Michael Card

My wife and I saw Andrew Peterson in concert at Springdale Community Church tonight here in Louisville, KY. It was an awesome, small show in a pretty nice facility. It turns out a sizable portion of our church decided to show up, too... it was like an impromptu evening service.

We got to hear some good stories about several songs that (to me at least) really made them come alive. It was great to hear the Scripture and Gandalf / Elijah comparisons that went on in Andrew's mind as he wrote All You'll Ever Need, and being a space nut I loved hearing his story of meeting an astronaut and writing Rocket in honor of seeing a shuttle launch.

Naturally, Andrew gave a quick plug for his Wingfeather Saga toward the end of the concert, and I enthusiastically cheered for them. (It's my moral duty as the owner of a fan site for the series. )

So, we had a great time, and I got to pick Andrew's brain about writing after the concert. His advice? For him, he used three things to make it to the end of On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness:

• Discipline
• Audacity
• Friendly competition (with his brother, author of The Fiddlers Gun)

He said that after you get your first book published, it starts to look more like a 9 - 5 job (assuming the publisher wants more). I'm not there yet, and I'm not sure I ever will be. In the meantime... anyone up for some friendly writing competition?

I hear Michael Card a lot in Andrew... esp. regarding interacting with the Bible at the level of the imagination. Michael's quote that has stuck with me is also an inspiration to pursuing something like writing - "Always perform at the level of your own inadequacy." I think that falls under Audacity!

Well, my wife laid plans for March 31, 2008 and told me not to plan anything. I believe she told me almost a month in advance, and today I finally got to enjoy the surprise... she bought us tickets to go see Michael Card play a show in an intimate setting at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. As he's one of our favorite Christian musicians, we thoroughly enjoyed the show and had a quick chance to catch him before the show to give him a thank you card.

For those who don't know, Michael Card has been doing music for quite some time. He has the particular distinctions of being an excellent musician and an excellent theologian, and his songs often teach you more about Jesus than you'll learn in a book. I highly recommend him to you!

Catch him on his radio show via his website: http://www.michaelcard.com/archives.html