Let this weekend serve as a reminder that even if one has advance knowledge that one of your favorite singers is hitting the Lakewood stage, there's still ample room to be pleasantly surprised. This weekend's surprise arrives in the form of a little more musical presentation up front. Namely, bassist Abel Orta and percussionist, Javier Solis, join our own very own Two Hearts combo of Carrie & Michael Hodge.

As you watch, notice what a great job Abel does complementing Carrie's vocals. That's one of the things I love about these specials - you get to see something new out of people you see every week. Abel and Javier have several professional recordings to their credit (Jaci Velasquez among them), so they're obviously no slouches. Still, we don't always get this type of close-up on some of their talent. So it's good to see it on display like this from time to time.

I had to go with the Sunday footage on this number ... ties be darned! Saturday's footage had Abel cropped out a bit too much, plus there's a nice little Carrie & Michael moment here as Michael wraps up his solo in the song. On a personal note, I'm still slightly bummed out that I didn't make it back for a Sunday service. I meant to. Heck, I even woke up to my alarm clock at 5:30. AM!!! But I must have had one of those "feelings" Joel preached about and took the day to catch up on some sleep instead. Good thing there's video to relive the moment with ...

I made it a point to bolt from my greeting duties at Compass Class in order to a) get a decent seat and b) soak in a little bit of the practice tunage. I arrive just in time to hear Carrie's voice echoing down the hallways outside of the Sanctuary. If you've seen any of the old Yogi Bear cartoons where Yogi floats to the scent of food ... that's sorta what it was like for me. Just replace food with Carrie's voice. And the band was cranked up loud, too. All the better for yours truly.

I keep thinking that one of these days, we're going to have a special tune like this that's so good that Joel's going to conclude that there's no way he can follow that, leaving us with another 30 minutes of praise and worship. Based on this example, I've got to think we're pretty close to that moment.