Day 53
I have this thing for sad music. I like it when a song brings tears to my eyes. It’s not that way with movies so much. With those, I want my happy ending. Yet I’m content to have a song that leaves me contemplative and a little wistful.
On my computer, I have a whole playlist of songs that are melancholy – songs about saying goodbye, losing a friend, taking things for granted, hard times, homesickness. Some of them I love because of a single line, others I enjoy from beginning to end.
Maybe I’m a little odd in that way, but I think I’ve figured out a couple of reasons why these types of songs get to me. Fist off, they remind me of heaven.
What? Mournful music reminds me of heaven?
Yeah. When I hear James Taylor singing Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More”, I think about that time when all hard times will end. When Bebo Norman grieves the death of a friend in “Rita”, he says, “The finest moment no man can measure, is to look your Savior in the eye.” Mary Fahl’s “Going Home” (from the Civil War film Gods and Generals) reminds me that I am going home.
Secondly, we live in a world that’s overwhelmed by bitter, wracked by pain. Music that addresses that is honest music. Not that music that sings of beauty and happiness is not honest – I love joyous music. Gladness is also a part of this earthly life. But songs that look at our struggle and aching (without going overboard into despair) seem to touch me more.
Because out of the melancholy, I take comfort in the settled assurance that I am going home. After all, I am saved by his grace. I am made for eternity.
Made for Eternity 