Reading Hebrews 2:10 and it says in part …God, for whom and through whom everything exists… And it just made me think… wow, if we could just get a hold of that. That God made everything and that it is all made for him! We’re not here for ourselves. We’re not important because of what we do and who we know, and what we wear and what we drive, and what we have… we’re only important for one reason. And that reason is that God made us for himself and he views each one of us as equally important. We’re all here for his purpose. Not a single one of us is redundant or superfluous.

We all have something to add to this world. Some gift or talent, or ability or propensity that fits into God’s great plan. And when we think we’re important for any other reason,  that’s when the trouble starts. That’s where we get it wrong.

It’s our own pride to think that anything  we do well is because of our own effort. Every good and perfect gift comes from above. James 1:17  If you’re good at something it’s not because of you. It’s because God gifted you with that thing. And you’re expected to use it for his glory!

God, for whom and through whom everything exists…

He didn’t just give it to you to keep for yourself! It’s not for you. It’s for his glory. And he glories the most when we do for others. When we take something we have and use it to help one of his other children.

Nothing makes a parent happier than when someone is willing to help their child, or say something, or do something to make their child feel better or fit in. It’s a great joy and comfort to know someone else out there is looking out for our kids. A teacher, a coach, a friend, a neighbor, whomever. God feels the exact same way about each and every one of us. And he’s gifted us uniquely and he’s placed us exactly where we’re at, to do the most good.

God, for whom and through whom everything exists…

If only we could see that each one of us is a vital part of the puzzle. In God’s eyes, the janitor is no less important than the CEO; the street sweeper no less important than the president. We are called to do what we are made to do. What’s that thing you love that people keep telling you you are good at? What’s that thing that brings you joy or satisfaction? What’s something that comes so easy to you, it feels like breathing? God won’t force us, but he calls us. He made you  for a purpose.

…Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…

I used to interpret this line in The Lord’s Prayer as a plea –  ‘Please let your kingdom come, down here on earth, Lord,  and let your will be done, here on earth,  just as it is being done in heaven.’

But now I see it as less of an Ask and more of a Declaration – ‘Lord, because your kingdom (Jesus) has come…your Will, will be done -by us and through us – here on earth,  just as it is being done in heaven.

Don’t we get it? God has equipped us to create a version of Heaven here on earth, with the power of the Holy Spirit that he has given each of his followers. We just don’t always choose to listen to God’s call on our heart for what he wants us to do.

Dear Lord everything that I am, was made by you. I am, in one sense, under your complete control; my body, my mind and soul, and my spirit.  And yet you choose to give me free will. You choose to let me choose. So what do I do with that?

What will I do with that impossible-to-imagine freedom? I can do anything I want, we all can, and yet so many of us choose poorly. Some choose merely wastefully,  some  negatively, some choose horribly. And some of us choose just to float along. Thinking that by not choosing we can’t make any mistakes…

But maybe one of the biggest mistakes is choosing to choose nothing.   Life is full of choices, and it’s not always easy to make a decision.  I heard someone once say ‘the best decision is the right one, the next best decision is the wrong one, and the worst decision is to not decide.’   In other words, the biggest mistake is to waste the gift of free choice. To bumble along and flounder through life just getting by. When we were all meant for so much more.

Lord, Maybe the greatest choice we can make with our free will is to give it back to you. Lord, you gave us free will to choose anything we want.  Maybe the greatest and the grandest thing to understand is that the very best thing we can choose with our free will is Your will. That we can kind of surrender our free will back to you and choose to do your will. We choose to surrender and trust and submit, and in obedience, do your will.
Let your will be done through us, Lord. …Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…

Help us recognize that we are put on this Earth as your hands and feet to do not our own will, but Yours. What on Earth can our tiny minds even conjure up that would be half as impactful as your will? The answer is nothing. There’s nothing in our own minds that is greater than what you have put in our paths to do. And all it takes is surrender. All it takes is the willingness to trust you and put everything we have in your hands. Thank you, Lord for the courage to surrender. Amen

So the whole “Thy will be done on Earth” thing is really, largely,  up to us!  God has provided a way for his will to be done on Earth, but we are his instruments. We get to have a say in whether it actually happens or not.  I can think about it, talk about it,  write about it, read about it, I can pray about it… but can I actually do it? It’s in the doing that I get caught up. Oh I think it’s all a great idea. Surrender to God? Sure, that’s a great plan!   But the jumping in is the hard part.

