These are the Tunes of the Kingdom

I don't have anything terribly original today.

About a year ago, I was driving through the mountain passes at 11pm, and my mood was as black as the sky. Things were not going well at work, and I was discouraged. The radio was set to KLOVE, and the comforting and encouraging songs were what I was after. But at one point, some song came on (I don't remember which one) that was just straight-up joyful and happy. A little too happy. It wasn't sympathetic and low-key like I was looking for.

I spun the knob and turned the radio off for that song. That doesn't match my mood, I harrumphed at God. Can't you see I'm frustrated here?

Unexpectedly, I heard God respond: These are the tunes of my kingdom.

I turned the song back on. It lifted me out of the dumps a bit, reminded me of what I'm really a part of. I'm part of a kingdom that isn't about...whatever I'm about at the moment. It's about victory and redemption. It's much bigger than me and my challenges.

God wasn't dismissing my emotional state. Not at all. He knew I was struggling, and he was meeting me there. It's just that when you spend long enough focusing on your troubles, sometimes you slip into self-pity. You rarely see when you cross that border; you just look around and realize you're there. We end up expecting God to attend our pity party and forget that we have an invite to the wedding feast of the Lamb.

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." - Romans 8:18

Sometimes we need our struggles to be acknowledged and addressed by God, and then sometimes we just need to punch it in the mouth with perspective. I love how disruptive God is sometimes. It's just what I need.

So this morning, if you're annoyed with things and expecting God to just keep hanging out with you there, here's a song perfectly calculated to get on your nerves. I personally haven't been able to get it out of my head for a month. Try it out this morning. It's a tune of the kingdom.