“Accentuate the Positive”For those of you who aren‘t aware, I happen to be quite a fan of Big Band and Swing Era music from the thirties and forties. The songs from that period were fun, energetic, and often poignant; they were joyful, infectious, and many times irreverent. The songs were well-crafted, graceful, and lyrical; they spoke of love and romance; patriotism and war; and sometimes, simply nonsense. The songs of that time period were, for the better part, uplifting and POSITIVE. It’s a feeling I don’t often get from musical offerings these days. To me, no other song of that era embodies that spirit better than Johnny Mercer’s “Accentuate the Positive”; it’s a catchy, lively sermon set-to-music. It was a number 1 hit in 1945, and I don’t think any sermon has ever enjoyed such notoriety since: “Gather 'round
me, everybody Celebrating “the attitude of doin’ right” is something we don’t see popular culture embrace much anymore, do we? Oftentimes, we ourselves, as Christians, don’t embrace it either, do we? “Doin’ right” starts with attitude. And although many times we aren’t able to control our raw emotions, we are always in control of our attitudes. And our attitude should be joyful. The Lord tells us directly in his own words in Isaiah 55:12: “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;” Our attitudes need to be righteous if our aim is “doin’ right”, as we read in Ephesians 4:23: “to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” In short, we need to be right before we can do right. Our attitude needs to be in line with the attitude of Christ: “do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 2:4-5 “So then, [a]while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” Galatians 6:10 Lyrically, the song tells us all that: “You've got
to accentuate the positive You've got to spread
joy up to the maximum We need to “accentuate the positive” and “eliminate the negative”.; we are instructed to “spread joy” and “have faith”. How do we do this effectively? Trust in God and his promises; be grateful for our blessings; and do not be anxious about the tribulations of this world. Jesus tells us in John 14: 1: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” And again, in verse
27; We are reminded musically to not “mess with Mr. In-Between”; to avoid being fence-sitters. We are to make sure our service to God is not a half-measure. We only need to look to Revelations 3:16 to see how God feels about lukewarm servitude. A sermon set to music is certainly no new concept: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs have been around for thousands of years; but currently, at least in this part of the country, we don’t see much popular interest expressed in this type of musical entertainment; and not much demand for it, either. I wish we all were exposed to more positive messages today, musically. I wish there were songs like this on popular billboard lists. I wish I had the talent of Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen to write one myself. But, looking on the POSITIVE side: these types of songs are already recorded for us, both in song and in scripture, and we can enjoy them anytime we wish, and I am very thankful for that. — Paul Seely, July 31, 2011 |