Praise

 October 20, 2021

The day was about as full as it could get—with food and people. Breakfast and prayer with my pastor friends, lunch and conversation with our granddaughter Alex, and dinner with dear friends of more than forty years, catching up before they head south for the winter. We are blessed with so many good people in our lives that it’s hard sometimes to keep track of them all. 

Sitting down to write this evening, my attention was again drawn as it was first thing this morning to Psalm 50:23—“Whoever offers praise glorifies Me.” So often in casual conversation, the talk settles on all that’s wrong in this world. There’s no shortage of problems, and we get fixated on them, but rehashing all of life’s ills does nothing to make things better; if anything, it makes us worse, ladening us down with the heavy burden of helplessness and complaint. And my complaints do little to glorify God. Instead, they are a backhanded way of telling him we think he’s doing a poor job of being God.

Praise and thanksgiving on the heels of repentance are the only way out of the pit we dig through ingratitude and complaint. And once we start climbing out, if we look over our shoulder, we’ll see all sorts of foul inhabitants of that pit—jealousy, greed, lust, depression, anger, hatred, and pride—all that is well to leave behind us.

I had no sooner sat down to write when Linda called from the kitchen: “Jim—look up Proverbs 19:14!” I did, and this is what I found: “Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, But a prudent wife is from the Lord.” After asking how long she had to search for that one, I pointed out verse 13—“A quarrelsome wife is like the continuous dripping of a leaky roof.” We had a good laugh, and with the help of a little makeup, my eye doesn’t look too bad.

Seriously, when we look at the life God has set before us, we are continually amazed and grateful for the blessings of each other, our families and friends. We enjoy good health, and all the creature comforts we could ever need. Most of all, we have our Lord Jesus Christ, and each other. We rubbed shoulders with extreme wealth today, but none of it is as enticing as the life we have right now, and the hope we have for tomorrow.