You guys! Otis and I received the greatest, unexpected blessing this weekend!! I knew immediately that I was going to write a post about it!

If you know me or follow me on social media, then you know that one of my favorite bands is Needtobreathe. They are from Charleston, and so they always play here during every tour. We ALWAYS buy tickets to go see them. We have even traveled to be able to see them at other venues. We have seen them in concert eight times now and have loved each new album they release.

They played here this past Sunday night and we didn’t have tickets. 😞

There were a few reasons why we didn’t purchase tickets. The main one being that the struggle in our finances has been major lately. So much so, that we have considered putting the kids in school and me going back to work. That’s a hard choice to make. We know that God led us to where we are…. and we don’t feel led by Him to make that change yet…. so we are just doing our best to wait on His plan and are trusting Him each week to provide and take care of us. The second reason that we didn’t have tickets is because we had the opportunity to purchase twenty one pilots tickets for our daughter as an early Christmas gift. If you haven’t seen the video on my Facebook page… she cried like a baby when she opened the gift! ❤️ That purchase took any spare money that we had saved up. Of course, as parents we are going to put it towards her instead of ourselves.

That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t feeling a little salty when Sunday rolled around. I’m seeing the bands social media posts and am just thinking about how this is going to be the first tour in years that we won’t see. Then I’m blaming myself, like ‘well, you’re the one that isn’t working so you can stay home and teach your kids. It’s your own fault.’

Across from the concert venue is a shopping center with some restaurants and a grocery store. Those restaurants have outdoor seating that faces the venue. I mentioned to Otis that we should go to one of those places during the show. That way we could at least sit and listen for a little while. We came home from lunch and Otis started feeling sick. He laid on the couch and I could tell that he really didn’t feel good. So, I wasn’t sure if we were even going to go at all. He knew how much I wanted to go and got up anyway. #besthusbandever

We drove across town and as we were getting close, Otis said half joking with a laugh, “Lord Jesus, I just pray that someone gives us free tickets tonight.” I laughed and then told him “no, for real, go ahead and pray for that!” He did and as we turned into the shopping area to find a place to park and there were tons of security guards and parking attendants. I guess that they were trying to keep people from parking there. We got really nervous because we didn’t want to get yelled at for trying to park and listen. Some of the places were closed since it was Sunday evening. There is a restaurant in that strip that we enjoy going to as a family, but we couldn’t get parking on that side. On the opposite side of the shopping center, there was a subway open. We parked there. Otis said that he was going to walk through the restaurant and out the other side. He was hoping that since the show had already started that they might be selling any unsold tickets for super cheap. As soon as he walked through, the subway employee just looked at me and asked if I was buying something. I was already nervous about getting in trouble, so I told him that I was! I bought two cookies and a drink. Otis came back and told me that the available tickets were regular price. Disappointed, we went outside and sat down. At least now, we were paying customers. We were going to set some kind of record for how slow we ate these cookies! Haha!!

We sat down and just talked for a minute. Three people came and sat at the table next to us- they had purchased some snacks from the grocery store and it looked like they were planning on just listening as well. I joked that I had already planned my sad IG post where I was going to put a pic of us sitting outside and then video of the outside of the venue. However, we were happy to be there at all and settled in to listen for a little while before heading home.

As we sat there, the line and crowd of people waiting to enter the venue had disappeared. We were just casually chatting. We watched a lady walk from the venue, across the street and right up to our table. She asked us if we had tickets and our response was to ask back if she was trying to sell hers. She replied that she was not. Her date was a no show and she wasn’t going in alone. She told us that we could have her two tickets since she didn’t want to just throw them away.

I’m sure we looked like a couple of deer in headlights. We asked her if she was serious and then thanked her as we gathered our things to leave our table. We couldn’t believe it! Sure we had prayed it, but we just couldn’t believe that it had really happened.

So, Sunday night we were able to go to a concert that we loved! We have been able to share that story and brag on how amazing God is and the fact that every little detail of your life matters to Him!

Some of the things that just amaze us about this story are:

– Otis suddenly feeling sick after church and us almost not coming at all.

-Our half joking but totally serious prayer!

– the fact that we randomly walked into subway and I bought cookies out of fear/guilt that caused us to hang around right there instead of walking to the other end of the shopping center to our usual restaurant.

– the fact that this lady walked right from the venue to our table. I mean she came straight to us.

It was all amazing and left us feeling excited. It is always a nice reminder, especially when you have been in a difficult season, to feel that fatherly love.

You might think this is no big deal… that it was just a random concert.

It meant so much more to us than that. It was a blessing straight from God.

He sees and hears AND He cares.