, Dear Father, I will see you, there on distant shores. I have toiled for countless years and ever felt the cost, and I've been burned by this world's cold, like leaves beneath the frost. On my knees I've crawled to You, bleeding myself dry. But the price of life is more, than I could ever buy. And off of the blocks, I was headstrong and proud, at the front of the line for the card-carrying, highbrowed. With both eyes fastened tight, yet unscarred from the fight. Running at full tilt, my sword pulled from its hilt. It's funny how these things can slip away, our frail deeds, the last will wave good-bye. It's funny how the hope will bleed away, the citadels we build and fortify. Good-Bye. Night came and I broke my stride, I swallowed hard, but never cried. When grace was easy to forget, I'd denounce the hypocrites, casting first stones, killing my own. You would unscale my blind eyes, and I stood battered, but more wise, fighting to accelerate, shaking free from crippling weight. With resilience unsurpassed, I clawed my way to You at last. And on my knees, I wept at Your feet, I finally believed, that You still loved me. Healing hands of God have mercy on our unclean souls once again. Jesus Christ, Light of the World,burning bright within our hearts forever. Freedom means love without condition, without beginning or an end. Here's my heart, let it be forever Yours, only You can make every new day seem so new.

listening to... Five Iron Frnzy: "Dandelions"