I just came back from a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. I know hearing that you are thinking one of two things… 1) who the heck is that? or b) seriously? that guy’s still around?

He’s sortof the Kenny Loggins of Contemporary Christian Music, I suppose. He’s even short and has a greying goatee just like Kenny Loggins. I don’t believe he’s used *quite* as much botox though.

But anyway, it was cold out, and it was an outdoor concert, and most of the music was totally unfamiliar since I gave up my CCM obsession about 14 years ago, or roughly the time I discovered Over the Rhine and the singer/songwriter folk/rock genre. So being at this concert was kindof like an experience of channeling myself back to a previous age….the summer trips to the Creation festival… the concerts at Lancaster Mennonite High School… the idea that people I knew were recording albums and were going to be famous someday. (All, of course, people that I’ve since lost touch with, but I imagine if they had actually become famous I would know about it).

It was kindof bittersweet, these memories. (More sweet, than bitter. Bitter, then sweet). I guess I miss the simpleness of young adulthood. We didn’t really worry about anything, just chased after our dreams. There are relationships that were part of that life that I miss, but at the same time, wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the changes I’ve experienced.

But what was so odd was that Steven Curtis Chapman doesn’t seem to have changed at all. I mean, his message tonight was a lot about the tragic accidental death of his youngest daughter and him coming to terms with that, but he still looks the same.. the music sounded the same, even if I didn’t recognize the lyrics, and the general feeling of the crowd felt identical to what I experienced all those summers in the heat of the Pennsylvania sun. But how could this be? How could this snippit of time be so much the same, when everything around it is so different?

So I think tomorrow I’m going to go digging for my old CCM albums and give them a spin. (Although I fear they may be mostly on tape and I have no tape-playing options). Because if nothing else, a little nostalgia never hurt anyone, right?