Daggers

The strange story about my wildest calling.

Hokey

In the fall of 2007, I was a sophomore at Providence College. Earlier that spring I had applied to be the chair of Social Justice Advocacy as a part of Campus Ministry. It was a volunteer role, and my charge was to figure out how to get college kids interested in the world beyond their bubble and raise some money to help out. To prep for the school year, all the leaders from Campus Ministry met for a retreat before the fall semester started.

“I want you all to do a meditation with me” our leader said. “Imagine that you’re beach. You can feel the sand in your fingertips. As you look up, you see someone coming toward you. You see it’s Jesus. He’s walking to you. You can see his face, his robe, his hair. In his hands he’s holding a box. Inside that box is the gift Jesus has for you this year.”

I thought this exercise was hokey, but I did it anyway, squinting out of the side of my eyes to see if anyone was taking it seriously. They were, so I tried too. In my mind I took the box, imagined placing it on my lap and opened it. This is where it got weird.

Inside the box was a dagger.

What?

This exercise was dumb, why would Jesus give me a dagger?

I put the whole thing out of my mind.

Watchfires

Throughout high school my favorite band was Dispatch. I knew every word to every one of their songs (I bought a lot of cds in high school). Dispatch broke up in 2004 so each members could launch a solo career. My favorite of the three was Braddigan.

Brad Corrigan is a righteous dude. After The Last Dispatch, their final show in Boston that drew 160,000 people from around the world, Brad recorded his debut album as Braddigan and traveled. On a surf trip to Nicaragua he was brought by friends to La Chureca, a sprawling city dump where hundreds of families and children lived, scavenging a life from the waste. Brad’s heart was moved, so much so that he launched a non-profit called Love, Light, and Melody to help the kids in La Chureca.

As an avid fan, I kept up with Braddigan’s stuff. I was planning a spring week on campus that focused on children and was looking for a way we could raise money. College students love concerts. Maybe I could get Braddigan to play?

“Nah, no way I thought. But, what’s the worst that can happen if I ask?”

So, a few weeks after that Campus Ministry retreat, I sent Braddigan’s manager an email.

Three days later, his manager responded. He was interested! I actually fell off my chair.

I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT.

First that I was just talking to the manager of one of my heroes, second that it might actually work!

As I walked on clouds back to my dorm I put on Braddigan’s album Watchfires. I would get to meet this guy! The first song ended and went right into the second.

Daggers

Won't you see with, see with my eyes,
Won't you speak with, speak with my voice,
Won't you free them, release them so they'll know,
Won't you lead them, they have the choice.

In this house thats built of you,
we come with daggers beneath the roof,
in this house we'll search for truth,
and we'll leave our daggers…

I just started crying.

The Big Stage

Over the next few months, my pipe-dream of getting Braddigan to play a small benefit concert for a few hundred people, morphed through college politics, endless meetings and donated budgets into Braddigan playing as the opening band for the annual spring concert. This was an all campus event in the hockey arena with stacks of amps, lights and smoke; the whole shebang. Anyone who was anyone went to this show. That year the band The Roots were headlining and over 1,500 students showed up. It was an extraordinary amount of work to pull it off and to be honest my grades suffered. But the show was phenomenal.

On the day of the show I got to hang out with Brad and his band as we shuttled them around and powered through last minute changes. They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but whoever said that never met Brad. He and his band were amazing. When other bands of their stature pick through the M&Ms backstage to make sure you removed all the green ones, Brad and his band invited my friends and I into their pre-show routine. They led us in prayer. He even let me hold onto his guitar for a week and bring it to his next show in Boston.

As the benefit concert transformed, some of the focus on Love, Light and Melody was lost. So we decided to repeat it the next year, when I brought Brad back to campus to play a solo show and screen their new documentary that focused on life in La Chureca. That evening was even more moving than then first. I got to host two incredible concerts with one of my favorite artists. All because I stepped out and sent an email.

Called

Sometimes God’s call for you is like a little kid tugging at your sleeve; a quiet thought that just won’t leave you alone. Other times God’s call is like a dagger, in an imaginary box, given to you on the beach by Jesus himself. Vivid and makes no sense until suddenly it does.

Be ready. Stay listening. Send that email.

This weekend, I hope that you continue to be filled with the joy of Easter. Know that He lives! Know that, as Brad said to me before the first show “With Jesus, the game has been won, it’s our job to just go out and dance on the field.”

Much love,

Nate

P.S. I’m going to step out again. I’ve created a new product for CappaWork. Pre-launch next week! I’m pumped!