The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beeching

Day 31 – Wednesday after Lent 5 – Better Than Life

To Read: 

From the Scriptures:

¹ O God, you are my God; I seek you;
    my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
² So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
    beholding your power and glory.
³ Because your steadfast love is better than life,
    my lips will praise you.
⁴ So I will bless you as long as I live;
    I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

(Psalm 63v1-4)

From Vicky Beeching:

Better Than Life 

(Recorded at Spring Harvest)

Chorus

Chorus – repeat

You are my everything (x2)

To Listen:     Better Than Life by Vicky Beeching

To Reflect:

In the third chapter of the Book of Daniel we find the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Compelled to worship a golden statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar as a way of bringing a disparate people together, the three young men say ‘No!’  They know the consequence for this is to be burnt alive but they take the Psalmist, and Vicky’s words to heart and are prepared to go fire-walking.  Can you hear them singing amidst ‘the noise of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble….?’

The King, goaded on by others, finds he can make no exceptions to which their response is one of an utter belief in the power of God to rescue them.  

‘¹⁷ If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.’

But then they go one step further, just in case they are not rescued, they blow a raspberry at the King and say, ‘Sucks to you!’

‘¹⁸ But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.’

To be honest, if I were the King I might have said, ‘Right then, into the pizza oven you go.’  And then their trust is rewarded, their lives are preserved and (I’m sure you will find it somewhere in a Midrash^[1] of the story), they seem be to having a little disco with an angel in the fiery furnace probably singing Staying Alive….

When we finally learn that indeed, ‘your steadfast love is better than life’, the only thing we can do is praise and dance and sing.

When the tough times come.

When the flames threaten to consume all that we have built.

When even our very life is threatened.^[2]

Then we will see that this is but a burning away of the dross of life that has kept us from the loving care of our Beloved.  

Take it away Vicky…

To Pray:

To Do: 

Is there something you have in your life that you keep on turning to which leads your eyes away from the love that is better than life?  

• If it is something small and portable try to throw it away.
• If not write a description of it on a piece of paper and throw it into a fire.

Just for Fun:

Get out your red cocktail dress and strappy heels, your white flairs and platform shoes and boogie along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

oooOOOooo

If you would like to find out more about Vicky and her work here is a link to her Wikipedia entry.  For a fuller picture her autobiography ‘Undivided’ is highly recommended

Please Note:  These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com  on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page  Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.  

If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to revdotchin@gmail.com

If you have enjoyed reading them please make a donation to The Clergy Support Trust  who provide generous grants to help clergy.

Acknowledgements:

These Reflections, ‘The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beaching’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that their source is acknowledged.

All of the music on the video clips are from YouTube and are © Vicky Beeching.  

If you enjoy listening to her songs please consider buying her recordings.  A full discography and other information about Vicky can be found on her website vickybeeching.com.

Scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.  Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Prayers are from A Diary of Prayer compiled by Elizabeth Goudge and are copyright © 1966 The Estate of Elizabeth Goudge.

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^[1] Midrash is an ancient method used by Rabbinical scholars to ‘fill in gaps’ in the text of the Torah.  Dr Wida Gadney with her books on Womanist Midrash has taken what she calls her ‘sanctified imagination’ and asks the biblical texts to reveal what else may have been said and happened but was not written down.  https://www.jlneyhart.com/2021/02/rev-dr-wil-gafney-womanist-midrash.html

^[2] To this day faithful people continue to choose death over denial.  Just before Lent began the General Synod of the Church of England met in Church House Westminster and added the Feast of the Twenty-one Martyrs of Libya was added to our calendar.  It is on a date that is easy to remember.  15 February a deeper kind of love to celebrate on the day after Valentine’s Day: https://copticcentre.blogspot.com/2025/02/tenth-anniversary-of-21-libya-martyrs.html