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Bible study #1 on "Always" by Newsboys [song lyrics]
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"The Blame Game" "What were you thinking It's always the same This Wednesday I celebrated a personal milestone, one I call my "Seven Month, Five Day Anniversary." I'll explain it because right now you are sitting there going 'what?!?!' One night a while back, I was VERY bored and decided to find out exactly how long I had been 'gone from God'. I found out it was around 7 months and 5 days. Well, I also countd how long 7 months 5 days would be from the day I started turning my life around and I came up with Feb. 23. Well, to most people it's got to be the stupidest thing they've ever read, but to me it's like a celebration. That means as long as I was astray, I've been back. Tuesday night, as I was reflecting on this, I found out something; as meaningless as my "anniversary" may sound, it does sort of tie into the lesson. This month's 'theme' is blame. Thinking about it, I wondered, "who did I blame for my situation?" and I found out something. I blamed God for moving us away from the only home I really remembered clearly. I decided that if God didn't play by my rules, then I wasn't going to play at all. How this ties in with the song "Always" is that this person, whose father left him at a young age (possibly before he was even born) is struggling. Not only is he struggling to forgive his dad, but to stop himself from pointing his finger and saying "dad's fault!" when HE screws up. This person, filled with pain, anger, loneliness, is trying to forgive his father and move on with his life. I think this is very mature, considering what he could be doing -- what a lot of people do in today's society. If their life, well, STINKS, they think it's then none other than their parents' fault, especially if one of their parents wasn't there to raise them. Personally, I think it's sad. These people, yeah, their situation is sad, but really, must that determine the whole course of your life? No, you have a choice. Your parent didn't (well, hopefully) stick a bottle of booze in your mouth as a baby. They didn't inject your veins with crack. You did. And blame is nothing new either: back in the beginning, Adam blamed God for giving him Eve, who gave him the fruit. Eve blamed the serpent, saying he tricked her. Well, DUH, it's not like the serpent put the fruit in her hand! I know this sounds funny, but in this "blame game" who did the serpent get to blame? Being Satan he could have blamed God, "hey man, you kicked me offa my perch man . . . " (Okay, so I'm implying that Satan was a hippie?) How this situation can tie in with us, even if we have both parents, is simply taking the blame when the situation calls for it. It takes a lot to be able to do that, but it's something that we should really strive for. Forgive, move on, and don't point your finger along the way (you might lose it) In my case, we can kinda already see how I turned out. My life away from God started to crumble. I wish that "Titanic era" had never happened, but it did and I can't change that. Thinking Tuesday night, I realized that I really couldn't recall certain stuff about those months (I'm finally starting to delete that movie script installed in my head) Although I know had it not happened just as it did, I would have remained a really lukewarm Christian, perhaps even someday just dropped God entirely. Only by God's grace was I at Creation that night, only by His grace did I actually LISTEN to the concert, only by grace did it stick. I wanted to go home, I didn't like "rock" music, I didn't like long hair on guys, and that bald guy looked a little scary. One thing I often wonder is why Newsboys? Why wasn't it Jars of Clay, or Point of Grace, or someone else? I can't answer it, other than to say I think it was because God had some plans in mind, like, I dunno, a Bible study perhaps? ;) |
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"Forgiving When It Seems Hardest" "What were you thinking "It's about that God cares about our loneliness as well as about our fallenness... And He is a Father to the fatherless and a defender of widows." ~ Peter Furler talking about 'Always' "What on earth were you thinking? WERE you thinking? Was it just a brash act out of fear? What was it? Was I THAT horrible a thought? Did you not know that I would want a father in my life? Did you think I could really buy that same lame story all my life? WHY?" Surely these are justifiable questions, aren't they? This person has a right to really tear out this guy who hasn't been present, right? Yes and no. Yes, this person has a right to question what made his father run out on him, but no, he doesn not have the right to tear him out and be bitter. Remember how I said last week that people have to stop blaming everything that goes wrong on everyone else? Well, here's where it starts, when people start thinking that they have the right to hold grudges. As soon as they proclaim that, the bitterness starts to eat away at everything in them. Soon they will start on drugs and alcohol and whatever else eases the corrosion of LIFE in them. And because they "have that right" to hold grudges, guess who gets the blame when their life falls apart? If you would guess the person whom they are holding the grudge on, you are absolutely correct. Some people continually look in their past to fuel the hatred and anxiety in their lives. And by doing that, they are missing out on countless opportunities to start anew and wrecking what little remnant of a decent life they might have had. If you are a driver, or have ever paid attention to someone who is driving, you'll know that you can't spend too long looking in the rear view mirror or else you'll run smack into the back of another car (or drive off a bridge, miss a turn, blindside a car, something not good). This is true in our own