I am supposed to have two days off a week. Unlike many who take Saturday and Sunday off, I have to work on Sunday, so I often try to take Friday and Saturday off. Most weeks I just have too much going on that I work at least a half day on Friday, but I had put in two 13 hour days due to meetings last week and had just reached a wall. So I took my full day off. And I sure picked a great day.
I had been out looking at the flower beds earlier in the week and had noticed they were in desperate need of being cleaned out. So I had it planned out that Friday I would spend time cleaning and weeding the many flower beds at our house.
(Back story: The person who owned the house before our landlord was an amazing gardener, they planted the beds so that it would be in bloom from spring to fall. I do not have the first clue about what I am doing other than I know I want to enjoy the beauty. Then our landlord bought the house and in an attempt to lure in a tenant they put down new mulch late last summer. Not a bad thing, except that they had no idea what was planted under the surface.)
As I was starting in on the weeding, raking, and cutting out of dead fall plantings, it was interesting to come across the spring flowers making their way to the surface. There were areas where there was mulch at least two inches thick sitting atop the plants leaves and stalks. As I cleared away the mulch from those areas I inevitably found more and more buried plants trying their best to find the sun.
And then it hit me...when life weighs me down, do I cower under it and give up or do I keep pushing my way toward the SON? The strength of the plants I was uncovering struck me. They innately knew that they needed the sun for nourishment and growth. I know my source of strength comes from God, but do I rely on Him to loosen and remove the weight I try to carry on my own?
The other aspect of this moment with God that struck me was that in all of my cleaning (which went into Saturday too) I never found just an individual flower pushing through. In each case in which I removed a patch of mulch there were multiple plants pushing through together. So as I considered this aspect, I found myself wondering if all too often I try to push through the weight of this life all by myself. Not that I need to broadcast to everyone the troubles and frustrations that are bogging me down, but do I allow others to pray with me and for me, do I seek out people who will encourage me and speak truth to me?
I wish that I had known that I would have this moment with God so that I could have taken a picture of the plants before and after. However, that's part of what I love about moments with God, they are often unplanned and are without pretense. All I did was talk to Him while I worked and He revealed truths to me in the midst of that work.
Then Friday night it was Christmas! I know, you are thinking, "How much sun did she get on Friday?" My Christmas present from Aaron was tickets to see Chris Tomlin with Louie Giglio. It was held at the Giant Center in Hershey. We went out to dinner and then to the concert. WOW!!! It was fantastic.
First of all, Chris Tomlin can write and sing amazingly well, but he clearly kept pointing us back to God. He kept reminding of us the Living God to whom we sing our praises. Then Louie came out to speak for a bit. Again, WOW!!! He used Psalm 148 as his text to talk about how everything in creation is commanded to give God praise. He then went on to share examples of the sounds of some of the stars that are many, many light years away, and the sound of whales singing. Then He mashed the sounds together and added in a Chris Tomlin song. The sounds all together was overwhelmingly incredible and it sounded perfect all together.
He then went on to talk about the fact that we have a choice in our response to God. And our praise to Him is necessary in at least three instances.
1.) In Surrender.
2.) In Jubilation.
3.) In Desperate Hope.
In our lives we will encounter moments where all that is left is praise to God, because of who He is for us and to us. And we will cry out to Him in desperate hope, arms lifted high. At other times we will find such uncontainable joy and blessing and we will praise Him for His goodness to us. And then there will be moments when we will surrender, repent and turn towards Him and then we will praise Him because of His great grace and forgiveness.
For me Friday was filled with God moments. Moments when my spirit was spoken to and I heard His voice. He told me to keep reaching for the Son, even when life gets heavy. He reminded me that I do not have to carry the weight of this life all by myself. He also reminded me that we are TOLD to praise Him, not asked. And in reality, how could I not? He has proven Himself to be faithful and true. He has shown His love and goodness. Nothing and no one is more worthy of my praise than God.
Sing, Sing, Sing and make music with the Heavens...for they truly are singing.
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