Lyric For The Day 18.11.11 from Questions by Steven Curtis Chapman

“Who are You God

For You are turning out to be

So much different than I imagined

And where are you God

Cuz I am finding life to be

So much harder than I had planned

Know that I am afraid

To ask these questions

But You know they are there

And if you know my heart

The way that I believe you do

You know that I believe in You

Still I have these questions”

-      From Questions by Steven Curtis Chapman

 This Psalm-like song from Steven Curtis Chapman goes some way to fill the huge empty void in Contemporary Christian Music; lament, questioning and catharsis. For me Christian music since the mid eighties has been too sanitised, too squeaky clean, to theologically simplistic (I’ll hold off a stronger opinion!!!!). When Steven Curtis Chapman experienced the tragic death of his daughter he went back to his music as a way to wrestle with God, to mourn, to hope, to question and to find answers. The album Beauty Will Rise gave those songs to the rest of us as a gift to help with our own dark nights of the soul. I believe music to be a huge resource in catharsis and we need more of the Biblical honesty that Curtis Chapman recorded on Beauty Will Rise.