Psalm 150:1-6 (NLT)
1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven!
2 Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness!
3 Praise him with a blast of the ram's horn; praise him with the lyre and harp!
4 Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes!
5 Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals.
6 Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord!
There comes a time when after we have thought of who God is and placed Him in His proper context that we sit back and are amazed. The only words that come to our mind during these times are words of praise for who He is and what He has done.
Should this attitude be my norm? Should I be here every day? Or, is this something that comes "at times"?
What is it that causes this spontaneous outburst of praise?
I think that if I would just open my eyes and see the sunrise or sunset today. If I would take the time to watch some children play at a playground or pause to watch the geese flying south overhead. If I would take the time to notice the color of the fall leaves and the splendor of the majestic white pine tree. Today, if I would take time to listen to an older saint and help someone who is helpless and perhaps use my time and resources to meet the needs of the needy.
Then maybe I too could join in on this praise to God.
On the other hand, if I choose to guard my comfort, focus on my needs and make me the center of the universe I will have trouble praising God for I would be living out of context.
For today, the choice is mine. I will know if the choice is right by what spontaneously flows from my mind and mouth.
1 comments:
Hi Dave, I just completed a discussion with someone else about this topic, then ran across your post so it seemed fitting -
There seems to be two situations which I have come across where the act of gifting can become tenuous. The first is when a gift is perceived as too expensive; and the second where the gift is perceived as not generous enough - I don't doubt there there may be more, go ahead and mention them - but these are sufficient to provide an adequate foundation for the subject.
In the cases where a gift is thought of as too expensive, the recipient of the gift usually is objecting on the basis of their own personal value of money. The act of this type of objection seems to be sourced within the gift recipients own concern. I have yet to run across someone who assumed this response because they were genuinely concerned about my own finances - and even if they were, perhaps we will see that doesn't constitute a valid reason for assuming this "too expensive" response.
The second case where the gift is seen as not being sufficiently costly, is obviously boorish. Not much needs to be stated here, but I wonder, how many people think that their gift wasn't expensive enough?
In any of these cases, it is obvious that as a giver, or gift recipient, concerning oneself with the monetary value of the gift is grievous. I should make it clear, that giving expensive gifts for the purposes of showmanship is equally grievous. Proper discernment in the consideration of your motivations and finances is of order here.
And here we are left with the gifting story. As a Christian, it is my personal belief that we would do well to exemplify a proper approach towards gifting because of its narrative forming power. Gifting becomes an act of expressing and receiving grace. Regardless of monetary value, for both the "gifter" and "giftee", grace is experienced. The task of proper gifting falls upon the gifter and giftee equally. And to malform the exchange from either the gifter or giftee perspective is destructive to gifting's power.
There is no substitute for the experiencing grace. Discovering its meaning in our lives touches the deepest parts of our human existence. In that depth grace is conceived; and there grace gains power for all ages.; there grace must be found again by each generation. It is our duty to our children to build powerful life narratives that have meaning. Gifting can exemplify grace - if we let it. To attached any financial concern, whether from the gifter or giftee, is to not give, but to destroy its purpose and render indecipherable its true meaning. This robs both the gifter and giftee the chance to experience grace or build the grace narrative within their own lives. A gift has "strings attached", it really isn't free, or the emotion guilt is included.
Today, we may need more analogues that point to our deepest needs - for ourselves and our children. Building powerful stories in our lives that teach us about our needs can have a transformative power. Malforming gifting destroys the gifting story; its meaning becomes occluded. What parallel or representation within our children's lives can be made to the Christian story should gifting become destroyed?
In gift giving, perhaps we are asked to transcend the immediate, use the exchange to learn something about ourselves - that it is hard to give grace and often more difficult to receive it.
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