Holy Moments at an Ed Sheeran Concert?

It happened about 12 years ago. Sioux Falls, SD was starting to get some pretty amazing acts in their newly built “Denny Sanford” event center and all of South Dakota was pretty pumped. We held off for a while but when Cyndy shared the news that she had just purchased Ed Sheeran tickets, I was totally pumped up. I mean everyone was talking about him. At least everybody in my Junior High Youth group! Or should I say every girl in my Junior High youth group!

Did I know that the stadium, which held like 12,000 people, would be filled with 11,998 girls age 10-14 and their mom chaperones? No! Did I feel like the only guy at the concert besides Ed Sheeran? Yes. Did I feel kind of like the only guy at a water aerobics class...you know the one that all the women (and they are all women) thinks is there for all the wrong reasons? Kind of!

But, hey, I was at an Ed Sheeran concert! And I was a legitimate fan! I had listened to his newly released album every day! I deserved to be at that concert.

But, when Ed Sheeran came out on stage and all the 11,998 10-14 yr-olds went nuts, I was a little disappointed. Why? Because, get this, Ed Sheeran didn’t have a band! The concert started with just him and that red hair and his guitar.

I turned to Cyndy and said, “How much did we pay for these tickets?”

But then Ed Sheeran started playing. And you began to realize that Ed Sheeran was a genius, because as he started playing, he didn’t just play, he also started using a technique called looping to create layer after layer of sounds. Percussive sounds, vocal sounds, all sorts of guitar chords and sounds. And by the time he was finished you felt like the stage was not only crammed with a band but an orchestra too!

And the whole time Ed Sheeran was doing this my whole body tingled. I mean I was head to toe in goose bumps! I literally felt just like I felt when my college choir sang in one of the coolest cathedrals in the US. You know the ones. The ones where the acoustics are so good you feel like your 60-voice choir is a 200-voice choir!

The entire concert was for me a “sacred” and “holy” moment! I felt like I was in the presence of a guitar playing “Jesus”! God was speaking to me, my people!

These last couple of weeks, I have been having the same feeling as I’m listening to a new book by one of my favorite authors, Fredrik Backman. If you don’t know him, he’s the one who wrote the book that inspired the movie “A Man Called Ove” ...so good! His new book is called “My Friends: A Novel” and every time I listen to a chapter or two, I find myself laughing out loud at least once every 3 or 4 minutes! And every time I listen, I find myself scrambling for a pen or pencil to write down a quote or two. His use of creative metaphor is incredible! Soooooo gooood! Please pick up this book and read it!

One of the quotes that caught my attention yesterday was this one:

Human beings are capable of such unbelievable stupidity.  We think of the birth of a child as a miracle.  But really the miracle is everything that comes after. The artist used to sit in a big window in his apartment looking at the people down in the street and muttering, “The dinosaurs died out but you and I and all these idiots survived.  We do nothing but try to invent ways to destroy everything that’s keeping us alive, but we’re still here. Then Ted used to go to the stereo in the living room and play some opera to remind them that humans are also capable of that. “How can there be enough room inside a person for something this beautiful.” The artist had whispered...

That was exactly the holy feeling I had when listening to Ed Sheeran that night.

On Sunday afternoon, we had our annual Trunk or Treat event at our church.  During the event one of the members of our church who was volunteering pulled me aside and asked for prayers because they were considering becoming foster parents.  

“Amazing!” I said.

“Well,” he said, “what else am I going to do in retirement? Play golf...I hate golf!” 

And again, I had that same feeling: “How can there be enough room inside a person for something this beautiful.”

Your pastor and friend, loving the Ed Sheeran vibes I’m getting from being around you all, Brook

PS: If you want to watch a video where Ed Sheeran shows how he "loops"...click this:

ED SHEERAN LOOPING VIDEO