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I didn’t completely understand how well-titled Todd Agnew’s new “Do You See What I See?” album was until speaking with him about its fresh perspective.
Todd Agnew's "Do You See What I See?",(See Suite review here) releasing October 3rd, will make you think, and think hard, about your approach to Christmas. Todd told me upfront, "I usually describe it as an album about the Christmas story. A Christmas album is something you put away on December 26th. But the Christmas story is the reality of God, not just the Baby Jesus and Santa. It's still effective in January and March. I know, because God kept it in my life all the way into June." But I'm getting ahead of myself here. It all started when I asked him about the idea for the album. "The funny thing is," he shared, "I never wanted to do a Christmas album. It's just not one of those things I wanted to do in my career and then check off the list. But last October I was reading the story of the wise men, and I felt God challenge me, asking me if I'd ever consider preparing myself for Christmas like they did. They journeyed so far, brought those expensive gifts, instead of doing like I do: shopping at the last minute, getting caught up in all the whirlwind, and then finally stopping Christmas morning and saying, oh, Jesus, thank You for coming. But when I realized God was calling me to a real encounter, I committed to studying the Christmas story every day until Christmas. But I also prayed, saying, Lord, You have to do something here, because I'm the kid born on Tuesday and in church on Sunday. When I was a little kid, I had to memorize and recite the Luke 2 story before I could get my presents. So I know the Christmas story, it's not like I was reading it for the first time. I asked Him to make it come alive for me. And God was faithful to do that for me, the story kind of exploded for me. I ended up studying it everyday from October through June, because God kept bringing more and more things to life to me." "We always study the Christmas story from 2,000 years later, but that's not how God works in our lives. He doesn't come in and explain your whole life, give you the back-story, and then you get to do it. When He comes in it's rarely a pretty 3-point sermon, it's more often tragic and beautiful, terrifying and difficult. For me the part of the story that jumped out the most was that of Joseph. Reading it from a guy's perspective, I realized that he had his heart broken. His girlfriend came and told him that she was pregnant with someone else's kid. I'd always assumed that he said, 'oh, that's great, we're gonna have God's child.' But he doesn't; it devastates him. He thinks she's cheating, and then lying about it, because the Bible clearly says he was going to divorce her. You don't divorce someone who's having the Messiah, you divorce someone you think is a cheat and a liar. His life was messed up. God sent His angel to come and explain everything, but looking at it as a guy, he'd have to be mad at God at that point. He'd think, all You had to do was send the angel last week and everything could have been fine. I'd have said 'yes, sir, I'll do that,' but You broke my heart and You did it on purpose. And I can identify with that, because God never explains Himself. How many times does God do things that don't make any sense to you, and He doesn't offer an explanation? And look at what He asked him to do, be the adoptive father to the Son of God?! What could be more pressure than that? There weren't any James Dobson books on raising the Messiah," he adds laughingly. He makes you think, doesn't he? Click here for Part 2 of Suite's talk with Todd Agnew.
The copyright of the article Talking with Todd Agnew in Christian Music is owned by Kevan Breitinger. Permission to republish Talking with Todd Agnew in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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