Drowning In Praise.. -Thursday, September 18, 2008
I love the ocean. I love walking along the shore with the water dancing around my feet; the waves come in and go back out. The ocean is breathing, and so am I.
But there are some days when it overwhelms me; days when the waves crash around me and I am trapped in a sea of rejection and fear.
Some people choose to just float around; it’s easier not to fight, not to hope. You don’t lose that way.
And then there are some of us that are drowning and frantically trying not to. We don’t know what we’re doing. We cannot get out, no matter how hard we try; we are suffocating in this ocean. We are searching for ‘Nemo’, and not finding him. But what if we held on to the hope of finding him? Even though the odds are not in our favor; even though there are hungry sharks in the water and an ocean between us.
What if we can praise God while drowning?
I love praise.
I love having it radiate from the center of my being and reach out to the corners of the room; I love being enveloped in it, breathing it. I love knowing that this is what I was made for. Words flow from my mouth, and my heart is bubbling over with an unexplainable joy at being there, in that moment with God.
I wish it could last forever… but it can’t. Not because God doesn’t want it to, but that’s not how life workds.. there are some days that there’s not a single moment where I’m radiating with praise; I’m just here. Storms have come upon my little island of praise and it’s falling apart, it’s being blown away; and I’m back in the ocean.. drowning.
Tragedy always comes, if you haven’t had a visit yet, you will; and we’re not talking about the flushing your goldfish down the toilet kind…no, the kind that leaves you stripped of all hope; the kind that leaves you empty and alone. It will inevitably happen, that’s just what this world is about.. but there is hope; a hope beyond our understanding, a glimmer of light in our unfortunate lives. He’s there, waiting for us to reach out and hold on tight. You’re never alone, never.
God is everywhere. He’s in the ocean that you're drowning in, he’s in the sky that awakes and falls asleep. The words written across the pages are His words, His pulse. In them we are running and He’s running after us. He's the air that we breathe, the essence of our being.
There may be storms surrounding you; you may get your heart broken and trampled on, but He’s never dropped it from His hands.
James 1:2-62.Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,3.because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.4.Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.5.If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.6.But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
I love the ocean. I love walking along the shore with the water dancing around my feet; the waves come in and go back out. The ocean is breathing, and so am I.
But there are some days when it overwhelms me; days when the waves crash around me and I am trapped in a sea of rejection and fear.
Some people choose to just float around; it’s easier not to fight, not to hope. You don’t lose that way.
And then there are some of us that are drowning and frantically trying not to. We don’t know what we’re doing. We cannot get out, no matter how hard we try; we are suffocating in this ocean. We are searching for ‘Nemo’, and not finding him. But what if we held on to the hope of finding him? Even though the odds are not in our favor; even though there are hungry sharks in the water and an ocean between us.
What if we can praise God while drowning?
I love praise.
I love having it radiate from the center of my being and reach out to the corners of the room; I love being enveloped in it, breathing it. I love knowing that this is what I was made for. Words flow from my mouth, and my heart is bubbling over with an unexplainable joy at being there, in that moment with God.
I wish it could last forever… but it can’t. Not because God doesn’t want it to, but that’s not how life workds.. there are some days that there’s not a single moment where I’m radiating with praise; I’m just here. Storms have come upon my little island of praise and it’s falling apart, it’s being blown away; and I’m back in the ocean.. drowning.
Tragedy always comes, if you haven’t had a visit yet, you will; and we’re not talking about the flushing your goldfish down the toilet kind…no, the kind that leaves you stripped of all hope; the kind that leaves you empty and alone. It will inevitably happen, that’s just what this world is about.. but there is hope; a hope beyond our understanding, a glimmer of light in our unfortunate lives. He’s there, waiting for us to reach out and hold on tight. You’re never alone, never.
God is everywhere. He’s in the ocean that you're drowning in, he’s in the sky that awakes and falls asleep. The words written across the pages are His words, His pulse. In them we are running and He’s running after us. He's the air that we breathe, the essence of our being.
There may be storms surrounding you; you may get your heart broken and trampled on, but He’s never dropped it from His hands.
James 1:2-62.Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,3.because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.4.Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.5.If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.6.But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
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