I listened to this message today. You were right on on a number of points. I especially liked your comment on what’s wrong with Christian radio — it’s incomplete. I never realized it, but secular music is more complete in reflecting the human experience. We need to sing the blues in church a little bit.

Re: Philippians 4.

God revolutionized my thinking a while back when I realized that Paul is telling us here to be thankful in all circumstance — even, maybe especially, the hard times. It’s part of considering it all joy, I guess, in various trials. It’s revolutionary for me in that I have to force myself sometimes to be thankful for circumstances that just totally suck and that I wish never happened. It forces me to take God’s perspective on things and it forces me to, in a sense, embrace the trial.

Jesus wants us to have an abundant life. John 10:10, right? We silly Americans think that means freedom from pain. I think a more correct translation for us is that he wants us to be fully alive. By burying our griefs, we deaden the pain and our hearts become hardened. But through facing it and rejoicing (embracing) in the sorrows and the hurts and the trials and the struggles, we become fully human, transcend the mundane and touch the divine.

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” — Paul (Philippians 3:10)

That’s my theory anyway.