The Power of Praise

This is a story about one church in a small valley town that set out to encounter God together...well, this is one of their stories... 

One Sunday our church was asked to consider how we as individuals worship best...that is, where is it easy to sense God's presence?  We were then challenged to engage a venue where worship may come naturally for us and see what God does through it during the next week. The idea being that in doing this we might encounter God's abiding presence, and develop a practice or two that might help us posture in such a way that being with Him becomes familiar.  Some chose to go for a walk in the mountains or tend to their garden, others chose to study a passage of scripture, or serve side-by side with someone, and some chose to just sit in quiet contemplation with Him. It wasn't always easy nor was it automatic, but giving credence to different pathways to worship was profoundly valuable because it allowed us to set aside the "how" and simply seek HIM....And things always seem to go better for us when we turn from staring at ourselves and instead gaze upon God.  In those separate places of "Sabbath- worship", we - as God's kids - had a chance to breath in His goodness.

Upon returning the following Sunday, we shared our experiences and sang like we'd never sang before.  Then, something happened that no one would have expected.  The head grounds keeper was the first to see it.  He has an app on his phone that allows him to keep watch on the church facilities from a distance.  He knows if a door is unlocked or a light is left on or if the climate controls are off.  During the time of our worship, while we sang that second Sunday, his phone alerted him that the air quality in the room where we were gathered was dramatically off.   The carbon dioxide levels were reading way too high. After considering all possible scenarios, here's what seems to have happened (and my interpretation of it):  As we "breathed in" God's goodness throughout the week, it gave us something to celebrate, so we SANG!  We lifted high with abandon, the name of the Lord no matter our struggle or consolation, we just sang! And our collective exhale changed the climate of the room!  It was beyond what we could have imagined... in our praise we set off the sensor!




WOW! God inhabits the praise of His people…He lives in it...He’s found in
it! 

The stories shared that day were just like yours and mine.  Some involved real difficulty, others, a season of renewal and strength.  And some were quiet and not very sensational.  But God inhabited ALL of them because He inhabits each of us. The praise we lifted up together that day was an expression of shared fellowship in God's presence along life's bumpy sacred way.  

Now, when I am tempted to come to church and lazily go through the motions, or when I think that a moment with God won't amount to much and I consider dismissing the opportunity, I remember that day and refocus my easily distracted heart.  Because there are no ordinary moments... God is in them all.  He gives breath to his people.  His presence comes to life in our praise...and best of all, when we spend time with Him, He shows up in us.
 

Winter's Awakening

“The word of the LORD came to me, What do you see, Jeremiah?  I see the branch of an almond tree, I replied.  The LORD said to me, You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled”. Jeremiah 1:11-12

Today my husband and I took a short drive into a small sleepy town where time has stood still for decades and echoes of the past find voice in creaky wooded pathways and linger along the dusty streets amid bricked storefronts. 

Strangely, almost intuitively, such towns seem to find the heart and call it backwards... Where life's history and the invitation of tomorrow mingle with hesitant sway as they distance one from the other in this space called Now.   There is such sentiment and comfort in the familiar....  Do I dare let it go for the new?  Lord, I am so tired of the wait!  Can I trust the fall of abandon into the unknown? Is it any worse than the tension of the "in between"? Will winter ever awaken?

As my husband and I walked on, we found our way through the town and off the beaten path where meadows have sanctioned the birdsong and the rivers flow in glad submission…it all sounds beautiful, doesn’t it?  And it was!  But I am leaving out the part where the jacket tied around my waist kept falling and slowing me down, or the part where I grew tired and still needed to forge on; or the part where it was not green and lush grass but instead rocky and uneven.   It was truly a lovely hike but not without “stuff”.  I watched our shadows as we walked...this is the picture of journey.  Sometimes we linger in quiet consolation like the birdsong in the meadow, and life plays out in glad submission.  And sometimes the road is unpaved & narrow with rocks and crags to navigate along the way.  Sometimes we carry burdens that require extra attention, weighing us down as we make each step with fierce intention.  Other times we pause to remember life as it changes and unfolds into something new.  Even still there are moments along life's road where we feel a bit out of shape and a little too winded to carry on, but carry on we must...so we do. 

Whatever the season of the journey Heaven's resources are made available to us, affording us the grace needed to go the next step; like the manna given to God's children as they journeyed the dessert wilderness making their way to the Promised Land - God's watchful shepherd's-eye brings his presence near and becomes our consolation.  As we reached the last few feet of our hike we were greeted by a wild almond tree in full-bIoom.  It imposed itself upon us as if to say, “Stop…drink in winter’s awakening!”  I was glad for the reminder that winter’s solstice only lasts for a night and trees that go dormant in the cold, will again blossom under God’s cosmic warmth and light.

What did I see today?  I saw HOPE.  Not in circumstances, for they will always be unpredictably keen upon themselves, but in the watchful wait as the One who holds the circumstances sees to it that His word is made complete in and through us as He pens each chapter of our story and graciously joins it with the best and truest story ever told…His.  

"Look!  I am making everything new!"  Rev. 21:5

Yet Will I Praise Him...

We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.

