Sinatra's Best Advice
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?”
Psalm 8:3-4
My favorite Frank Sinatra song is "That's Life," which he released in 1966. It starts like this, "That's life, that's what all the people say/You're ridin' high in April, shot down in May/But I know I'm gonna change that tune/When I'm back on top, back on top in June...I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king/I've been up and down and over and out and I know one thing/Each time I find myself flat on my face/I pick myself up and get back in the race."
Ain’t that the truth! There are highs and lows in our lives, and it seems that every week brings about its own challenges. Rarely does life seem to stay calm for long. Life is filled with unexpected surprises, and things that must be dealt with. At any given moment, we are juggling family matters, health issues, work responsibilities and maybe, just maybe, we can find time to even exercise.
The fast-paced lives of modern Americans is always riding the line between order and chaos. It is just a fact of life, as Sinatra reminds us. There are seasons we are up, and others when we're down. We may be ridin' high in April, but then we're shot down in May.
Yet, even amid the chaos, there is a steady hand guiding the ship. We can become so overwhelmed with the busyness of our own life that we forget that God is in control. Our psalm this morning reminds us of the grandeur and majesty of God. Though He rules above the chaos of humanity, He does care for each of us — He is “mindful of us” in the most personal sense. The Incarnation is living proof of that.
We mustn’t forget that it was God “in the beginning” who created order out of chaos. What was “formless and void” and “wild and waste” was transformed into the good creation that you and I now inhabit. And so, Sinatra is right on many fronts, but we can’t be the only ones who always pick ourselves up and get back in the race. We desperately need to drop the burdens that we are carrying at the foot of God’s throne and, when we do fall, to trust that He will pick us up, whether it is April or May.
