Monthly Archives: February 2016

More About “Typical Day in Heaven” as it Hits Radio on Tuesday!

A lot of the lyrics of my music deal with loss, especially in the form of death. (This really sounds like it is going to be happy reading, doesn’t it?) But of all the experiences we have in life, the death of those we love is usually the most traumatic. So many of the songs on the albums are an attempt to look at how we go through this.

Most personality tests divide people into two categories–thinking types and feeling types. While most of us are both types at various times in our lives, we usually have a preference for one or the other. A good way to determine which one defines you better is to ask yourself if you are guided more by your head or your heart. For example, if you were offered a job that included a nice pay raise but was not something you enjoyed doing, what would you do? A thinking type might determine that the pay would allow for many financial goals to be reached, so performing a less than satisfying job each day pales in comparison to the financial benefits. A feeling type might decide that there is no amount of pay that is worth being unhappy at work every day. To me, understanding this basic way of how we operate can help us with the way we deal with death.

There are several examples in the Bible where we are instructed to write certain truths upon our hearts. In other words, we are to take the words of wisdom we hear and make them part of ourselves. We are to not only hear and think about them, but we are to do what is needed to actually live them. Below is one example:

Proverbs 3:1-8  My son, forget not my law; but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you: bind them about your neck; write them upon the table of your heart. So shalt you find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.

When we love someone and lose that person, the feeling is overwhelming. Although it is probably a horrible example, I compare to being gutted like a fish, sown back up, and forced to continue living. Even so, there are a multitude of promises we are given about what happens after what we perceive as “death”, especially I Thessalonians 4:13-18:

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep in death, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

If we write just this one promise on our hearts and make it part of who we are, this will move us to experience the death of others in a different way. The song “Typical Day in Heaven” is an attempt to get to that point. While we may be in a state of what feels like endless mourning, the very person we are grieving is probably, at that very moment, having a great time, maybe even dancing and learning to play the harp! (Psalm 149:3).

We hope you enjoy the song. 🙂