But… it doesn’t always have to be that hard. Maybe I just need to try to model Jesus’ behavior in one area of my life. Just pray for help to change one small thing that I struggle with.
Is there something big you feel God is calling you to do? Or something small he is calling you to work on?

A very interesting man named Bob Goff wrote a book called Love Does, and in it he says something that I find really  profound. He talks about reading the Bible and studying the Bible.  And he acknowledges that it’s all very good and important stuff.  But he goes on to say, once you get the idea of it all, you should just be going out and doing something about it.  He says something like  ‘Instead of learning all of it, just go out and do some of it!’  And I think that’s one mistake we sometimes make in the church. We do learn a lot about Jesus and the Bible and that’s awesome, but if we don’t follow up that learning with some doing how are we ever going to change the world? 

My good friend Jo visited yesterday and she never fails to lift my spirits and inspire me. When she left, I took a walk through our woods and this prayer came to me…

Dear Lord, thank you for the doorways, thank you for the stairways; thank you for the grassy fields and the rough terrain.  Thank you for the leaf strewn paths and the snowy trails. Thank you Lord for the freeways and the highways, the dirt roads and the driveways. Thank you for the rocky Moors and the snowy cliffs. Thank you Lord, for the smooth sidewalks and the bumpy pathways.

Thank you Lord that no matter where we are in life, rough roads crop up. Rocks appear in our path, we hit slippery patches, stormy weather, icy mountain roads and rocky cliffs to climb. But in the big picture it really doesn’t matter. Whatever it is we are given in this life, whatever it is that befalls us -by happenstance or by design – is never insurmountable with You by our side.

You have created it all; the soft grassy field and the slippery rocky terrain. And with You by our side on this walk of life, we need never fear falling or failure. Because You, our vast, limitless Creator are journeying with us, helping us negotiate every step of the way. You know every crevasse, every stumbling block, every icy patch to avoid…

And He knows exactly when we won’t avoid them, too. On purpose, by our own choice, or by accident or circumstance. Either way,  He’s got our back. He steadies us when we stumble. He catches us when we fall. He guides us, leads us and urges us down the right path.

His touch is a gentle one though, He will never force you. He will never create the itinerary, but only make suggestions and hint at the better way to go, with His still, small voice.

There is a path, there is a way, there is the Light of Truth. He’s there, right there, on the path with you; beckoning, urging, asking, inviting.

The paved path is there, also available. It is the one that most take. It is easy, it is familiar, it is highly populated. It seems like the best choice at first glance; it is a well worn path. And  comfortable, oh so comfortable! And it barely requires a choice at all. You end up on it by default. When you choose not to choose.
But you can choose to be deliberate.  Be proactive,  Be decisive! Make a decision. Your decision. Don’t let life decide for you.

The Apostle Paul was an amazing and prolific writer. It’s commonly accepted that he wrote up to 13 of the New Testament letters, four of them while in a prison cell.  Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in North Carolina, points out that Paul, Barnabas and Apollos did a lot of touring and speaking together, and at one point Paul admits that he doesn’t have the stature of some of the other prophets and speakers. And so Furtick muses that because Paul was insecure about his speaking perhaps that is what turned him to writing. Would we even have Paul’s inspired writings,  had he not been insecure about his speaking? If he had not been stuck inside a prison cell?