Several years ago I found myself saddened over deep loss for the first time.  I remember thinking up ways to try and by-pass the pain.  It’s funny when we are confronted with sorrow how we first seek to avoid its sting.  We do things like get busy, or lose ourselves in movies or books. As much as I wanted to tell myself it was fine the truth was I was disappointed and sad and there was not much I could do about it.  And over time, as things settled, I began to fully bend to sorrows blow.

People would come over and seek to console me but rarely are there words that hold sorrow well.  What I do remember is their presence, and the occasional word of encouragement from someone who had experienced pain and was now on the other side of it.  It never really mattered what it was, after all loss is not always relative.  Loss is loss.

Since then life has afforded many other sorrows and I’ve grieved even “greater” losses.  There were days when picking my head up from the pillow seemed about all I could do, and walking through a market to buy groceries happened on legs that felt like Jell-O, and with a heart so heavy in my chest air had to force its way in.  That’s what grief feels like.  That’s how sorrow makes it way out through our pores. 

But I learned something during that first season of grief; something that has proved quite valuable. It happened while in church on a day when I had to force myself to even show up.  My husband is a pastor and I knew that I would be sitting alone and if grief decided to makes it appearance it would be unaccompanied and put on display from the front row.  Those were the days when a particular praise song called Shout to the Lord was sung just about everywhere - I knew it well.  But that day in the midst of my sadness as that song was being sung something in me moved.  Something?  …More like God’s spirit in me made a decision on my behalf (Rom 8:26-28).  For whatever reason I could set grief aside, and as the rest of the congregation sat, I stood. (So much for trying to be discrete in my sadness).   It was like I was saying to God, myself and everyone else that while I may be sad and the sky is oh so dark, this sorrow will not steal your glory nor will it steal my strength.

 “Shout to the Lord all the earth, Let us sing!  Power and majesty and praise to the King.  Mountains will fall and the seas will roar at the sound of your name! I sing for joy at the works of your hand forever I love you, forever I’ll stand.  Nothing compares to the promise I have in you!”

That’s when the meaning of the familiar song, “We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.” made a little more sense….”We offer up to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, joy and praise” (Heb. 13:15).  Sometimes coming to God in worship requires a laying down of that which we dearly love regardless of whether or not we will get it back…and in laying it down God pulls our “Jell-O-ed” legs to stand and holds our heavy-hearted song.  This is not blind trust.  It is evidence of the Holy Spirit's companionship and promises his strength of joy.  Our chosen worship affronts the blows of sorrow and says, “Yet. will. I . praise . Him!”

Valley Storms

To be completely honest, I struggled over how to write this blog post.  It is adapted from a old journal entry and every time I took it out of the “first person experience” for this blog, it lost a good part of its meaning and sounded like rhetoric…so I didn’t.  I don’t write it this way for consolation or sympathy but in hopes of putting voice to what I know is common to us all.

 

“I hope that you have had a blue-sky kind of day, even if it’s snowing.”

My friend sent those words as a greeting recently.  I honestly don’t know if she meant it literally or figuratively …probably both.  Her words struck me and were deeply meaningful.  I live in a part of California where a 90 minute drive east would bring me right into the snowy Sierra Nevada Mountains;  and a drive westerly for about the same amount of time,  would tumble me straight onto the sandy beaches and blue skies of the coast.  BUT I live in the valley.  It’s the in-between place where the clouds collect from the coastal ranges and pass through as they make their way up the mountains to drop their snow.  Winter here often looks drizzly, gray and foggy with the occasional warm day brining a sunny respite. However, when those respites hide themselves, it is not unusual for families to take a Sunday drive and “get above the clouds to find some sun for the day”.  After all, the soul needs it.

I’m finding myself in a soul-season that feels a lot like winter in The Valley.  Circumstances seem to be piling one upon the other like collected clouds between mountain peaks, and struggle falls like rain?  How does one have a blue-sky kind of day when the grey hovers so ostentatiously?  I don’t really want to read another verse about trials building perseverance and perseverance character, and character…blah blah blah.  I want to escape and take my soul on a Sunday drive to find some sun…But where?

I know that Isaiah reminds us to put our down-cast soul into the hopes of God (Ps 42).  And I know that, “He keeps track of all our sorrows, and has collected all our tears in his bottle, recording each one in His book.” (Ps 56:8).  Maybe the light dawns as we go limp for a while and weep, letting the clouds of our soul drop their tears, and perhaps the blue-sky kind of day comes about while we sit in the drizzle of the rain, held by the One who alone keeps track of it all….
 

… Maybe the best thing we can do at times is just sit somewhere in the valley, between the blue-sky and the snow, and let it rain. 

Will trials build perseverance?  Yes, if I stay in the trial and let God do his refining work in me.  That’s how perseverance leads to character; and the sheer amazement of that actually happening builds hope. And hope lifts our eyes above the clouds to see the abundant resources held in heavens courts awaiting our appeal.  (Rom 5)

If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves,… and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. - Romans 8:26-28

So if you find yourself longing for a blue-sky kind of day even if it's snowing outside, let it rain a bit.  Trust that the Spirit will hold you before God and work out the details, at His ready the clouds will clear, making Hope's harvest sure.