No offense was intended to the Aussies as a whole. Seriously, you guys get my (double) thumbs-up for koalas alone. Get rid of the horrifying giant bugs and I'll probably raise your country rating another half star.
I am curious, though... is the Christian subcultural bubble also a "thing" in Australia? Does it carry the same political and social associations there as it does in the states?
I'm glad this song makes your wife feel better, but as someone else who is going through hard times, this song and others like it insisting on smiling and singing through the pain have been the polar opposite of helpful.
AdamCollings wrote:
In fact, I remember once having a similar reaction to a Third Day song that kept repeating the old cliche "There's a light at the end of this tunnel". I have a lot of respect for Third Day, but I remember thinking, this song is not gonna help anyone going through real problems.
Yeah, as much as our local contemporary Christian radio station likes to bill itself as "uplifting," I wouldn't recommend 80% of the songs to anyone going through troubles. Many of these songs are clearly meant to be for people going through troubles, but the good intention doesn't cover the awful execution. One song that I do think did it well, and that I ended up adding to my personal playlist? Worn by Tenth Avenue North (link below if you're not familiar with it). It doesn't hold out any empty promises or insist on mouthing praises anyway, it just expresses an emotion and lets it be. It stays low, rather than forcing an artificial high. The chorus has a hope that things will get better, but the singer doesn't get to see that hope fulfilled, which is an experience a lot more people can relate to, I think. It feels much more honest and real than the usual template of "don't cry because Jesus" songs.
AdamCollings wrote:
Good point about the whole forcing her against her will thing. Even the gospel, which we have been commanded to share to the ends of the earth, cannot, and should not, be forced on somebody against their will.
I find that I'm becoming increasingly sensitive to, and put off by, situations in fiction or other entertainment where Character A does something to Character B against B's express wishes, but it's all for B's own good and the narrative treats A as right for having done this. It's more common than you'd think, including in "Christian" works. If you want to show Character A as morally ambiguous or treading perilously close to the dark side, okay, but genuine heroes should respect the free will of others. Violation or disregard of others' free will is, to me at least, one of the hallmarks of a villain.
AdamCollings wrote:
But despite what I said about my wife above, for those with actual medical conditions such as depression, it's not so easy, and you can't just "will yourself happy."
Yeah, that's the thing: even if I could "will myself happy" (and I don't think I can), I wouldn't want to. I don't want to feel better about my problems, I want the problems fixed. I can't imagine that I'm that unique in this, either. People don't want to just be shot full of painkillers, they want the wound treated and gone. I wish more Christians understood this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zulKcYItKIA