Sometimes we are given  what looks to be a deficit, what looks to be a difficulty or a challenge…but how do we know what God might purpose it for? We don’t. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. We have to get over  thinking that we need to or even can figure out how and why God does what he does.  We assume that if we can’t figure it out that there’s no good reason for it. It’s like we say we believe God is the Creator of the Universe, but then when something happens that our tiny  human brains don’t understand, we throw up our hands and say “Why God, why?” or “When God, when?” And we act like it all has to make sense to us!

Your Part In God’s Plan

So when we are confronted with a challenge or difficulty, or a situation in our life that we don’t understand, and we begin to feel angry, depressed, confused and hopeless,  maybe we can choose to take a new perspective on it. Instead of ‘Why?’ or ‘When?’ we can ask “What …does God want me to do with this?”

Maybe, although he did not cause your situation, God can use your very specific difficulty for a very unique reason. Maybe he’s asking you to respond in a certain way that will echo somewhere in the community or in the future for the good of someone else.

And when we don’t listen for God’s voice, or we hear God’s voice but we don’t obey… what is it we are missing out on? What is it we are giving up?

What or who, somewhere down the line, is being affected by our lack of action on God’s promptings? I have this feeling God is trying to orchestrate this beautiful life for us all. He’s trying to get these jigsaw puzzle pieces together in the way that he has intended. But because of his gift of free will, because he will not make us do something – he will only encourage us, only give us ideas and thoughts and promptings, only ask us- but  because God will not force us to do something, many good things go undone.

There is a negative force in this world, and if you are a Christian you may call it satan, or the devil, or the enemy. In any case, most people agree that evil exists in our world. And I believe there is an enemy and it comes to us in that little voice in our head that says “Nooo… Don’t step out there, you’ll look foolish!   No… You can’t do that – you have no experience.   No…don’t try that, what will people think?   What if you fail?”

And so evil in the world often succeeds in thwarting God’s plan for our life. How do we know that what we do today may or may not affect our great-great-great grandchildren? And if we don’t do that thing that God is asking us to do, how do we know what negative effects might come of it? How do we know that our actions weren’t supposed to be coupled together with some other person’s actions to create something really, really good? How do we know that right now maybe cancer should already be cured? Maybe homelessness and hunger and poverty, even.  Maybe if we all listened to the voice of God and acted on it, and obeyed him and trusted him… trusted that he really knows better than we do… What could we be accomplishing? What kind of world could we be living in?
 … And we know that all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Just Take the First Step

So…what has he given you to work with? What’s in your hands? Maybe at this point in your life, you have time to spare. Maybe you have money. Or maybe it’s a unique talent or experience. Maybe it’s some kind of difficulty that you’ve been through, or are still going through, that you can guide someone else through. Someone that’s further down that path than you are.

Maybe just take a few minutes with God and ask him what he wants you to do, with what you already have. Chances are you already have a pretty good idea. I don’t think God makes it hard for us to figure this out. But – and here’s the hard part – once you have that idea, you’ve gotta step out. You’ve got to trust God. You gotta stick your toe in the water and take that first step. That is something God will not do for you.

But he will enable you. He will  guide and support you. He’s waiting for you to take that first step. And when you do, he will be there every step of the way to help, if you let him.

Have you ever thought about your own eulogy? What do you hope people will say about you when you are gone? Back in college, in a psychology class, our professor had us each write what we would like said about us at our own funeral. It’s very thought provoking, and a really good exercise.  If you have a few minutes, give it a go.

If you are brave enough to be really  honest, do this twice. Write the eulogy that you would like spoken about you, then in your heart of hearts, with no one reading over your shoulder – write the one you think might actually be spoken, by someone being completely honest. Go ahead, feel free to be completely truthful, it’s just between you and God.

If there’s a big difference between the hoped-for eulogy and the truthful one,  well maybe there’s some work to be done. Another version of this is…imagine your 90th birthday party;  imagine people are asked to get up and say the three words that best describe you.  What would your boss say?  What would your spouse say?  Your kids…?  What would your friends, co-workers, neighbors, say?

Kind of a scary thought, right?

