Mournful Soul
Beautiful Things by Gungor
Beautiful Things by Gungor
Beautiful Things by Gungor
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. —Revelation 21:5 (KJV)
Songs Of Lament
Why Worship Music Should Be Sadder (excerpts)
By Michael Gungor - October 30, 2012
When we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we believe in God who can redeem all our suffering, just as he did for the brutal suffering of Jesus on the cross at Calvary.
Jesus must have felt such palpable distance from God that he cried out from the cross,
"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
Sometimes we need songs of lament to remind us of the horrible treatment and pain Jesus undertook for our salvation.
Gungor sums it up best in his article, Why Worship Music Should Be Sadder:
A Christianity that does not lament is a shallow Christianity. It is a medicinal, numbing balm we use to avoid living life in a world that is groaning. It is a Band-Aid to cover our wounds. Fig leaves to be sewn over our humanness. And many of us need to be saved from our addiction to this anemic, shallow substitute for Christianity.
Most of David's Psalms Are Laments
- Approximately 70 percent of the Psalms are laments.
- Approximately 0 percent of the top 150 Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) songs are laments.
- NOTE: These are the songs sung most in churches
Gungor was actually surprised by this for some reason.
He knew that, as a whole, American Christianity has tended toward the reality-averse and narcissistic, but it was still strange to hear it so overtly in words—like hearing a teenager say, "No, I really am the center of the universe."
When did Christianity become a way of medicating us from pain rather than a way of living within the pain?
There is a tension to the Kingdom of Heaven that is here but not yet here. That tension ought to give way to poetry. To lament. To art. Sure, there is room for some celebration, but if our faith has nothing else to it than positive messages and encouraging clichés, perhaps it has become a Band-Aid rather than a surgery.
Worship music doesn’t need to be medication. Our worship music ought to put us in touch with the deepest places of our humanity, not simply distract us from our pain and put is in a good mood for the preacher's talk. It ought to stir things deep in us. Hope. Joy. Anger. Mourning. Doubt. Love.
SOURCE: Why Worship Music Should Be Sadder • ChurchLeaders.com
Beautiful Things By Gungor
All this pain
I wonder if I'll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You
You make me new, You are making me new
Jesus Undertook Horrible Treatment
And Pain For Our Salvation
- Next entry in the series 'Mournful Soul': You Are My Hiding Place With Scot Chatham
- Previous entry in the series 'Mournful Soul': Come Ye Souls By Sin Afflicted By Indelible Grace
