This week the spiritual practice we are learning about in order to get ready for Easter is “Praise.” I’ve just had an experience that I think fits what Praising God is in my life, beyond all the shouting we so often attach to it.
I’m up at the family cabin most of this week. As many of you know, I come up here to plan ahead for sermons. I had barely unpacked and was looking out the window when I saw five deer peacefully feeding about 50 feet from the cabin. It was beautiful, serene, all you could hope for in the first 10 minutes of being up here.
What do you call that sense of surprise and a bit of awe and wonder when you encounter such surprises of beauty? I’m sure there is a word for it, but it escapes me right now. It has to be something like a subtle joy, a deeper connection to something mysterious and beyond me. I know in some respects seeing deer was just a little thing, but it was just a little thing happening to me and I was grateful. I didn’t know who or what to thank, so I just stayed by the window watching, as the deer walked down the embankment and onto the frozen lake.
There are moments in all of our lives when we are caught off guard, surprised by the beauty of a moment and do not know what to do with it. Some of us will reach for our phone to get a picture or even a video. Others of us will remember something else that has to be done and get to something productive. Still others will begin to dissect what is going on and why some of the deer are eating and others watching and what they are eating and…..
When these moments of awe and wonder arrive unannounced at our soul’s doorstep, it is sometimes important to do nothing more than pay attention to that part of us that wants to thank something. When this happens and you allow yourself to just stand there or sit there or lie there and say, “Wow!” or “Thank You.”
Or “I can’t believe this is happening.” That my friends, is Praise.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
I’m up at the family cabin most of this week. As many of you know, I come up here to plan ahead for sermons. I had barely unpacked and was looking out the window when I saw five deer peacefully feeding about 50 feet from the cabin. It was beautiful, serene, all you could hope for in the first 10 minutes of being up here.
What do you call that sense of surprise and a bit of awe and wonder when you encounter such surprises of beauty? I’m sure there is a word for it, but it escapes me right now. It has to be something like a subtle joy, a deeper connection to something mysterious and beyond me. I know in some respects seeing deer was just a little thing, but it was just a little thing happening to me and I was grateful. I didn’t know who or what to thank, so I just stayed by the window watching, as the deer walked down the embankment and onto the frozen lake.
There are moments in all of our lives when we are caught off guard, surprised by the beauty of a moment and do not know what to do with it. Some of us will reach for our phone to get a picture or even a video. Others of us will remember something else that has to be done and get to something productive. Still others will begin to dissect what is going on and why some of the deer are eating and others watching and what they are eating and…..
When these moments of awe and wonder arrive unannounced at our soul’s doorstep, it is sometimes important to do nothing more than pay attention to that part of us that wants to thank something. When this happens and you allow yourself to just stand there or sit there or lie there and say, “Wow!” or “Thank You.”
Or “I can’t believe this is happening.” That my friends, is Praise.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
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