Back in college,  writing my hoped-for eulogy, I focused mostly on  accomplishments. I mentioned things like…she was well-known in her field…she was good at her profession, respected by her colleagues…she was a trustworthy friend, someone you could count on…

Not surprisingly, if I were to do that today it would come out  differently.  I think my ‘goal’ eulogy would include many of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. These are character traits identified in the Bible as: Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Patience, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Goodness and Self Control.  My mom gave me a beautiful quilt recently with the Fruits of the Spirit written on it, along with related scripture verses.  I have it in my bedroom and I even had a picture of it made and hung it in my dining room. So I see it often, and I’m more conscious of trying to measure up to it.

When I taught 1st grade catechism, the kids would make a tree with apples on it and each apple had one of the Fruits of the Spirit listed. I always thought it would be cool to have each spiritual fruit on a different type of literal fruit.  Kind of like a fruit salad.  

So, I guess if I were to write my eulogy these days, I would hope it would look more like fruit salad.

But…nine characteristics is daunting, right?  I guess I should focus on one at a time. So I’m going with patience. Because that’s probably the one I have the most trouble with. The next few months I’m going to really be aware of when and why I lose my patience.  

 And interestingly, Christian theology teaches us it’s not really a matter of purely trying to be more patient.  I need to ask the Holy Spirit to produce patience in me. I want to be conscious and aware of it, but we need to pray for, and be open to the work of the Spirit in us.  Changing us.

I saw a fantastic series on a Christian TV station that explores the nuances and benefits of the Holy Spirit. It’s called The Wild Goose. It  focuses on different facets and concepts of the  Spirit and is extremely well done – I highly recommend it. You can find it at https://thewildgooseisloose.com/

If you’d like to play along with me, please feel free to comment below which Fruit of the Spirit you’d like to focus on.

Dear Lord, Thank You for the Holy Spirit and His work in us. Thank You for helping us  recognize His power and His presence so that the Fruits of the Spirit can come alive and be expressed in us. Help us to see that just trying, and trying, and trying is not enough to develop these traits. But, rather, communing with You through prayer, Scripture study and  practicing Your presence, along with our willingness to trust and surrender, are all things that will make these goals easier to reach. Amen 

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there who is a mom, has a mom, acts as a mom-figure to someone, will be a mom, or is trying to become a mom.  

Holidays are always filled with a variety of emotions and Mother’s Day is no exception. If you’ve lost your mom recently, or your family is not speaking or getting along, if you are trying to become a mom, if you are having problems with one of your kids…this day can be challenging.

Motherhood is  blessed with and fraught with many emotions…love, intense love, fear, joy, worry, hope, sadness, contentment, happiness, pride, protective instinct, letting them go, watching them leave, regret, resignation,  peace,  celebration….every emotion known to mankind seems to be felt about and towards our kids at some point on the journey. It can be a rough ride at times and by no means is it anything like the pampers commercials! (But boy, I do tear up when I see one.)

The Army used to have a saying “it’s the hardest job you’ll ever love”  well, I think that applies as much to motherhood as to the military. Think about it, there are a lot of similarities:  It’s a battle at times, you can prep and prep and prep, but you’ll never be ready for the real deal til it happens…you get a kind of tunnel vision and  a certain focused mindset and it’s as though the outside world doesn’t exist while you’re in the thick of it (anyone else out there humming the Sesame Street song at the grocery store? Or getting more involved in the plot of the latest Paw Patrol episode than the kids are? Yup, been there.)  

Also, like the military, it takes a unified team to get the task completed. (Yes, Dad’s participation is necessary for the best outcome!) Then, of course, victory comes when you see the target marching away…to college.  Just kidding… I think.

If you are going through a difficulty right now, concerning motherhood, if the little ones are driving you crazy, if you have a serious health concern about one of your kids, if you and your mom aren’t getting along, if you are trying to become a mom, or if a child has left this earth too soon…there is not much anyone can say to offer comfort except maybe this:  God is always with you. God is there, in the middle of your mess, in the middle of your hardship, in the middle of your weakness and grief. He’s always with you. He just is. Just wrap your mind around that.

