[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Saturday, April 27, 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all, and especially a good evening to my fellow readers living in the Americas.  I hope that your day went well or is going well, and that for most of us, as this is being written, that Sunday will be a good day in the Lord as we corporately worship with our fellow congregants in our respective houses of worship.

In 2010 Mark Allan Powell wrote an article entitled "Grant Gets Serious," rendered as follows:

Songs of lament also contain much hope.

Amy Grant had a hit song on Christian radio stations last summer called "Better than a Hellelujah." It was a reminder that praise is not the only form of worship.  Sometimes the most appropriate way to worship God is what the Bible calls lament--songs that cry out to God in pain, anguish and protest.

As a 1980's pop star, Grant scored numerous hits with upbeat, happy songs like "Baby, Baby" and "Lucky One." But her life wasn't always easy and her trials were sometimes played out in the media.  Now 50, Grant has emerged as a gifted singer and songwriter with astute theological insights.

"Better Than a Hellelujah" comes from her album 
Somewhere Down the Road (Sparrow Records), a collection of emotionally raw songs of faith that deal with grief and hardship.  Several of the songs were written at periods in Grant's life when, for one reason or another, she opted not to make them public.  For example, "Come Into My World" captures the trauma of feeling that one has to put on a brave face when everything is crumbling within.

Most of these songs deal with trials common to Americans:  setbacks and disappointments, broken relationships, the death or failing health of a loved one.  But in "Third World Woman," grant enumerates the daily challenges of a Ugandan woman who longs for such things as water, beans and vaccines.

This is a serious album, but it isn't depressing:  the unguarded expressions of pain and doubt are laced with resilient hope that no one could ever call naive.  What Grant _doesn't do is try to explain the problem of suffering.  "So much pain and no good reason why," she sings on the title track, "but somewhere down the road there will be answers."  In the meantime, she wants us to notice the things that give hope, build faith and cast out fear.

And there you have it for today.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing another good night message will be presented, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul