Between the Dreaming and the Coming True

Next week I’m headed to the biggest annual tradeshow in the Christian products industry.
I have appointments to interview Bebo Norman, Phil Joel (Newsboys), and new artists Jessie Daniels and Brandon Heath.

While I’m excited to spend time with these talented musicians, I always feel a bit of trepidation and anxiety during preparation for these types of things.
The enemy has a way of attacking my confidence.
Who are you to speak to these famous people?
What do you really have to say?
What if you embarrass yourself and say something really stupid?

Despite this nagging before each interview, I usually end up being blessed by each person because I realize, “this is just a person, just like anyone else.”
Carrie, this is not about you. It’s not even about them. It’s about what Christ is doing and how we can each bring Him glory with the particular talents and platform He’s given us.

I’m most excited to have coffee with Bebo on Monday (although I learned today from his Web site, http://www.bebonorman.com/, that he doesn’t consume caffeine. He also doesn’t sing at weddings—didn’t even sing at his own. Bummer.)

I was amazed at his authenticity and honesty when I interviewed him at GMA last year. His newest album, Between the Dreaming and the Coming True, which releases in September has impacted me deeply.

The title is named after Robert Benson’s book about discovering God even in the depths of depression. And Bebo’s tagline (gleaned from his biography put out by his record label):

“You can't understand light unless you understand darkness, because that’s where life is most often lived…somewhere between the two. It’s messy and it’s beautiful all at the same time.”

When Bebo first came onto the music scene 10 years ago (could it have been that long?), he says, “I wrote a lot in those days from turmoil and loneliness. A lot of that had to do with being single and living on the road without much of a home. The funny thing was that when this began to change and I entered into a season of my life where, for three or four years now, I’ve understood what peace is, that made me worry a bit too, because I didn’t know how to write from peace. I’d never done that before.”

I can’t wait to ask him if he thinks that peace came from getting married, which happened around that time, or other events.

He adds, “The rub is that I’m living in this peaceful place right now that’s played out against a backdrop of a world that looks so confusing and frightening. I watch friends of mine in failing marriages. I watch people that I love get sick and die. I watch war and poverty and natural disaster.”

With that, Norman was confronted with a number of questions that gave birth to a new attitude in his writing. “In the middle of all this, I’m asking, how does this make sense? What is this peace I feel in a world that’s so clearly not at peace? Who is God in light of how I see Him in my life, in this world? And who am I?”

Good questions, Bebo.
I might just ask him those very ones on Monday.
Tune in for more…