a wedding and a funeral

i am currently preparing music for a wedding and a funeral.

one of the songs i'm playing for the wedding is called "there's no remedy for love."
i can play whatever i would like for the funeral.

i think i'll play "it is well with my soul" ... a song written by a man who had just lost all of his children to a shipwreck.

i find it interesting to juxtapose the lyrics of the 2 songs.
why is it that weddings tend to bring out the most sentimentally trite in us, while the death of our loved ones (and the inescapable reminder of our own mortality) tends to encourage the most open attempts at profundity, at significance, that many of us ever make?

"there's no remedy for love.
nothing can change the way i feel
i'm hopelessly head over heels
for worse or for better"

when peace like a river
attendeth my way
when sorrows like sea billows roll
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
it is well, it is well with my soul

"there's no remedy for love
but i'd have it no other way
the symptoms are clear, i'm yours
for now and forever"

though satan should buffet
though trials should come
let this blessed assurance control
that christ has regarded my helpless estate
and hath shed his own blood for my soul

"there's no remedy for love
caught up in the concept of your kisses
of the mr. and the mrs.
of the steps our love is taking here"

my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought
my sin, not in part but the whole
is nailed to the cross, and i bear it no more
praise the lord, praise the lord, o my soul!

"i'm lost in the magic and the mystery
in our own small part of history
our hearts have started making here
and i know there'll be no cure for me
but what sweet malady"

and lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll
the trump shall resound, and the lord shall descend
even so, it is well with my soul


... that i would live and breathe the words of the latter song, that i would live for the day that "my faith shall be sight" ... and not for "our own small part of history."
... that "my sin is nailed to the cross and i bear it no more" ~ i have no "sweet malady"

... that love is not a disease to be contracted! it is a gift from our lord, poured out freely
... that i, because of his great goodness, can love others with his selfless love!
... that it is not about the "concept" of any "kisses", but laying one's life down for another...


i don't want to just dis a nice wedding song .... but i do want to live a life of meaning, so that when i reach the end of this life, i will inspire others to contemplate HIS return! not my earthly journey...