Last week, I posted about how the lack of regular worship was affecting my month. Since then, I have been surrounded by music.
I listen to music while painting. I sing songs of praise during the Friday night service we attend. I hum during prayers. I take time to dance.
And now that music is running through my veins again, I can’t help but wonder how I could ever have stopped in the first place. It reminds me of a sermon that I gave a few times in Malawi and Zambia. We have a choice to make praising God a priority in our lives. That is in part because God wants us to raise a joyful noise up to Him, but I think also because praising is so good for us too.
How can I keep from singing?
Our society, our church even, has a tendency to focus on the negative. To cry out over every trouble, worry, heartbreak, persecution, and tragedy. To bemoan the state of the country. While obviously there is a time to grieve for all the bad things that do happen in our sinful world, I would argue that too often they are used instead to create FEAR.
Fear of the unknown, fear of the refugee, fear of the “other” people.
Jesus didn’t die on the cross for us to be afraid of everyone different from us. He died on the cross to save us – often, to save us from ourselves.
He died on the cross to create FREEDOM.
And that is something to sing about.
