Rejoice

Sonnie Badu lists real, specific hardships before the song ever turns toward its title command in "Rejoice" — "woke up this morning burdened and broken down, no food on my table, the landlord knocking my door, everybody pointing fingers, no one to call a friend." Nothing here is softened or made abstract.

"The marriage is drifting down, the children all at home, been jobless for a while I keep crying on my bed" continues the list into a second verse rather than resolving quickly, and "but still I say it is well with my soul" repeats between both verses as a stated conviction that doesn't wait for circumstances to improve first.

"Now that I'm rejoicing my skies are turning blue, the floodgates are open, it's raining all around me" reverses the earlier bleakness only after the decision to rejoice has already been made, not before — the song's own order suggests the choice comes first, and the change in feeling follows rather than leads it.