When I was growing up, we used to always refer to church as a “hospital for sinners”. If you were raised in the south, you, no doubt, have heard this metaphor used as well. Sitting in that pew, faced with the gravity of my unworthiness, I could rely on the fact that I was in just the right spot from which to heal from my many sins; anything from eating too much candy to wearing shorts to church on Wednesday nights. I was comforted by the knowledge that Jesus, too, had been there and He was pleading to God on my behalf to please let me into heaven should the day I wore shorts be my last. 

Well, those days are long gone but the reminder of needing a place to heal remains as relevant today as ever. I don’t know about you, but I need the sort of healing only good music and good friends can provide. Our family is looking forward to celebrating the return of Riverbend in a new format. Having grown up attending Riverbend, I admittedly haven’t attended in recent years. But this year’s lineup is great! More importantly, it symbolizes that our society has finally reached a point of health that we can again find joy in one another’s company without immediately showering in hand sanitizer from the experience. 

I hope to see you there and I hope you will join me in a cheers to healing…in a hospital called Riverbend.

Let’s Move FORward Together,

Kim