Music can lend itself to a Pollyanna attitude at times; I recall Howard Jones' Things Can Only Get Better showing up on the car radio the other day and I have John Legend's Each Day Gets Better in my MP3 mix.
One problem; things do get worse from time to time. Even if things are generally on the upslope, you have down days.
However, you're not supposed to say that in a happy-face universe, be it the optimistic side of Jones and Legend in the secular realm, or Joel Osteen's praise team, who's Sweeter has the chorus "Every day with you, Lord, is sweeter than the day before."
Great song, but the catcher is having to track that pitch down at the backstop as it sailed wide right.
I recall one of those Murphy's Law days in my early days at Sullivan U, where I dinged up the side of my new Vibe and realized I left my flash drive on campus after my night class as I was almost home already. After a 20-minute round-trip back to campus, the Lakewood crew were crooning Sweeter on the radio as I was closing in on home... I don't think so, Cindy.
Tullian Tchividjian (Billy Graham's grandson and James Kennedy's successor at Coral Ridge Pres.) had this observation on the reality of a believer's life where he aims dead center at that Lakewood attitude-
Let’s come straight out and say it. Every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before. Let’s forget that nonsense about the victorious Christian life, whatever that means. Life by law is theology of glory. Life by grace is theology of the cross. That’s what set me free when I was going through my own crucible. I felt like, okay, I can say this is awful. I’m not being super-spiritual, pretending it isn’t awful. It creates honesty, which creates faith, which creates freedom.
Even the Bible heroes had their bad days. David was the world's biggest kvetcher, moaning about his bad days in the Psalms. Everyday folks like us aren't going to be like Apollo Creed before he faced Rocky, knocking everyone out and never finding the canvas himself. Eventually, you have a foe that has you muttering "no rematch."
Being real with that is important. Striving for a better, "victorious" life is good, but knowing that God's still there when you have bad days (or bad years) is critical. The Sermon on the Mount was addressed to the losers more than the winners, for All of the Losers Win in the long term if they lean into Jesus.
Love this. Sweet and sour; pain and joy.
Posted by: NKR | October 10, 2012 at 12:29 PM