MercyMe sings this in their “I Can Only Imagine” lyrics:
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine.
Like that’s a good thing! C’mon, you’ve thought it. How boring is this going to be? I’m grateful that Randy Alcorn has given me a bright and beautiful, Scripture-based picture of what I have to eagerly anticipate! But I’m sure it will include years and years, no, eons and eons, of praising God. And I just wasn’t sure I was up to it.
Before this weekend, that is. I attended a Women of Joy conference in Charleston with some friends. I’ve always loved good praise music and I love to sing. And of course I want to praise my Lord. But forever?
That was before I stood with thousands of other women praising God – clapping, singing, raising hands, dancing. Really acting foolish to anyone who didn’t understand what was going on and happened to look in off the street.
Can I just tell you that I was transported and wished it would continue for hours. Eternity? Yes, I believe so. I would have even been willing to skip meals for this! What does that tell you?
Our worship leader was Travis Cottrell and he and his band and singers did a wonderful job – as did our concert performers Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith. My girlfriends, if you have never attended a large women’s conference, it’s worth the price of admission just for the singing! I really believe it may be the closest we can get to heaven on this earth. Men, I’m sorry – I don’t know that you’ll be able to experience it unless you’re willing to brave 5000 women and more tears and emotion than you’ll encounter in a lifetime. I didn’t think so.
But I will tell you what I brought home with me. I intend to make it so much less about me and so much more about Him when I get the opportunity to sing from now on. I’ve heard of “losing yourself” in worship before and that has a new meaning for me now.
Psalm 30:11-12
You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Sand is Sand
I just returned from a week at Hilton Head with my brain unfuzzied yet one more time by ocean breezes…well, actually winds this week. Steve and I believe we need to get to the beach every few months or so to let the waves and the roar and the wind clear and blow out the space between our ears.
I sat in my fold-up chair (the kind that unfolds into four points for legs and collapses into a sling for easy carrying – wonderful invention) and let the sun work its magic. I have three positions for beach bumming and I alternate them every few minutes or so: nose in a book, head flung back and face to the sun, or eyes peeled for dolphin or those long undulating lines of pelicans searching for bait fish. I stay there until my skin feels crinkly and Steve pokes me and says “you’re done.”
The other day, though, as I sat and thought, it occurred to me that I always assume the beach changes to meet my mood. I closed my eyes and realized that I could have been at any age in my life or at pretty much any beach.
I was there with my teenaged daughter and her friends, giggling and watching for surfers. I treasured my first trip to the Outer Banks with Steve alone with no kids on an October week when the air was cool and I sat watching him fish. I cried one July as I watched a mom holding hands with her preteen daughter and thought about the young woman I had left at home alone for the first time, afraid that I had lost her for good. I watched my handsome son walk away and wondered if he knew how much I loved him. I stood in the waves with my grandkids and shrieked when a wave caught me by surprise. I walked with Steve on a Mother’s Day with tears in my eyes as I watched other happy families splashing in the surf.
Every time I go to the beach my circumstances, and usually my mood are different. And I just assume the beach changes with me. It doesn’t.
I have been so many different people during my life. And my God is faithful. He is the great I AM and never changes. Isn’t it a beautiful thing to have Someone we can count on to be there and to be the same no matter who we are when we approach Him?
I Samuel 15:29; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17; Deuteronomy 7:9;
He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind…I the LORD do not change…Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows…Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commands.
I sat in my fold-up chair (the kind that unfolds into four points for legs and collapses into a sling for easy carrying – wonderful invention) and let the sun work its magic. I have three positions for beach bumming and I alternate them every few minutes or so: nose in a book, head flung back and face to the sun, or eyes peeled for dolphin or those long undulating lines of pelicans searching for bait fish. I stay there until my skin feels crinkly and Steve pokes me and says “you’re done.”
The other day, though, as I sat and thought, it occurred to me that I always assume the beach changes to meet my mood. I closed my eyes and realized that I could have been at any age in my life or at pretty much any beach.
I was there with my teenaged daughter and her friends, giggling and watching for surfers. I treasured my first trip to the Outer Banks with Steve alone with no kids on an October week when the air was cool and I sat watching him fish. I cried one July as I watched a mom holding hands with her preteen daughter and thought about the young woman I had left at home alone for the first time, afraid that I had lost her for good. I watched my handsome son walk away and wondered if he knew how much I loved him. I stood in the waves with my grandkids and shrieked when a wave caught me by surprise. I walked with Steve on a Mother’s Day with tears in my eyes as I watched other happy families splashing in the surf.
