Rejoice and Complain, part 2
Hello all, I hope you are well and wrapping up warm as the autumn weather arrives. This Sunday (6th October) we will be meeting at the Tavern and Gallery at 7.30pm.
We continue with our book/art/song blogs and if anyone would like to write a blog then drop Rob or myself a message.
This week’s blog has been re-entitled Rejoice and Complain part 2. I have had this blog written for a few months in my head and when asked if I could write for this week I was like yeah, sure I know exactly which one we will look at. Then when reading Celeb’s brilliant blog about rejoicing and complaining last week and being part of the discussion, I felt that this could be part 2.
So here we go.
As I was have a music evening listening through my headphones while gaming, I was stopped in my tracks when listening to the song ‘I stand by you’ by the Pretenders. I’ve grown up with this song and I can’t remember where or when I heard one of the reason for this song to be written was a response from the lead singer Chrissie Hynes to supporting someone in addiction. However, when you research the meaning of the song this can’t be found but what is found is an interview with one of the
co-writers who’s dream was to write with Chrissie and that at the end of writing the song they though it was not up to the usual standards or type that the Pretenders where known for. Yet they give it a short and it is now one of, if not their best song.
There are a number of reviews that talk of this song being about support, faithfulness in a relationship, unconditional love, and you can see this all in the lyrics;
‘oh, why you look so sad, tears are in your eyes, come on and come to me now’
‘Nothing you confess, can make me love you less’
‘If your mad, get mad, don’t hold it all inside, come on and talk to me now’
And it was this last lyric that caught me off guard. As many of you know I have been in counselling the whole of this year. It has been hard, at times downright ugly but there has been a lot of progress too. As I have been working to stop numbing my emotions and reconnect with them, it was at this time that this line struck me.
This song spoke to me in this moment, where I felt God was saying ‘be honest about what your feeling, stop trying to protect me by not getting angry, talk to me, cry if you need too, stop hiding it, stop pushing it down as if it doesn’t exit, stop carrying it around inside of you.’
I have come to believe in a holistic God, a God who is wanting to be part of my every being, a God who is not a dictator and ready to struck me with lighting but a God who cares for my very being, a God who is supporting, faithful and loves me unconditional in all the rejoicing and the complaining, He wants to be in it all; and this song felt like that was exactly what God was saying/singing to me in that moment.
Life is hard, there is a lot to complain about but it is also full with moments of rejoicing, of happy moments and both are intertwined, woven into each other. If we were in constant rejoicing we, as humans, would become immune to it and start to complain anyway. And life can seem that it is an endless list of complaints and yet I need to take the time to consider and be thankful for the small, everyday things that make my heart smile, that first sip of coffee, a joke or silly meme from a friend or even my own actions of standing in the office trying to open the cupboard door by clicking my car fob HAHAHA! Which made me laugh at myself.
I think that over the year I have begun to accept that there is a much simpler life to be lead and this is found in the acceptance of all that life has to offer, the rejoicing, the complaining, the good, the bad and the ugly. How I responded to it is important, accepting that whatever it is there, processing it in a healthy way and then deciding if there is something that needs to be done about it, if not letting it go and if so working toward what that action will be.
Life will always be an intertwining of rejoicing and complaining, yet I’m starting to see that expressing my complaining to God who wants to listen can lead, maybe in time, to rejoicing.
I’ll Stand By You by The Pretenders
Questions
1 What, if any, of the lyrics speak to you? And why?
2 What are your thoughts about God singing this song to you?
3 What is your view of God? Is He a dictator or a holistic God or something else?
4 What are your thoughts about the following? :
“I think that over the year I have begun to accept that there is a much simpler life to be lead and this is found in the acceptance of all that life has to offer, the rejoicing, the complaining, the good, the bad and the ugly.”
5 How intertwined do you think rejoicing and complaining are?
