You Can't Keep A Good Man Down

Songwriter Bob Corbin was under some pressure.  His contract with his publisher required four songs to be delivered before a certain deadline and he only had three completed.  With just two days to go, he wrote a piece titled “You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down.”  He felt it was far from his best work but a deadline is a deadline, right?

When he delivered the four songs, he admitted his reservations about the last one, saying it wasn’t his best work.  But the head of the publishing agency especially liked “You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down” and said they were going to offer it to the popular country group Alabama.  Corbin was against the idea, saying it would embarrass him.  The publishers ignored his appeal and with good reason as it turns out.  Alabama took the song and it climbed to #1 on the charts in 1985.*

For some reason, this song title came to mind as I considered Paul’s encounter with his opposers in Iconium. “But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch…” (Acts 14:19–21).

I marvel each time I read this text.  I can imagine myself in the same situation thinking, “Maybe it’s time for a career change.”  But Paul is a good man committed to an even greater cause.  After being nearly killed, he gets up, dusts himself off, and gets back to work.  It will take more than a near-stoning to death to keep him down.  Not only does he continue his missionary work, he returns to Iconium, the scene of the crime.  What an example of faithfulness!

 

God loves you!

Mike

*”Classic Country Music Stories” Facebook group