I will never leave you nor forsake you. Heb 13:5

Sometimes it seems to make no sense to struggle on your own, nothing’s working and you fight, and you try and try and try…but when you realize you are not doing it alone, and if you can give up the fight, and surrender it all up to God…?   Well, that can be the sweetest sense of relief you will ever know.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5

God Bless you all on this special day. I hope you have a peace-filled, joy-filled day with your loved ones.

A side note:

One of my favorite parts of Mother’s Day when the kids were little was (sorry kids!) the day before Mother’s Day when Dad would take them out shopping for me. It meant Two  Blissful Hours of peace  and solitude. A cup of coffee and a pointless novel or magazine. An undisturbed phone call to a friend, a bubble bath without interruption… a nap even! Ahh, the good old days.

So, Dads, Are You Listening!?  If you haven’t done it this year, make a note for next year. Sometimes the greatest gift for Mother’s Day is a little respite from motherhood. Absence does make the heart grow fonder, and a two hour break is sometimes all we need. It makes everything about being a Mom a little bit sweeter when the little ones come bursting through the door.

I don’t know about you, but I have the absolute best thoughts when I am nowhere near a pencil and paper or a computer. Driving and showering seem to be when God manages to get through the tangle of crazy  in my head.  So I was just in the shower and going down a bad path in my mind, thinking some negative thoughts and getting stuck there, when it occurred to me to involve God in it and pray.

And what came to me was… Lord I am in your presence right now and my thoughts are not honoring to you. Help me to realize that I’m always in your presence and to draw near to you and to feel closer to you, I need to be aware of that. I want my thoughts always to be honoring you, Lord.

Sometimes, I forget that I have control over my own thoughts, on what I choose to focus on.   Joyce Meyer likes to say ‘you don’t have to think every thought that falls into your head! If it’s negative, don’t dwell on it, replace it with one of God’s promises…’

Recognizing the presence of the Lord is so  important and foundational. This is what helps us to commune with God, get closer to him, and ultimately to allow the fruits of the Spirit to be expressed in us, tangibly and physically.

There When You Need Him, There When You (think you) Don’t

As a Christian, the only way to deny that I am always in your presence, is to deny that you exist. If we claim Christianity as our identity, even just believing in the basics, we really must acknowledge that we are always in his presence… You’re not just some distant God looking down on us, judging us, raining down your wrath on us. You are a loving caring God  who stands beside us every moment of every day…

God is not just in church, he’s not present just when we are reading our Bible, or praying to him or thinking about him. He doesn’t need us to be wearing or displaying a cross, or singing worship songs to be present…that’s all just as a reminder for us. He is omnipresent.

Whether we like it or not. Whether we know it or not. Whether we believe it or not. There. You. Are. Waiting for us to unload our burdens onto you…to lean on you…to confide in you…to trust you.

And once that sinks in, there aren’t really that many options on how to respond. Unless you push the belief away, unless you deny it and resist it, you just begin to feel compelled to take notice. To acknowledge his presence and not find judgement, criticism, or punishment. But to find forgiveness, comfort, guidance, love and peace in His presence. The realization is overwhelming. It just makes you want to do better.

At times my prayers are filled with worry and desperation, a yearning to know why this or why that,…this anxious, unsettled feeling that I don’t know what’s next,  this… clamoring almost. I pray this way sometimes for situations that seem so out of control; for myself, my loved ones, societal and even global issues. But I want to come to God in a peaceful and  relaxed, soft, gentle way. With quiet assurance. You know, the way nuns pray.

I guess maybe when I can’t pray with peace, I need to think of coming to him for peace. I need to think of coming to God with my anxiety and trading it in for his peace.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Mt 11:28

Trust Fail?

