Big boys don't cry

A couple weeks ago I was flippin' through the radio and heard the old 10cc song, "I'm Not In Love" again (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIiWBPdhPH8). It's from 1975, and I've always liked it. It's one of those songs that once you hear it, you can't seem to get it out of your head. Which is apparently the only reason it ever got released in the first place. I guess the group played it while recording an album, and everyone thought it was a stupid song, so they didn't include it on the record. However, after the album was completed they noticed the studio staff were still walking around singing lines from "I'm Not In Love." It was stuck in their heads. So they released it as a single and it ended up being the song that launched their careers; and undoubtedly their most popular song.

There's a neat story about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Not_in_Love - including the fact that it 's the studio receptionist who repeats the line, "Be quiet, big boys don't cry."

That's kinda how things work sometimes, isn't it? Something we think is crap can actually turn out to be quite meaningful (of course the opposite is often true too). That's kind of what happened this past week with my sermon. I've probably had more people comment on it than maybe any other sermon I've preached. And, to be honest, it was one of those sermons that I didn't think was very good. In fact, I had even told Jane at one point, "It's just going to have to do, because I don't have any time to work on it." And maybe that's the beautiful thing about preaching God's word... It's not really about what *I* do, but maybe it's more about what He does. And I'm pretty darn cool with that. It seems this always happens. When I think I've got a bad sermon, it seems to be rather meaningful to people. But when I think I've got a good one, it's a dud. Hmm.

Anyway... none of that probably has anything to do with what this song is about. But these two thoughts were occupying space in my brain at the same time. I do think it's true, though, that sometimes what we say isn't really what we mean; and what we mean doesn't always come out like we want it to; and sometimes we say things we don't mean to try to convince ourselves of something; and... sometimes we're just messed up and stupid... and it's a good thing God loves us in spite of it all.

Or something.