With all due respect to my friends in the USA, I just cain’t…er, can’t…share your love for singing the blues. It must be hard to lose your girl to your best friend and your dog as well on the day your horse dies. But with Jesus as my joy and the Spirit of God filling me, I just can’t do it for the life of me — or rather the life in me.
As kids, when Elvis Presley sang “Old Shep” — a mournful ode to a dying sheepdog — we cried like babies. And then there was “Lassie, Come Home!” the biggest tear-jerker of a movie ever made. (Well, as a kid I thought so.)
My favourite movie was “Shane” which I saw at least 10 times. As wounded gunslinger Shane (Alan Ladd) rode off into the sunset, a blonde- haired farm kid ran after him yelling plaintively, “Shane! Come back!”
Shane didn’t, of course; nor can those far-off childhood days. I can still remember many of those lyrics and the images they bring to mind, but I much prefer being blessed by singing praises to God than sinking deep into depression by singing the blues.
Psalm 103:1-5 is a favourite. So is Psalm 150 entirely (if you don’t find the background noise it evokes distracting). Ephesians 5:18-19 is a great help getting started, in that instead of over-thinking with the mind, you refill your spirit. My wife, Lorraine, hums to herself while cooking and sings in the Spirit a lot. If you’re a bit prone to depression and have hung your harp on a drooping willow tree (so to speak), then move away from media “rivers of Babylon” captivity (Psalm 137:1-2) to the River of God that “makes glad” (Psalm 46:4). The “streams” of that River are its various currents — e.g. prophecy, worship, thanksgiving, redemption, the New Creation, or the imminent Second Coming of Jesus.
Singing the Blues? You gotta be joking! But with second thoughts, it’s a bit hard to laugh while crying — and even harder to cry while laughing!