When Everything Falls Apart….

I’ve been listening to the local Christian radio station…now and then…usually on my way to and from work.  Lately, it seems that almost every time I tune in to WGRC there is a song playing with lyrics that grab my attention…a song I’ve never heard before.  Some are by performers of yesteryear…Petra, for example….and some are singers/bands that are popular right now.  Some are rock and rollish….some much more laid back. It’s the lyrics that usually break through my “gotta’ get to work/running late” preoccupation. 

I’ve been scribbling down snippets of the lyrics while stopped at red lights etc….then, later, google them.  I save the info I find in a file with the intent to post some of the lyrics and links and videos here on my blog. Today is as good a day as any to start.  It’s another interruption to the Clean Hands thing…which I have more to say about…but just not this morning. 

The You Tube Video I’m posting this morning is by a band named Fee. Emily knew the band and the song when I asked her about it, but they were to to me.  Most of their music is rock and roll and does not really resonate with me….but their song, Everything Falls, caught my attention the other day.

Oftentimes, life is a perpetual series of inconveniences and upheavals….major and minor….heart wrenching or just simply annoying. Jesus did give us a heads up about that when he said, “In this world you will have trouble.” So sometimes even when things seem to be going the best…or seem to be on an even keel, I get the nagging feeling that calamity is just around the corner. 

The second half of his “heads up” is not as easy to live out.  “But be of good cheer…for I have overcome the world.” 

In it’s usual wordy style the Amplified Bible renders John 16:33 like this:

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

And about that calamity waiting around the corner….again Jesus gives us a heads up.  This is from the Message…

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. Matthew 6:34

And we get through it all by remembering that when “everything falls apart, Your arms hold me together” or in the words of a much older song…

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Video follows….