I want to be able to come to God and rest in his presence. But what would that take? Well… trust, for sure. But how do we trust? Why is it I can trust God for certain things but not others?

How do we trust God for things when maybe deep down we have doubt? I think there’s a difference between saying or  praying ‘I trust you God’ and actually believing it, actually trusting, deep down. I’m not sure we really have control over it. You can’t force yourself to believe something just by saying the words. And I don’t think you can force yourself to trust someone just by saying it either.

For example, do you know the “Trust Fall” that people do? It’s used for team building to help a group of people get to know each other and work better together. It goes like this; you stand up, close your eyes, and  fall backwards into someone’s arms and you just trust that they will catch you.

So if you’re doing a Trust Fall and it’s your best friend catching you, no problem. You have faith in that person and you do trust them. But if it’s a co-worker or a casual friend, you can tell yourself to trust them but maybe  you don’t have faith in them, because you don’t have a history with them. So there’s really no basis for the trust.

Trust develops through familiarity and interaction with someone. That’s how you build trust, by repeatedly seeing someone come through for you. Think about it. When you have a history with someone, you know whether you can trust them or not. I think maybe trusting God is not so different.  

Sometimes I struggle in obedience to God. But maybe I’ve missed a crucial step. I think it’s hard to obey or submit to God’s (or anyone’s) authority if you don’t trust them first. And I realized maybe  trust in God can waver. So why is that? Maybe it has to do with our belief, which also can waver.

I do believe Lord, help my unbelief. Mk 9:24

Who Can You Trust?

But imagine if someone you barely knew did one overwhelmingly, selfless, trustworthy thing for you. Like, say, risked their own safety to push you out of the way of a moving vehicle…or jumped in a pool to save your drowning child…or donated a kidney to your dying spouse…

Would you need a  lot of time and repeated situations to have trust in them? I think we’d be  likely to grant them our trust pretty quickly.

How do we decide to trust? How does someone earn our trust? Usually over time, they kind of  prove themselves to us; they honor their word, they stand up for us, they are there when we need them… They’re just someone we can count on. It takes time though, for someone to kind of reach that status in our life. Someone we can call a trustworthy friend.

 For all these same reasons, it sometimes takes us time before we feel we can trust God. But think about what Jesus did for us… It was really the ultimate act of a trustworthy friend. It’s like if the new guy in middle school jumps in and defends the kid being bullied. Risking his own physical safety and social status, without even knowing this kid. Doesn’t he kind of instantly prove himself to be a stand-up guy, a person of integrity, a trustworthy friend?

Well, that’s exactly what Jesus did. Before you were born Jesus stood up for you. He went to bat for you. He sang your praises, and asked his Father to forgive you for anything you ever did or ever would do.

And he understands your weaknesses and your temptations. He knows you will continue to sin. But he’s on your side  anyway. Not just pleading with the Father, not just standing up for you, but with the ultimate sacrifice. The most gruesome death we could ever imagine – and truly we can’t imagine it today. But that’s what he did for you and for me. That’s what he came here for.

And that’s why we can trust him. Instantly really. As soon as we can wrap our minds around all he did.

One way to build our trust in God is to establish a practice of gratitude. Making it a point to notice every good thing God has provided; in your relationships, in your salvation, in the beauty of nature, in your freedom and resources, in everything in your everyday life  that is good.

Every good and perfect gift comes from above. Jas 1:17

Reflections on Good Friday…

As a child growing up, and even as an adult – until very recently-  I never thought much about Barabbas in the story of Jesus’ crucifixion.

I knew he was one of the bad guys in the story. That he got away with murder, and Jesus died in his place. That the crowds all shouted for Jesus to die instead, on the day that Pilate traditionally let one criminal go free. I knew Barabbas was the lucky one who got let off the hook. Because the angry mob so desperately wanted to kill Jesus.

