Most of us older folks remember the song “You Had A Bad Day” by Daniel Powter in 2005. It topped the charts in England and rose to #1 in the U.S. in 2006. It is a reminder that, even if you had a bad day once in a while, things will get better. Here’s the music video of the song that is really neat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH476CxJxfgx Powter plays the piano while a young woman and a young man go through a bad day at work. Just watch it: it has a really neat ending! Unfortunately, Powter was named Billboard magazine as the #1 one hit wonder of the 2,000’s for his song. It’s a feel good song that many sing or listen to in order to help them get through a bad day. Here’s the Coca-Cola commercial with the song as a guy has a terrible day but in the end a girl brings him a Coke and everything is ok. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JKYMdRS8_gx In America, Powter’s album was released in 2006, and this song became a hit when the TV show American Idol started using it as a theme for the “goodbye video” for the departing contestants who were voted off the show on the fifth season. Here’s that video. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xltph1?scrlybrkr=f2f8117fx I was sitting in the drivers’ license office waiting to get my star ID and I saw a teen girl walk out crying (I think she just failed her driving test). I don’t guess she would have appreciated me going up to her and singing the song, but I did feel for her.

I’m sure everyone can relate to this song. Yesterday I had 2 plumbing leaks to deal with in our house. I’m crawling around on my belly in our crawl space under the entire house to check for leaks and my new super bright 12k flashlight goes out completely (I didn’t keep it charged), leaving me crawling around in the dark. That’s when you think, “Are there any snakes down here?” We have had copper heads in our driveways in my neighborhood. My lower back is hurting bad from crawling around in the crawl space. I was a little impatient with a few students (is yelling at them considered “impatient”) and thought “Why am I doing this?” My WordPress blog site pops up and immediately goes blank on Chrome (I am on Safari for this article). Then there was a potential serious health issue for someone that I love that I was thinking about all day. The snow and ice is coming and the difficulties that go along with that. A few other inconveniences and things that didn’t go right, and I said to my wife, “It’s been a bad day.” She replied, “No, a bad day is what our friends are going through today. One lost her husband to cancer, and another is being driven in an ambulance to a hospital in Nebraska for a possible 2nd heart attack In a week (winter storm conditions are terrible there right now). Another friend is being treated for a brain tumor. Another is experiencing a marriage break up. I could go on with many other situations.

The chorus to Powter’s song is: “Because you had a bad day, you’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know, you tell me, don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day, the camera don’t lie
You’re coming back down and you really don’t mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day.”

The song “I had a bad day” is a “sad song” that we sing when we are having a bad day “just to turn it around”. You fake a smile at work even though this depressing cloud of a bad day hangs over you. The songs says “Well, you need a blue sky holiday”. What a neat thought! Not just a holiday from work, which we all look forward to. Well make it a sunny, blue sky holiday instead of a rainy holiday.

A key thought in the song: “So where is the passion when you need it the most? Oh, you and I
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost.” You lose your normal passion for what you love doing. You are a teacher and you teach kids because that is your passion in life. A young person I talked to said se chose teaching as her major. She could have chosen a more certain career to make more money. Often it is hard to get good, safe environment, teaching jobs. One can make more money working in a nice cubicle for government money with less stress. But that young person said she chose her “passion” over money. I told her she was making the right choice. My wife and I chose our passion of doing the Lord’s work, wherever it might be (we did mission work in Trinidad, West Indies and Colombia, South America and then 35 years in two different Christian education ventures), whatever the pay (we never took a ministry job b/c of what it payed or turned it down for what it didn’t pay).

But the Lord has blessed us so much. We have more money than we need. We have converts and Christian friends and co-workers all over. I got an email from someone in Trinidad wanting my phone number so her mom could call me. She said she was the daughter of the first family we baptized in a town in Trinidad, the key founder lady with 5 kids of the church we started in that town. I’m always suspicious of scammers using info like that to get my personal info, but I replied and sure enough the mom called me and we had a wonderful chat. Her kids are all grown now and the church is doing very well. That was so rewarding to me. We baptized a lot of people during 3 years in Trinidad and I wonder how many are still faithful today. I do know of many who are. I have an engineering degree from UAB and started work as an engineer with Alabama Power Company in 1971, but resigned 2 weeks later to move to Louisiana and attend a 2 year school of preaching. We went from there to Trinidad for 3 years. I often wonder, “what if I had just stayed as an engineer in Birmingham for those 5 years after graduating from college?” The Lord could have used me as an engineer, I’m sure, but I would never have met and baptized that lady in Trinidad. I think all 5 of her kids have become Christians and started Christian families long after we left Trinidad in 1976. We didn’t make a lot of money, but I wouldn’t trade money for those memories that we have now. That’s my testimony for today of what God has done for us. Too many Christians are living for what money they can make and what they can buy. I hope you don’t fall into that snare. 1 Timothy 6:⁶ But godliness with contentment is great gain, ⁷ for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. ⁸ But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. ⁹ But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” I struggle with being content, being at peace, and not worrying. I have so much more possessions and money than I ever had while living in Trinidad, and yet I probable I am less happy than when in Trinidad. I need to restore my “passion” for doing the Lord’s work, wherever that might be. I teach students every day whose lives God might use me to change.

Enough about me. You might be saying, “let me tell you about my bad day; hey, I’ve had a bad year.” Some readers have had some really tough times in 2024. The loss of loved ones. Major health issues. Divorce. Family problems. Economic problems, etc. But let’s take it one day at a time. When you have a bad day: 1) Sing the song “I had a bad day” and wish for a “blue sky holiday” that will inevitably come. 2) Think of others who are doing a lot worse than you are. 3) Think “what is the worst thing that could happen”. In view of the hope of eternal life that you have in Jesus, does anything bad that happens in this life really matter? Nope.

So, my wife inspired this blog article. If the article helps you, you can thank her! Enjoy the videos if you haven’t already.