For sure

Today, while I was listening to K love (a Christian radio station) on my way to work, Better Than A Hallelujah by Amy Grant was playing. It's one of my most favorite songs ever. It's got a gorgeous melody, and the words are just absolutely beautiful. As follows:


God loves a lullaby
In a mother's tears in the dead of night
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes

God loves the drunkard's cry
The soldier's plea not to let him die
Better than a Halleujah sometimes

We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful, the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah

The woman holding on for life
The dying man giving up the fight
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes

The tears of shame for what's been done
The silence when the words won't come
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes

We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful, the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah

Better than a church bell ringing
Better than a choir singing out


And the chorus (We pour out our miseries...Are better than a Hallelulah) repeats itself in the end. The first time I ever heard this song..well, I guess I'm not exactly sure if I actually remember the very first time I heard it. If I didn't listen to the words the first time I heard it, I know I loved it already from just hearing a bit of the melody. But the first time I listened to the words, it really touched me. I remember reflecting on how true it is.

I'm a sentimental person. I always feel bad when I grow apart from friends, and especially when I grow apart from family. Especially when they seem like a different person than the one that I always remembered. I know people change, and I'm sure I've done plenty of changing myself. What hurts is when the changing creates a sort of gap between you and someone you care about, and when you feel you'd be an intruder if you tried to reach out and close that gap. I love it when you stay close to people that matter. I love to spend time with people I care about-time having fun, laughing, enjoying each other, and talking about nothing and everything. I love when people I love trust me enough to tell me their perspective, especially when they're having a hard time. Even if I can sense or even see that they're having a difficult time, I don't feel right reaching out to them first; I know they have to be ready to share what's going on, and if I don't wait for them to be ready I could damage my close bond to them. If they don't ever come to me when they're having a hard time, then definitely I feel that we grow apart, and it hurts. As for friends..we all have them! But who do you consider your closest friends? I trust friends who I've had to go through harder times with more than I trust friends who I've had a few fun times with. Because you and your friends need the good AND bad to grow, right?

Now, God obviously doesn't need to do any more growing! However, I'm sure He feels much more keenly when we only think of Him in the good times. Some of us may even forget Him in our good times! It seems like a lot of the time we get so caught up in our lives that we only remember Him when things get bad or difficult. And some of us don't ask Him for help getting through our troubles, but we accuse Him of making bad things happen! God doesn't make bad things happen, bad things happen to us because we're only human. We're going to make mistakes, and some of those mistakes are going to have an impact on not just ourselves, but on many other people as well. But, when bad things do happen, we can use them to our advantage. We learn the most when things are difficult, and we can learn to be even better if we lean on Him to help us through our difficult times. God knows each of us better than we know ourselves; I know He knows me much better than I do. He knows exactly what is going on with me at any given time. But he can't reach out to me until I reach out to Him. I HAVE to reach out to Him and TALK to Him, if I want a good relationship with Him. He's the BEST friend I could ever hope to have, so why wouldn't I want to have a good relationship with Him?

This is getting long, but I would just like to say one last thing. If a person I loved mostly only came to me when they were having a hard time, if they mostly only sought me out to give them comfort and hope, that would mean the world to me. Sure, happiness and fun times are great! And I wouldn't want to go through the rest of life without plenty of happiness and fun times, but I also want to stay close to those who matter. The ones that matter may change, and a few fun times here and there with them may only show them as I've always remembered them, but may not show if and how they have changed. You need plenty of heart-to-heart conversations in life, along with fun times and good memories..but if I could only have heart-to-heart conversations with people for the rest of my life, I would wholeheartedly accept that. Because it would mean that I was staying close to those who matter to me. And that is definitely better than a Hallelujah sometimes.