But Barabbas runs off and in the Bible not much else is said about him. So I never really gave him another thought. More recently though,  in the last few years as I’ve been studying my Bible,  I discovered that ‘Bar’  means ‘son of’  and many of us know  ‘Abba’ means ‘father’  so it just sort of occurred to me that Bar-Abbas  must mean  ‘son of the fathers’.  It really gave me pause because I thought wow… Bar-Abbas, son of the fathers, that represents… Us. 

We… are the son of the fathers.  We are the ones who got let off the hook.  We are the ones who inexplicably get set free. Undeservedly set free. Unbelievably set free from our sins.

And I wonder if Barabbas was grateful. Did he have any idea who Jesus even was? Did he become a believer? Did he just think he had a lucky break? Just like I wonder if I am grateful, if we are grateful, on a daily basis because of what we have been set free from.  

The Bible holds so many magnificent secrets and details that can change your life… If only we would read it and give it a chance. There’s really so much more there than meets the eye.  It’s an incredible story and it holds incredible Truth.

We give adulation in weird doses sometimes, don’t you think?

I saw the three young actors from the Netflix series “Stranger Things” on a talk show and everyone in the audience went absolutely berserk.  It wasn’t a totally unusual response, just over the top enthusiastic. But the thing that made me take notice was, the young stars’ reactions. These kids were 12-14 years old and new to stardom,  and seemed so inexperienced and unpracticed, that they looked overwhelmed and almost frightened as they entered the set.

I have watched the series, and love it, by the way. It’s a great show and the actors do a terrific job. It just made me kind of wonder… why do we do that? Why is an audience of, most likely, moms, dads, teachers, health care professionals, college students, business owners…accomplished, productive people applauding like mad for a trio of children?

Who Is Praise-Worthy?

Yes they entertain us, yes they do a great job of acting… and that’s all well and good. But when’s the last time we applauded or thanked the people who really make a difference in our life?  Your child’s teacher, a police officer, doctor, child care provider or the guy who plows your snow and get you out of your driveway in the morning?

These are the people actually critical to our day-to-day lives, all these people playing specific roles to help our lives run smoothly… and we barely give them  notice. But someone high profile who happens to have a gift and – granted does it very well, whether it’s singing, acting or sports-ing – well, we just go crazy for them.

I heard a preacher address this once, saying some people  are uncomfortable with those who raise their hands or sing loudly in church, but it is simply a form of praise and worship.  We’re expressing how we feel about Jesus. And if you think it’s weird, just think about what goes on at a Justin Bieber or Adele concert. Or at a football game. People yelling, screaming, raising their hands in the air, singing, chanting, cheering, swaying… all sorts of things. And we think that’s perfectly normal.

He makes a good point. It resonated with me because I had always been one who felt uncomfortable about people behaving that way at church. We think it’s cute or funny to see a 12 year old girl jumping and shouting and singing and even crying at a boy band concert. But if we see someone emoting at all like that  in church, some of us feel it is a little odd. Why is that?

And it’s not just performers and sports stars we reserve this hero worship for. It even happens in church. People sometimes look up to the person in the pulpit with a sense of awe, and are somewhat intimidated or star struck  with these models of spirituality. Of course we should respect someone in authority, especially when they are exercising that authority. But to treat them differently as a person, or with more respect than we treat the guy who picks up our trash  is not only unnecessary, it is in direct opposition to what Jesus taught.

Everyday Heroes

How about we start to honor and applaud the real heroes in our everyday lives? What might your spouse say if you thanked them for being such a good partner or good parent or good provider? Maybe it’s time to call your mom or dad and say thanks for how they raised you. Or your siblings, to tell them you remember how much fun you had growing up with them, and how supportive they were. Or maybe an easier place to start is with a note to the mailman or your child’s teacher, or an email to a co-worker to tell them you appreciate what they do.  

One kind act can change someone’s day or week. Sometimes even their life, if the timing is right.  You never know what someone might be going through. Speaking words of gratitude and praise into someone’s life could make all the difference.  We have the power to give hope and encouragement, and build someone up, simply with our words.

Whose day can you brighten this week?