Soundtrack of Life

During my high school years in the mid 70s, aside from tennis, my passion was music. It seemed like I upgraded my stereo system every 6 months, and when I bought my first pair of Koss headphones, it was as if I was transported to a different dimension. Led Zepplin's "Houses of the Holy", The Who's "Quadrophenia" and
Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" would constantly fill my ears and led an exhaustive list of vinyl masterpieces that are now part of the "classic rock" genre.

I will never forget my first concert. I was a junior at Blair High in Pasadena, and Kevin Cherniss asked if I wanted to see Roxy Music at the Hollywood Palladium. Looking back, I am still a bit amazed that my parents said "yes". As we walked through the lobby doors and into the concert hall, the stench of marijuana smoke was overwhelming. Pretty sure everyone in that auditorium--including the band--was high, except for me. All my friends smoked weed--I abstained due to my other addiction--tennis.

As I made the transition from high school to college, my passion for music only grew stronger. In the early 80s, I added The Who, Springsteen and Genesis to my concert experiences, to name a few. And then in the dorm room of one of my teammates at the University of Redlands, I reluctantly began studying the book of John. Glenn Cunliffe had invited me to join him and his roommate, Joaquin Gonzales--also on the tennis team--to a weekly bible study. Most people have a date--a time--an event--where they answered the call, cried out to God, and became a Christian. Not so with me. All I know is, at the beginning of the study, I was not a believer. By the end, I was fully convinced that yes, Jesus was God, He came to redeem sinners, and the hole in my life I had been aware of for quite some time could only be filled by Him. (I would actually "go forward" to countless altar calls in the years that would follow--Easter sunrise services with Greg Laurie, Keith Green concerts, Harvest Sunday evening services--if someone were counting, I probably got saved about 17 times!)

Initially, my newfound faith affected my tennis. While in high school I was a whiny, racquet throwing brat on the court. As my faith matured, my demeanor on the court followed suit. I would begin (silently) praying during changeovers. I even remember going through a period where I questioned if competition was biblical. If God is love, is it okay to want to defeat an opponent (in any sport)? I was in college, and if I wasn't tackling the Big life issues in literature class, I was opening just about any Pandora's box placed in my path. Life became one question after another, and I wasn't about to "settle" for easy answers.

Music was the last frontier for my faith to conquer, and to cover that process in this blog would be overkill. Part two to follow . . .