lives; sure we may not blindside a car, but we could very well wreck our own lives. For the longest time after Creation I didn't make too much progress spiritually because I was busy being paranoid. I practically hyperventilated every time I saw a Titanic poster because I was so afraid of my past. I started carrying around a picture of the Newsboys so that anytime I would see something, I could counteract it! I was a pathetic mess! Then i realized I had to quit living in fear of my past, quit totally focusing on my past and live in the present. I had to learn from my mistakes so as to not repeat them and help others, What I mean to say with all this is that if someone wrongs you, then you just need to forgive, forget, and move on. Going in reverse on I-25 is not a good thing, unless your mission is to be on the 5 o'clock news as '33 car pileup.' Going in reverse in life is not a good thing unless your mission is to be a nervous, bitter schizophrenic whose only friends are the 'people in the white suits with the funky needles.' It can be a hard process learning not to hold grudges if that is what you are accustomed to doing. "Will I ever change?" You can change, you can learn not to hold grudges, to forgive. I'm not saying it won't be hard, but as long as you keep going forward, even if it's slowly, eventually you'll get to your destination. Keep your eyes on the road up ahead and only look back if you need to change lanes |
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"The Scraps of Life" "Take these pieces Our lives are like quilts, they start out as scraps on the floor and, slowly but surely, they are put together to form something beautiful. There are the scraps we will look upon and smile with delight, saying "I remember that!" and there are those that we'd rather forget, but they are sewn in for variety. Sometimes when life is particularly discouraging, we are tempted to just throw away the quilt and the scraps that have yet to fit into place. However, if we just keep going along, then someday our "quilts" will be full of beauty and variety. There are pieces that we may never quite understand why it's there and others that we might not understand at the time, but someday we will look back on and see the reasoning. Maybe you didn't get that job you were hoping for, but low and behold, down the road you got offered a job that paid twice as much as the first one. Everything in life happens for a reason. bad things sometimes happen to build character and to make us stronger, both physically and spiritually. Sometimes when we are in the midst of a great success, whether it's financially, in school, or at work, we can forget to whom our success belongs. It can take some failure to truly open our eyes to God. Really thinking on this last verse in "Always" has brought
back some memories. I remember standing there at Creation, cold and tired
with my arms folded across my chest. I don't remember most of "Always"
but I do remember seeing this last verse on the big screen. I was impressed
by 'washed by the sun, dried by the rain.' When I bought the cd, I was
like, "whoa! There is a SONG attached to that verse!" But anyway,
this verse is talking about a life in shambles. When a person has given
up on life and turned to sin, God can still cleanse and work in this life,
or 'wash' it. I'm not entirely sure if this is accurate and please forgive
me if I'm wrong, but my personal view of "washed by the sun, dried
by the rain' is washed by Christ (the sun or SON), dried by His tears
(the rain). If you really reflect on that it sounds pretty cool, well,
at least to me! To be my Father in the fatherless days. Obviously it's
talking about God being our Father, but it's quite deeper if you analyze
it. A That's actually deep stuff. |
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"The Dangers of Afro-Sheen (Jody Beware!)" "A Father to the fatherless, a defener
of widows, is God in His holy habituation" Instead of compiling a bunch of verses this time around, I'm trying something different. Feel free to let me know which format (verses or not) you like better. God bless! Sarah (TMTYL) <>< I was sitting here thinking about how I could really apply, in a practical way, the theme of not blaming others. The best I can come up with is responsibility. The trait of responsibility is not one to be taken lightly. One thing that sooner or later every child wants is more freedom, more privileges. If you'v tried this, you'll know your parents' response: more freedom = more responsibility. It makes every child shudder. It works that way with God as well; we want more blessings, but we don't want to work for them and we certainly don't want to give up any of our time spent enjoying our blessings or thank the One who gave them to us. Oi, it's really selfish. Easing into another trait of responsibility: do you ever notice how it's really easy to take the credit for the good stuff, but when things go sour, we tend to be the first ones to abandon ship? In light of this thought, I came up with a little skit about the dangers of Afro-Sheen. Well, actually, it's about taking responsibility. Cast of Characters: Mr. James-- John, about the Afro-Sheen project . . . ~Three weeks later~ (I sincerely hope that you'll never, EVER slum to htis kind of backstabbing.
Take John--Mr. James, I have something that needs to be cleared up. (John's actions have consequences. In this case, it's losing his job. As my last point, earlier this month I touched on forgiving, but what I'd like to touch on briefly here is asking for forgiveness. It's not easy, but when you do something wrong, it's something that must be done. I'm going to pick up the 'John-Joel' thing here with John going to tell Joel that Joel has his job back.) John--Joel? Okay, so it's a rather corny skit, but you get the idea, I hope! I'm not going to extend this any further, I guess. |
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