It was beautiful - but so sad.

Nearly put me in tears.

No - I'll tell the truth. I did cry. And I'm not even sure what the song is about! I don't have the faintest idea what Maggie did.

Irish music just gets to me. Must be in my genes, or something. ("Brennan" is Irish.) Irish melodies touch some vein of sadness in me and - well - make me miserable.

I was In Ireland a few years ago. I ate breakfast in this fine hotel where they played Irish music over the speaker system. The day was beautiful. The world was green. I sat there so depressed by the music I could hardly lift my fork.

Down deep in my heart somewhere there must be some great sorrow, and those sad Irish songs bring it out.

Even songs of the Cross are not sad. They all end In glory.

In fact, there is no such thing as a sad Christian song or hymn. You can't find one, try as you will.

Look for one. I challenge you. Look even at the ones that depict the agony of the Cross: the bleeding wounds - the nail -pierced hands - the crown of thorns. At the heart of that agony is a love so profound and so victorious that it turns sorrow to joy.

So the hymn writer can picture a whole "fountain filled with blood," but what does it do? It washes us clean.

And there's that "old rugged cross, so despised by the world," but I can "love it," and "cling to it."

Let me tell you something: Were it not for Jesus Christ, I believe that old Irish sorrow within me would rise up and overwhelm my life. I wouldn't have the spirit to get out of bed in the morning.

Christ and Christ alone teaches me how to live joyfully. In him and him alone I find the grace sufficient for every need.

My Lord reminds me that at the heart of every sorrow and every defeat in my life I will find God's love still holding, still working, and moving me through to victory.

"Maggie" is a sad, sad song.

But there are no sad Christian songs. All hymns, even the ones that sound sad, point us to the joy of our victory in Jesus Christ.