Every time I go to the beach my circumstances, and usually my mood are different. And I just assume the beach changes with me. It doesn’t.
I have been so many different people during my life. And my God is faithful. He is the great I AM and never changes. Isn’t it a beautiful thing to have Someone we can count on to be there and to be the same no matter who we are when we approach Him?
I Samuel 15:29; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17; Deuteronomy 7:9;
He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind…I the LORD do not change…Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows…Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commands.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Whatever the Task
Certain verses conjure up strong memories for all of us – the old “standards” learned in Sunbeams (for the really ancient of us), GA’s, Acteens, Awanas. We hear them and, not only are they familiar to us, but they transport us to another place and time.
Familiarity can be a great thing, ranking right up there with tradition. But it can also have a negative connotation – suggesting boredom, staleness, taking for granted. I think sometimes we do this with those old verses we learned so long ago. So I was grateful this week when God gave me a fresh picture of one of my favorites.
Since we are retired military, we do our grocery shopping at Shaw Air Force Base. I suppose I’m not unique in that, when I see a jet take off, I get a thrilled clutch in the pit of my stomach. Most especially I love the noise. We were driving a block over from the airfield and I saw a…sorry folks, I don’t know my planes…fighter jet take off and bank a deep turn and head straight up into the sky. My heart did a flipflop but my attention was immediately diverted when Steve slowed to a stop for a young man in uniform carrying a bag of trash across the street to a dumpster.
Both men, the pilot and the man walking across the street, wore the same uniform (well not the identical uniform, but you get my drift). Both serve the same country and belong to the same branch of service. But their jobs that particular day were vastly different.
At once, I was sitting in a circle in my childhood church with my fellow sunbeams, surrounded by the flannel board and the pictures of the good Samaritan and of Jesus with the lamb across His shoulders. And we were saying our verse for the week. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” That sentiment became such a part of my everyday life that I usually forgot its message.
The entire verse is as follows:
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10)
I’m assuming our leader thought the verse in its entirety was both too long and too dark for us wee ones. But reexamined as an adult, I take both encouragement and motivation from it. It says I have this one chance to become more like Jesus. I have this one chance to do whatever I’m doing with enthusiasm and love.
So whether you’re teaching a circle of toddlers a powerful story lesson or wiping down their toys with disinfectant wipes, be encouraged! Do it with all you’ve got. Whether you’re watching a son or daughter walk down the graduation aisle with pride or changing yet one more set of sheets that have been messed up by a little one with an upset stomach, know that what you’re doing matters. We all serve the same loving Father and He expects the best we have to offer Him!
Familiarity can be a great thing, ranking right up there with tradition. But it can also have a negative connotation – suggesting boredom, staleness, taking for granted. I think sometimes we do this with those old verses we learned so long ago. So I was grateful this week when God gave me a fresh picture of one of my favorites.
Since we are retired military, we do our grocery shopping at Shaw Air Force Base. I suppose I’m not unique in that, when I see a jet take off, I get a thrilled clutch in the pit of my stomach. Most especially I love the noise. We were driving a block over from the airfield and I saw a…sorry folks, I don’t know my planes…fighter jet take off and bank a deep turn and head straight up into the sky. My heart did a flipflop but my attention was immediately diverted when Steve slowed to a stop for a young man in uniform carrying a bag of trash across the street to a dumpster.
Both men, the pilot and the man walking across the street, wore the same uniform (well not the identical uniform, but you get my drift). Both serve the same country and belong to the same branch of service. But their jobs that particular day were vastly different.
At once, I was sitting in a circle in my childhood church with my fellow sunbeams, surrounded by the flannel board and the pictures of the good Samaritan and of Jesus with the lamb across His shoulders. And we were saying our verse for the week. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” That sentiment became such a part of my everyday life that I usually forgot its message.
The entire verse is as follows:
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10)
I’m assuming our leader thought the verse in its entirety was both too long and too dark for us wee ones. But reexamined as an adult, I take both encouragement and motivation from it. It says I have this one chance to become more like Jesus. I have this one chance to do whatever I’m doing with enthusiasm and love.
So whether you’re teaching a circle of toddlers a powerful story lesson or wiping down their toys with disinfectant wipes, be encouraged! Do it with all you’ve got. Whether you’re watching a son or daughter walk down the graduation aisle with pride or changing yet one more set of sheets that have been messed up by a little one with an upset stomach, know that what you’re doing matters. We all serve the same loving Father and He expects the best we have to offer Him!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
