You are my sunshine–copeland

 

 So I downloaded the new You Are My Sunshine cd by Copeland a few weeks ago. amazing. simply is.

I found it quite creepy to begin with but since I first downloaded it I burned a disk and put it in my car. Sounds ordinary enough right? But see, ya gotta know that I have this habit of sticking a cd in my car cd player and leaving it there for…well forever.

I never keep cd’s in my car because I usually have my ipod. Well my Ipod is now a senior ipod. He won’t play through both of the speakers unless you press down on the headphone jack. Not so convenient going highspeeds in an old truck which demands not to be totaled. Anyway, I have this cd which has now been in my cd player for almost a month now. Everytime I get in my car this cd plays. No lie. I get in my car alot. I probably spend more time in my car than I do… see I can’t even think of anything that I do alot to compare it to. That’s how bad it is.

All this to say— I have become very aquainted with this cd in a short amount of time. Listening to music is somewhat like inhaling a very large and very tasty hamburger. You crave it and grab at it in the first few bites enjoying the rich flavor, but after awhile you just get stuffed. Even looking at it makes you sick. I will say that I almost got to that point with this cd, but only for a day. I switched to the radio.(Obnoxious contemporary christian. Not to bash christian music. I would listen to it over anything else. It’s just that these radio stations find it necessary to play something I listened to when I was in Sunday school in ’93?? Simply unethical in this world of evolving music culture) And not to even mention music that is bad… the effects of that are far worse. Bad music sticks for days. Much like the hamburger, your breath smells bad. You can taste it. All those onions and meet tastes… blech. Hearing a bad song over and over has a similiar effect. The more terrible the song, the less you have to hear it to have it stuck in your head for days. I relate things to food. can ya tell?

So I finally get to the point where I crave the hamburger again (aka copeland) and stumble upon lovely track 11. “What Do I Know?”, good question. Here are the lyrics:

It’s brittle and it trembles as the wind is coming toward
And if you string it up it dries right out with time.
So raise your glass to that new dollar in the bank we’re reaching for.
But the drink was sweeter before we had a dime.

But you’re far away now and you’ve got troubles all your own
Just to spend your whole life shooting down.

What do I know?

If you feel restless where you are, it may be easier to stay.
There area million other fools to make your bed.
And they’ll be closing all the shades to keep you right there in that grave.
And I’ll be knocking ’cause you never left my head.

But you’re far away now and you’ve got troubles all your own
Just to spend your whole life counting down.

What do I know?

 

(I don’t know why the font changed… I find that strange too)
So it struck me after reading the lyrics, that this song is very much about the other side of the lawn type stories. ” The grass is always greener on the other side…etc”
What have we reduced life to?
Simply making a living?
Earning money?
Getting by?
“There will always be someone to make up your bed”, there will always be people below us. There will always be people ahead of us. If we don’t feel content where we are, what makes us think we will be content somewhere else? Most likely it won’t last if we do.

Have you ever wanted something thinking that it would make you happy, “change your life”, add a little flair, fix things, make you content. New underwear for example(maybe just me on that one). A new Ipod,  a new Macbookpro,  a new prom dress,  a new car,  a new video game… etc. But then once you purchased, gave blood, stayed up till 4 in the morning to be the lucky caller, did whatever you could to get what you wanted, were you really content? You were super excited right? totally thrilled!
How long did that last? what? 30 minutes? 10 minutes? a moment?
Not as long as you thought.
Even if excitement lasted for a week, we always tire or forget about it once it is in our possesion. it’s been conqoured, it’s been gained.  Not exciting anymore. Afterwards we usually forget about it and move on to something else.

Why do we trouble ourselves with petty goals? petty achievements? What truly counts in your life? If we are always “counting down”, then we don’t get much enjoyment. We will always have troubles, but those troubles shouldn’t be self inflicted. Learn to be content. We should always keep growing and learning. of course. duh. we must. life is too boring to stay stagnant. But there is also this need to be content where we are. If we are abundantly rich, abundantly poor. We should still be smiling and praising God. He is the one that is truly in control anyway, right? My favorite blogger was in the Bible. He blogged to churches about what he was going through and wrote comments on their walls with instructions for them. (okay, I’m trying to be hip and cunning by relating this to our everyday terms and technology. Go ahead. Mock. Shoot. Fire the cannons. Go ahead. Do it. I don’t mind. I’m having too much fun) No hiding it. Paul was a great instructor, teacher, prayer, thinker, lover of Christ… In Philipians 4:12 Paul says:

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

He learned the secret of being content.

 Being truly content is only found in Christ.
Every other thought just leads to a bunny trail with a fleeting moment that will never satisfy. Without Christ we are all ADD kids in a candy store that has the price tag of death.
Christ enables us to be content with our dollar. With our ten dollars. Content with giving away our ten dollars. Giving away our one dollar. It doesn’t matter what it is we’re going through. He’ll get us through. He enables us to be content with our grass. No matter what side we’re on.

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