365 project, "she is strong and silent/she is blunt and shrewd/she thinks that nobody loves her/if she only knew"

181.

Artist: Brave Saint Saturn
Album: So Far From Home

I am a Christian. I do not run around shouting this from the rooftops or beating people over the head with my Bible, but I try to live my life the way Jesus dictated and I try to do what is right and just in light of those beliefs.

One of my most favorite memories of anything ever is from a night in Pittsburgh several years ago.

I went into the city with a group of my friends from college, which also happened to be a group that was called “Christian Fellowship.” We were there to attend a conference geared towards college-aged Christians called Jubilee. It was a pretty huge event, and I don’t remember a whole lot from the weekend, but I do have scattered memories of hanging out in the hotel lobby and of popping into the conference room to see Over the Rhine play (I didn’t know who they were then. I only know of them now because of that conference. I don’t know that I have ever really heard one of their songs.)

We had a lot of free time at night, too, and since we were in college, we had some leeway. I remember walking with the group across one of the several bridges in Pittsburgh so that we could all go eat dinner somewhere as a group. I have no idea where we went to eat, I just remember being traumatized by having to walk over a bridge, as im terrified of bridges (and for that reason alone, going to school out near Pittsburgh was a horrible idea.) I think that this weekend was the first time I’d ever really spent any time dahn tahn  so I remember being pretty in awe of the whole thing. Pittsburgh is a very different city from Philly, so there was a bit of culture shock, for sure.

At some point during one of those lobby hangouts, I remember seeing a few of my friends walk past with their instruments, heading outside. We asked them were they were going, and they said to come with them. We crossed the street over to Point State Park, and as we approached one of the bridges we could hear it. There was a spontaneous Praise circle happening underneath. It was late, and the park was filled with mostly vagabonds and homeless people at that point, and then all of us. The others in the park came over and worshipped with us, and by the time the gathering broke off, there were somewhere near 70-80 people underneath of that bridge.

It was one of the most beautiful moments I have ever been a part of in my life, and every time I hear the song “under bridges” from this album, I am immediately transported back in time to that night 12 years ago.