The 10 Saddest Songs EVER.

Everybody likes a good sad song right? Here's 10 of my favorite sad songs:

1. The Dance by Garth Brooks
2. Nothing Compares to You by Sinead O'Connor
3. He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones
4. Carrickfergus (old Irish folk song)
5. Everybody Hurts by REM
6. Neon Moon by Brooks and Dunn
7. I'm Just A Ghost in This House by Shenandoah (also a compelling version by Alison Krauss)
8. Crying by K.D. Lang (Roy Orbison first, but Lang's is more compelling)
9. Blue Bayou by Linda Rondstat
10. Blue by LeAnn Rimes

But here's one more really sad song. It's from Isaiah 5, and it's a lament by God about his broken relationship with Israel and Judah. He uses the symbol of a vineyard and sour grapes to convey his sorrow.

The Song of the Vineyard

¹ I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.

² He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

³ "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴ What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?

⁵ Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.

⁶ I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it."

⁷ The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

A Couple quick thoughts:

1. God owns the vineyard, it's his to do with as he wishes. "The earth is the LORD's and everything therein." We also are his, to do with as he pleases.

2. God made the investment in the vineyard. He prepared it, planted it, protected it, and planned for a great harvest. He did everything necessary for good grapes. He's done the same for us. He's given us everything we need in order to bear good fruit for him.

3. God's expectations are pretty simple. He desires JUSTICE and RIGHTEOUSNESS. Don't overcomplicate things.

The Merciful Wrath of God, Part Two

Psalm 30:5 --

For his anger is but for a moment

and his favor is for a lifetime

Weeping may tarry for the night

but joy comes with the morning

Suffering and the pain it causes are temporal, but those who find the favor of God will enjoy it forever.

Let me suggest that all suffering and all pain are our way of experiencing the wrath of God in a very tangible way. Don't judge this post too quickly. Anytime we find ourselves reaping the consequences of sin (illness, disaster, relational conflict, etc.) we are experiencing the wrath of God being poured out on sinful humanity. Stay with me.

David writes in Psalm 30:5 - "his ANGER is but for a moment". That God is angry about sin is a reality. That this anger is being directed toward the sinners is a reality. Read Lamentations 3:1-20. Notice how it feels to be under the wrath of God:

• he has made my flesh and my skin waste away
• he has made me dwell in darkness
• he has walled me about so that I cannot escape
• He is a bear lying in wait for me
• He drove into my kidneys the arrow of his quiver
• He has made my teeth grind on gravel
• my soul is bereft of peace
• I have forgotten what happiness is

ouch.

But, then, in Lamentations 3:21, things turn the corner. In spite of all this gloom and doom being experienced, the author writes, "But this I call to mind, and therefore, I have HOPE". How is it that someone can experience so much sorrow and woe, recognize that said sorrow and woe is from the hand of God, and still have hope?

Remember the verse we started with. Psalm 30:5:

For his anger is but for a moment

and his favor is for a lifetime

The manner in which we experience God's wrath while on this earth is NOT eternal. It will end. In fact, I would suggest that the wrath of God which we experience on earth (whether it be direct consequences of our sin or indirect consequences of being a sinful person living in a sinful world) is a CORRECTIVE wrath intended to:

1) Inform us of our own sin and how our sin separates us from God.
2) Warn us of the terrible situation we find ourselves in as people deserving the wrath of God.
3) Impress us that if this is a taste of God's wrath on sin, we DO NOT want to eternally suffer his wrath on our sin.

In this, I would suggest that God's wrath is indeed a very MERCIFUL offering to us. It is a warning sign that says, "This is the route you have chosen, and it only gets worse from here. CHANGE DIRECTION." (Jesus said something like, "repent and believe!") God's wrath which lasts only for a moment, or for the night gives way to his favor and joy if we are His! His wrath teaches us that the best we can hope for on our own is this meaningless life full of sorrow and suffering and culminating in an eternity under his FULL wrath.

Yet there is hope.

To whatever degree you/me/we have experienced the wrath of God, it could be much worse. Sin deserves death, eternal death, instantly. Anything less than that is God's mercy. Of course, one man did experience the full wrath of God. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 tells us that Jesus rescued us from the coming wrath. Paul teaches us in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that Jesus accomplished this by becoming sin for us. 1 Peter 2:24 says that He bore our sins in His body. When God directed his all His righteous wrath toward the body of Jesus, we received a new hope. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says that God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive SALVATION through Jesus!

Psalm 30:11-12:

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing

you have loosed my sackcloth

and clothed my with gladness

that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent

O LORD my god, I will give thanks to you forever.

Experiencing the wrath of God, visible all around us, is cause for mourning.
Recognizing the mercy of God, demonstrated in Christ, gives way to dancing.

The Merciful Wrath of God, Part One

How Most People Really Think About God

My Skills Are Not Nearly As Polished As You Think They Are

I was reading Psalm 146 this morning and was struck by the list of people for whom God is in the business of providing assistance:

• the oppressed
• the hungry
• the prisoners
• the blind
• those who are weighed down
• the foreigners
• the orphans
• the widows
• (also, he loves the godly)

This is a list in which I would prefer not to find myself. Apart from the fact that I am occasionally weighed down by my own inability to stay in shape, I don't really think the rest of this stuff applies to me... but...

does that mean God isn't in the business of helping me?

