Song Of The Week - July 3

Hey guys. I'm finally back home, and while I'm sad that Exalt has ended, as well as a specific chapter of my life, I am glad to be back home with you guys. Bear with me, as the fallout is about to begin. I am more prepared for it this time though, so don't worry about that too much :). I am very late with this SOTW hahaha, sorry about that, but hopefully the song makes up for that. During my travels, I purchased a nice new toy, and finally got to use my iTunes gift card (thanks Matt). I bought a particular album, and was quite surprised with what I ended up listening to...


Mercy - OneRepublic, Dreaming Out Loud

"Angel of Mercy/How did you find me/How did you pick me up again?"

**Cameron: "I love bands that are mainstream, but also show their Christian values through their music, like The Fray, Lifehouse, OneRepublic-"

Odum: "Whoa, back up."**

You learn a lot of new things when you meet new people and go to new places. For me, one of these things was discovering that OneRepublic was Christian influenced :O. Forgive me if you guys already knew this, but it was a complete paradigm shift for me. I should tread more carefully with my assumptions. Just because everyone and their grandparents have listened to Apologize should not diminish the authenticity of this band. Wow, they are good. And yes, it was a complete surprise to discover that they were Christian. After purchasing the album and listening to it a bit, I can definitely see a spiritual touch on their music.

Mercy was one of the many songs from this album that stood out to me this past week while touring with Exalt. In a similar fashion to last week's SOTW, the song seemed to talk about a lot of what was going on during our performances and off stage as well, during group prayer, "powering-up" and devotions. In a nutshell, Mercy is a song that describes the Exalt experience well for me... God brought a group of 45 people together for two weeks, through different paths and walks of life, and picked us up, with all our baggage, all our trash, and allowed us to be us to be used by Him. It was an honour to serve God in this way again, a privelege that I, nor any of the other students deserved. The song encouraged me the last week of tour, because everything I was feeling was described in it. I saw Him, I felt Him in ways that I never had before. I honestly didn't know how I could be changed any more from last year's experience to this one's, but God is not something that you should come to have expectations about. He gave me the opportunity to serve Him in the way of a lifetime... twice, despite my shortfalls and failures, and He has made me better because of it. I greatly recommend that you try out OneRepublic, and don't look at them as a one hit wonder, or greatly overhyped band. Instead, look at them with open minds and hearts, because I know for me, the rest of their music is full of meaning and spirituality.

Mercy - http://www.mediafire.com/?yohologznnh