Humility: The Pause That Refreshes

Way back in January I took two of my sons to see Phil Keaggy in concert at a local church.  I love it when Phil comes to town because he always holds a free "guitar clinic" which sounds enough like an invitation to actually play your guitar in front of Phil that most folks are scared away and the event is very sparsely attended.  This serves to make the gathering very intimate and the following meet and greet personal and unhurried.

At the close of the afternoon's "clinic" I shook Phil's four-fingered hand (I always forget what a little guy he is) and gave him a copy of The World Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips. 

Dan had actually found out that I'd be seeing Keaggy and since he himself is a long time fan (longer than me!), he asked me if I'd give a copy of TWTG to Phil.  Of course I had to, since Dan offered to reimburse me for the book at the next T4G conference! (wink wink, nudge nudge).  At any rate, Phil received the book graciously, I thanked him for being such a blessing, and then I headed to Texas Roadhouse with my boys to eat some beef and await the evening's concert. (For a whole bunch of concert photos, jump over to here)

We returned to the venue in plenty of time to be, for all intents and purposes, at the front of the line, and we snagged excellent seats with a good view of Phil's hands (Remember to always, always, sit on the left side of an auditorium if the guitar player is right handed, or vice versa).
 

The Keagster played what I think is a fairly typical set, including "Salvation Army Band", "True Believers", "Shades of Green", "Love Broke Through" and "Here Comes the Sun". I was grinning from the first note.  There was plenty of improvisation and prodigious use of the JamMan and much talk of Jesus.  It was all quite wonderful. 

For his final song, before the encore, Phil played "Let Everything Else Go."  There are so many things about this song that are beautiful, and I rarely can get past "Oh I can't wait to see You, Jesus, face to face" without some tears.   On this night (and maybe he does this regularly) Phil modified the lyrics to the chorus the last time through.  The words are:

Oh, I can't wait to see you, Jesus, face to face
Nothing in this world can take Your place
All the pride of man laid low and all his works of gold
Nothing can compare with what You are
Let everything else go

Phil changed that middle line to: "All the pride of man laid low, especially my own"

That, to me, was priceless - and refreshing.  Phil Keaggy can't go a single day without someone singing his praises.  And imagine touring and meeting countless people who congratulate, praise and honor you.  I would self-destruct.  Phil Keaggy is outwardly a lovely, gracious, humble, Christ honoring man, and I believe he is on the inside as well.  But what man among us doesn't struggle with pride?  And here is a guy, 45 years into an amazing career, still praying while he's singing, "Lord, take my pride.  It's ugly.  Nothing can compare to what You are."