The Greatest Story Ever Sung: Part Two - Good Behavior

The next song in this ongoing series comes to us from Tiffany Lee, also known as Plumb. It's called "Good Behavior."

"I was frozen in a fragile world
Of make-believe and empty lies
Dressed in the rules
Of a virtuous game
Captured by the thought of fear
And loneliness
Afraid to cry
Suffocated for trying to scream

And I want out now
To find myself

'Cause perfect only makes you crazy
There is no way that it can save me
I'm sick of feeling like a traitor
Is this the price for good behavior

Oh, my naked skin
Feels the warmth of the sun
My eyes are opened
To the brightness of light
Driven by a force so free
To live this life not paralyzed
But with reckless abandon
So now I can breathe

'Cause I wanted out
To find myself

'Cause perfect only makes you crazy
There is no way that it can save me
I'm sick of feeling like a traitor
Is this the price for good behavior

Don't do this, don't do that
You will be oh, so perfect
Don't do this, don't do that
You will be oh, so perfect
Perfect, perfect

'Cause perfect only makes you crazy
There is no way that it can save me
I'm sick of feeling like a traitor
Is this the price for good behavior"


"Well-behaved" was a common character description of me as a child. And I guess I'm still well-behaved. My mom was talking to our 80-something-year-old neighbor recently, and the long-lived woman said to my mother, "You've got good kids, and I don't care if I say it to your face, you've got good kids. You've got the kind of kids they used to raise a long time ago." So it would seem that she approves of my behavior. What of my behavior she has seen, that is.

But there came a point several years ago when my good behavior started to drive me crazy. Not so much my behavior, really, but the fact that what I did never seemed to give me what I wanted, which was a sense of fulfillment inside. I started feeling like I was banging my head against a wall all the time, and instead of feeling a reward for all of my hard work, I still felt like something was missing.

Thankfully, purely by the grace of God, I never really went through a rebellious stage. Not in the typical sense. Even though I was so discontent, I never felt like jumping off the deep end would be a wise idea. It just seemed to lead to more trouble that I hoped to avoid. What I did instead, again, purely by the grace of God, was start seeking God more than I ever had before. Through that, I got to know Jesus better than ever, and he changed my heart so completely.

That's what I had been missing. It's not about what I do, it's about Jesus. Trying to be perfect all day long is pointless. I won't be able to do it, and it's not going to make me complete.

And now, the motivation for everything I do has changed. I am "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3), and because of that I strive to "be holy, because [He is] holy." (2 Peter 1:15) Jesus already saved me, and so everything I do is a result of that. My horse is before my cart, and not the other way around.

And so this song, "Good Behavior," describes me so well. The first verse was me before I fully realized the freedom I had gained in Christ, and the perfect was making me crazy. And the second verse is me after, awake, alive, not stuck anymore. It describes me so well, in fact, that the first time I really paid attention to the lyrics of this song, I thought, "Wow. Plumb is in my head." Not really, though. She's just a human like me. A human who has come alive and found all that she needs in Jesus Christ.