My Heart Sings

My Heart Sings- Background
Everyone goes through "seasons" of life. It can run like a Swiss watch�you get the promotion at work, your kid is at the top of the class (not to mention, he is the star quarterback of the football team and class president) and your spouse has been elected to the city council by a landslide. Everything is good. Or�it runs like an old Yugo (forgive me, all Yugo or former satisfied Yugo owners). Someone is spreading false rumors about you at work and people believe it, your kid is failing all his classes and is arrested for drug possesion, and your house has one problem after another (you know...leaking pipes, malfunctioning furnace and foundation cracks). Sometimes it is worse, but I think you get the point. Those seasons of life come and go as surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So, how does it affect our worship...it shouldn't. Yes, we can get angry and annoyed and frustrated, but the circumstance is never bigger than God. I look at it this way: for everything that happens in my life I have two possible responses. I can cling to God and His promises more tightly, or I can move away from Him. Look at the life of Joseph. He never took his eyes off of God, whether he was thrown into a well, sold into slavery, in prison or second in command in Egypt. My desire is to have faith and trust that transcends circumstances.

My Heart Sings- Inside Information
I've take somewhat of a "24" approach in writing this song. Just as the TV show borrowed from previous shows (the multiple windows of action before commercial breaks were taken from the hit show, "Wild, Wild West"), I have also imitated a few things. The run of notes that is kinda' the song's calling card, A - C# - D, is similar to the chorus of Chris Tomlin's "Meet With Me." Following that run was a G2/F#, which I think also came from a Chris Tomlin song, and probably some others. It sounded cool, so I found an appropriate place in this song for it. Dr. Walter Martin, in his sermon entitled, "The Secret Sin," referred to a bumper sticker he once saw that said, "Far from God?...Who moved?" That concept was incorporated into Verse 4. The bridge begins with a Dm add9/A, only because I didn't have to move my fingers very far from the D at the end of the chorus :-)

Verse 1
Sometimes there are no clouds in the sky
And the blue delights my eyes
Everything is good
Everything is good

Verse 2
And sometimes the blue turns gray
What can happen to this day?
It might not be good
So this is what I do

Chorus
My heart sings when life is peaceful
My heart sings when the world is crumbling down
There is joy in Your harmony that comforts me
So my heart sings
Yeah my heart sings

Verse 3
Sometimes I have faith big as the moon
And I feel so close to You
Everything is good
Everything is good

Verse 4
And sometimes it disappears
My faith is blocked by fear
It was me who moved
So this is what I do

Bridge
You sang for me upon the cross
Your song of love goes on and on
Whatever my situation
I will give You praise

My Heart Sings- Scriptural Connections
Job 1
Everything is good�
1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

2 He had seven sons and three daughters,

3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

4 His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular custom.

Job lacked nothing in his life and he showed his gratitude to God. He was blameless, upright; he feared God and made sacrifices to God on behalf of his kids. Satan claimed that Job's devotion to God was only because of the good life he had and God disagreed. The bet was on.

It wasn't good�
�Oxen and donkeys were attacked and carried off by the Sabeans. All but one servant who was there was killed.

� The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants.

� The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword.

� Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they were killed.

Job's initial reaction�
Was he grieved? Yes, greatly. Was he bitter? Did he curse God? Did he wallow in his misery, focusing on the circumstances? No, at least not initially, but he turned that around, too. (with a little help from God!)

Acts 16:22-25
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.

23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Can you imagine?...
...being stripped, severely flogged, isolated and put in stock? What a testament to their faith they should praise God in their circumstance!

Other Connections
Here are some other passages that convey similar messages:

Psalm 30:11-12
11You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy,

12 so that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

Psalm 13:5-6
4 My enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.