IC My New Life

It was a blazing hot Sunday in the south. We were headed to a baseball game to cheer for the Atlanta Braves. It had been planned for months, but I was in an Interstitial Cystitis (IC) flare and I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel.

We were going to meet a church group at the game on Sunday. I also wanted to make it a family visit trip, so I invited my Mama to go with me and my husband. We stayed in the small town of Canton. It was perfectly situated north of Turner Field for the game on Sunday and south of the mountains of Northern Georgia were my brother lives. We meet him for dinner on Saturday evening. He took us to the Pink Pig Barbeque for some good ole’ homemade fiddles. It was good to see him even if was a short visit. Mama was able to visit with my brother more on Sunday while we were at the game.

Sunday evening we met the church group at the stadium about 7:30. We had really good seats near the outfield. Very good seats for trying to catch a home run ball. In fact a lady about four rows in front of us had the pleasure of catching a homer that bounced up. She handed it to very happy young boy. I’m sure it made her day and his too!

It was fun sitting with our group talking, doing the Tomahawk chop, the wave and singing the baseball classic “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” together. After the game there was a concert. We were going to be facing the back of the stage. My husband and I jumped up to find better seats. We had to wait on the rest of our group to be convinced that we should move. After a few minutes, our group of about twenty-five headed to the seats behind home base.

They had announced that there was about 42,000 people in attendance for the game. About half of them were leaving after the game. We were going against the majority of the traffic. And by the time we got there, most of the seats were gone, unless we split up into smaller groups.

We decided on some seats in the nosebleed section to the right of the stage. We couldn’t see very well or understand what they were saying. Oh, by the way the band was the Newsboys. I have been going to rock and country concerts all my life. This was the first Christian concert I have ever been to and I didn’t know what to expect. I thought everyone might be sitting in their seats and not dancing around like I normally do.

I’m usually the crazy lady that makes her way down to the front of the stage for every concert. It was sort of a hobby of mine, until I was diagnosed with IC. Then I lost my desire to go to any type of concert. Come to think of it I have lost my desire to do a lot of the things I used to do.

I was not happy sitting so far away. I convinced my husband that we should try to find closer seats. I told Amy, our Pastor’s wife, that we were moving closer and we might not make it back. She said “Don’t come back. Go enjoy yourselves!”

We moved to some seats that were much closer and slightly to the left of home base. Most of the people around us were standing and singing along. It was awesome!! I was able to sing and dance around like I usually do at concerts…well not quit as much, but I still had fun!

I remember looking up to the clouds in the night sky and thanking God for giving me such a blessing. It was just what I needed to boost my spiritual life. There is just something special about singing and praising God along with about 20,000 of my friends in Christ. I thought the concert was great. I enjoyed the whole trip. It was a good time to spend time with my family, my friends and the Lord. I was still in an IC flare, but I just took some pain pills and kept on going.

The Newsboys sing several good songs. They have been around since the eighties. I have only recently started really listening to their music. Of the the best songs off of their new CD is “We Believe.” They are probably best known for the song “God’s Not Dead.” I’m going to provide a link to both, so you can tell me which one you like the best. All of those people singing along at that concert confirmed to me that God’s Not Dead He IS living on the inside, roaring like a lion!