I think it kind of does mean that.

As Jesus pointed out several times, he did not come for the sake of the righteous. He said that those who are healthy (or at least think they are) don't need his help. Only the sick are in need of his assistance. Unfortunately, I'm often in the position of thinking I'm healthy. I don't think I belong on the Psalm 146 list because REALLY i often don't think I need God's help. I think I'm a pretty capable guy who can get things done on my own.

But I want God's help!

Because deep down inside (in the words of Colonel Nathan Jessup),"in places we don't like to talk about" I know that I desperately need God's help, because while on the outside I appear to be pretty solid; I am nothing more than a major league mess-up barely being held together by string and duct tape...

So, I need to find myself on this list. I need to admit that I am oppressed by my selfishness and foolishness. I need to acknowledge that I am far too often blind when it comes to loving God and loving others. I am a prisoner of my desires and of temptation. I am an orphan who needs to run to the arms of my adopted heavenly Father.

May we all learn to admit our shortcomings so we can bask in the help God willingly offers!

A Couple Thoughts on Psalm 8, and Our Responsibility to Creation

I'm reading Psalm 8 this morning and I just start fiddling around with an outline...

1. The Greatness of God.
His glory is in evidence in the vastness of the sky and space, but also in the smallness of a baby's first cry. Bono says, "My first cry was a joyful noise." When a baby cries it is evidence of God's amazing creative power in making life.

2. The Graciousness of God.
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" What is the best thing you've ever created? I've made some neat pictures from time to time... Nothing I've every made compares to things like the moon and the stars. Yet God still cares for me and demonstrates grace toward me.

3. The Giftedness of Man.
Because of his grace, God has chosen to appoint man as his representatives on earth. He's given us charge over creation; over the animals, over the birds, and the fish, and everything in the sea. We are to take care of it as He would. Have you ever felt honored because someone you greatly admired thought enough of you to give you a significant job? How hard did you work?

The creator of the universe has given you a job to serve as his representative to all creation. How hard will you work at this?

When a great God
Gives a gracious gift
We must be faithful and wise
in our application.

Tom Izzo Isn't God, But He's Closer Than Jim Leyland

Watching Michigan State run through the NCAA tournament was a lot of fun this year. It was good to see a team that wasn't expected to get out of the second round (they were a "5" seed) make it all the way to the final four. The team's success in the national tournament probably erased from most people's memory their utter failure in the Big Ten tournament. But I remember, for a good reason.

As I watched the Spartans falter against Minnesota in overtime, I was overwhelmed with questions. "Why is Kebler playing so much?" "Why did Izzo have to bench Chris Allen?" "Where is Durrell Summers?" "Why isn't Delvon Roe in the game?" When the final buzzer sounded, I was disappointed, but not without hope. Over the next few days, I heard Tom Izzo get lambasted on local radio shows, but I remained quiet (except for my occasional statements of "They're going to be fine."). I never doubted that Coach Izzo would have them ready to go (check my ESPN bracket, I picked them all the way to the final four). I certainly didn't understand his coaching decisions in the Minnesota game, but I had great confidence that he knew what he was doing, and he was getting them ready for the BIG DANCE. I trusted him.

I don't trust Jim Leyland. I haven't since September of 2006. I just don't think he's a good manager. During the unbearable collapse last season, and in the middle of that horrific "play-in" game with the Twins I found myself growing angrier and angrier with every Leyland misstep. He rewarded my mistrust by completely mismanaging the bullpen and costing the Tigers the division title. I don't know enough about the minutia of baseball to reasonably critique Leyland's in-game management, but what is clear to me is that is can't handle a bullpen, he over-uses young arms, he gives slumping veterans way too many chances, and he throws away too many mid-season games with his hokey "Sunday-off" lineups. Just one more win at some point in the season would have put last year's Tiger's in the playoffs. I do not trust him.

I know. It doesn't really matter whether or not I trust Tom Izzo and Jim Leyland. But there's a more important principle at stake here.

When we trust someone, we are more likely to do what they ask even if we disagree. When we don't trust someone, we typically won't do what they ask, unless it's obvious to us that they are right. When it comes to decisions that don't make sense to me, I give Tom Izzo a lot more latitude and a lot more grace than I give Jim Leyland.

But let me put this into the context where it is most important. Do you trust God? Your obedience to Him tells the story.

It's easy to say, "I trust God" and do the things you know He has commanded when they are easy. But what about those times when being obedient to God is going to be costly? It may cost you financially, socially, or relationally. Obedience to God might take away your comfort, your peace of mind, or your self-sufficiency. Most people (including myself at times) I've observed are willing to be obedient to God up to a point. But then they stop, because the cost is too great.

What are we really saying when we choose not to follow God because of the cost? We're saying to Him, "Here's where we disagree, and frankly, I trust myself more than I trust you."

Hebrews 11 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." In other words, faith is trusting God that He will provide for us the things we cannot provide for ourselves, mainly the things we don't even see that we need. Obeying God when it's easy is not a faith test. Obeying God when we can't see how it will possibly work out is true faith.

When I don't understand what Jim Leyland is doing, I criticize him because I don't trust him.
When I don't understand what Tom Izzo is doing, I wait patiently because I trust him.

What do you do when you don't understand what God is doing?