The music directory's wife has Alzheimers. The pastor's wife has cancer. "Happy" just isn't the right word. It has bothered me as long as I can remember.
We can do better. Even I can do better. "And now you walk beside me every day." "And now joy in Jesus lifts each day." "; Jesus' love sustains me all my way." "And His love sustains me every day." There are lots of variations that don't mar the meaning or the meter, and that's just tweaking one line.
Maybe you've a better replacement--great!
We've seen some demi-competent attempts to make lyrics more inclusive, sometimes OK and frequently clunky. Surely we can get a grass-roots "theological" fix in place. Can I get an Amen?
(*) I wasn't familiar with the Campmeeting refrain. It's OK, but it's kind of passive, and doesn't have the same movement as the Hudson refrain, or the rest of the song.
2 comments:
Isaac Watts didn't write the refrain. Somebody else (Hudson) put that in later. If there's a way to just throw the refrain out, let's do it.
I agree with you about "now I am happy all the day" being very unsatisfactory. Our church has changed it to "And now I'm so grateful every day." This isn't totally satisfying either, but it is better than the original line. I'd love to see other suggestions!
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