If you are in your 50's or 60's (getting younger to me every year), you probably have heard the name Eddie Cochran. If not, read on. Ok even if you've heard of Eddie Cochran.....please read on.
The cartoon team of Hanna and Barbera will halt production of their famed Tom and Jerry this year.
In the same year, the nuclear-powered USS Nautilus, named after Jules Verne's fictional submarine was the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The FAA is formed by President Dwight Eisenhower shortly before the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, was born. Have you figured out what year it is? If you haven't The Notes sincerely regrets giving you, "The Summertime Blues"
In 1958 the tuition at Harvard was $1250 per year...not per semester PER YEAR. Gas was just 24 cents per gallon and you could buy a 5-pound bag of Sunkist oranges for 49 cents. I find it odd that our modern culture wants to broadcast the fact that we have it so much better than we did then. I think many days I would give up my phone and computer... I have heard the question even posed by several politicians, "Do you really want to go back to the way things were in the 50s?", like that would be a bad thing. The above are some of the examples of why I don't think it would be too bad. My dad would have been 16.
Perhaps you didn't realize that the song "Summertime Blues" was that old. It just goes to show that a good song is worth covering every once in a while and each generation can enjoy their particular version. Eddie Cochran hit #8 in August of 1958 with the original version. In 1968, "Summertime Blues" was recorded by the psychedelic band The Blue Cheer and went as high as #14. The 1970 version of Eddie Cochran's hit went to #27 as The Who included it on their Odds and Sods album. Brian Setzer and Olivia Newton-John have both recorded "Summertime Blues" with no chart success. But the highest-charting version of the song came from country artist Alan Jackson in 1994 and went all the way to #1 on the Country charts. Let's compare notes:
Eddie Cochran:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti38LFY7x1Y
Alan Jackson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Summertime is my least favorite time of the year. I think you can find joy and beauty in each of God's seasons, but for me, it is a bit more difficult during the Summer. Maybe I've just lived in the wrong parts of the country, but it is not difficult for me to get the "Summertime Blues" in the sweltering heat of an Arkansas Summer. Do you ever get the blues during Summer? Unless you battle against it, it is easy to allow the environment surrounding us to dictate our emotions in a negative way. And it is the antithesis of what God wants us to have in this life. Even at times of trials, the Bible tells us to have joy.
We've discussed the difference between the action of happiness and the emotion of joy in previous notes (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Don't Worry, Be Happy"). But how do we have joy in the hard times? How do we have joy when the Summertime or anytime blues kicks in? How do we find joy when we have been momentarily defeated by the enemy?
The New International Version and Holman Christian Standard Bible use the word "joy" 242 times. The King James Version refers to "joy" 187 times. This seems to be a word that is reinforced significantly in God's Word. Sometimes it is utilized by God to tell us what we need to do to achieve joy, others describe how God's people act when they have joy on display. Joy on display sometimes manifests itself in a noisy way. Many times I have told people that I think heaven will be a somewhat noisy place. Not the annoying kind of noise, but a noise that resonates with the thankfulness of God's people as they worship Him for eternity future. In fact, Psalm 100 happens to be a pretty noisy chapter in God's book. You can read it here:
http://www.biblegateway.com/
So as those who are being transformed daily into the likeness of Christ, the Bible tells us that we of all people are to be joyful. According to James, it is a testimony to our faith and takes us down the pathway to being those unique and peculiar people to which the Bible speaks. Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of James 1:2 says
" 2-4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way."
Let this passage serve as a challenge to us today to become more joyful, to become more unique, to become more peculiar, to become more like Jesus, even in those times when we fight against "The Summertime Blues".
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by loving you,
Randy
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