When you sing worship songs to God, those songs should include every facet of life... shouldn't they? I mean if we experience it, we should filter it through the lens of our life in God and express it back to him - even if that expression is haunting, uncomfortable, and doubtful. It seems to me that all of the songs we sing in church are all happy clappy. And then, when people show up we tell them to "sing it from their heart". Well, what if they can't? What if the song we are singing isn't their song that day? What if their song is sad? Is that okay?
See, I don't think crying to God is an expression of doubt anymore than a child crying to its mother is a lack of trust. A lament is a profound expression of faith. Faith that someone is listening. Faith that the someone who is listening doesn't require a smile and a hop to care for you. Faith that there is hope beyond the sorrow... or at least faith that there is a chance of hope. Or else why cry? Babies left abandoned in crowded orphanages give up crying after awhile. They know that no one is listening. I hope the church - in our effort to celebrate the goodness of God - doesn't minimize the fallen state of the world.
It's ironic that in our effort to be relevant... we paint on a smile and ignore the real life situations confronted by everyone.
So, Todd, write a couple of laments if you haven't already. Your new recording project will stand out in a crowd of true but incomplete pictures of the life in Christ.
