Tuesday's 
Welcome to the first Tuesday of April!!! That means that 1/4 of 2017 has passed us by. Have you read all of Tuesday's Musical Notes so far? You don't have to wait until Tuesday to catch up on any of the archived blogs. All of the blogs from 2011 to present are included in the archive, so check them out and see what you might have missed. Don't skip over all the yummy goodness that has been 2017's blogs!!!
It certainly has been an interesting year so far. Many things have happened in our world and our culture to make us wonder what might be around the next corner or in the next month. Some of those things could be good and others could leave us quite disenchanted. The good thing is we choose what our attitude regardless and sometimes in spite of our circumstances. Today's blog, originally from October of 2011, will hopefully be an encouragement and provide some insights for those times that aren't as good as others.
Without at doubt the world has changed significantly since 1944. Sometimes it seems easy for even Christians to get caught up in a sense of dismay. There seems to be such discouragement everywhere you look today. It could be very easy to become cynical and pessimistic, but wait....hope lies on the horizon in a wonderful song from 73 years ago, and it reminds us of a couple of great stories from the Bible, "Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark"...brethren and sistern be seated...I feel a sermon comin' on me...cue flashback music and harps!!!
Johnny Mercer, someone who is known well to the WWII generation, wrote the lyrics and recorded today's song with the Pied Pipers in the early part of 1944. Mercer and music writer Harold Arlen would take this upbeat song as high #2 with it's debut release.
You may remember this song better as a hit by Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters. Bing took the song to #2 on the charts as well. This was a time in musical history where a hit song from a movie could be recorded as its own single by completely differing artists. It was part of the soundtrack to the movie Here Comes The Waves. (Here Come The Waves - Theatrical Trailer) In the movie, Bing performs the song with Sonny Tuffs. The song was nominated for Best Original Song by the 18th annual Academy Awards committee.
While Crosby's cover is the most popular, "Accentuate The Positive" has been recorded by many artists, the most recent recording coming from Barry Manilow's 2014 album, Night Songs. Some version of the song has also been featured in 17 movie or television projects outside of its original Here Come The Waves incarnation.
Sometimes I think the problem we have as Americans is that we don't take the time to truly appreciate others. It is so easy to say something sarcastic and negative. It takes much more work and is harder to find the positive in situations and people. Christians are not absolved from this. Christians are accused many times of being the first ones to shoot their wounded or to engage in a battle. (seen any "juicy" Facebook threads lately?).
"Accentuate The Positive" emotes just the opposite of this attitude. It encourages us to seek out the good things regardless of how or where we may find ourselves. It advances the thinking that we should find the good things in others as well. It mentions 2 Bible characters who found themselves in uncertain circumstances who depended on a certain God. There is another Bible character who characterizes the very essence of what accentuating the positive is all about. We read about him in Acts 9.
Acts 9:26-27 - The Message (MSG)
26-27Back in Jerusalem he (Saul) tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him. They didn't trust him one bit. Then Barnabas took him under his wing. He introduced him to the apostles and stood up for him, told them how Saul had seen and spoken to the Master on the Damascus Road and how in Damascus itself he had laid his life on the line with his bold preaching in Jesus' name.
Notice how Barnabas looked for the positive aspects about Saul. He did not focus on the persecution that Saul had been leading. He did focus on the transformation through which Saul had gone by coming face to face with Jesus. That poses the question, how is our transformation since we met Jesus? Have you had an encounter with Him? The Message paraphrase says that Barnabas "stood up" for Saul and told the disciples the incredibly cool things about him. Notice that Barnabas wasn't mealy mouthed or indecisive in his defense of Saul. He didn't mess with Mr. In Between. Do you have friends like that? Are you a friend like that? The Bible has something to say about being indecisive...Revelation 3:16 New International Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible parallel
So many times Christians get the moniker of being against everything that the world considers good, especially when it comes to music or entertainment choices. Some of this is deserved as we occasionally drift off into issues that in the scope of God's kingdom really don't matter. Don't get me wrong, we should stand against sin. We should do everything in our power to defeat the enemy. However the methods and matter by which we do this is the problem. An example of this is the recent Disney release Beauty And The Beast (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Beauty And The Beast") Getting into a fight over a movie made by a secular (worldly) company with those of which we have disagreement, rarely gets anyone, including us, closer to God. What if we were known for our promotion of movies made by companies that share our world view? If we really want to change our world, we should be promoting those good things that occur, not maligning folks that disagree with us. We should be known for what we are for, not what we are against!!! We should be known more for our proclamation of the Gospel, than our condemnation of sin.
What would happen if a movie that releases this week, The Case For Christ (The Case For Christ - Theatrical Trailer) had a better box office opening weekend than Beauty And The Beast? How would that change Hollywood's mentality regarding the kind of product that they put out? Even better, what would happen if every Christian in the US were promoting this to their friends, buying tickets for their friends, and taking their friends to see the film? Certainly this is something that would make movie producers say Hmmmm.... Even more importantly, that lost friend might get saved!!!
My mom gave me a piece of advice one time that I think was very wise. She said, "Before you react or say anything in any given situation, it is best to count to 10 and carefully consider what is about to come out of your mouth. If you can say something positive, then speak. Otherwise, just stay quiet." I don't think mom was the original source on that quote, but she was the one who made it real for me. I admit to you that I fail at this all too often. Like I said earlier, it is far to easy to be sarcastic. Without realizing it the casual "put down" is out there and a relationship can be damaged. Sarcasm has become so much a part of our vernacular in 2017. We need to "eliminate the negative". Let me encourage you today to see the "Barnabas" side of things and build relationships around us. It is so much more rewarding to do the hard thing and "Accentuate The Positive".
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy
Randy
No comments:
Post a Comment