“My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name”
Worship is a beautiful, action to participate in … in the sanctuary, under our roof, out in the open of God’s creation.
Some days our worship is ritualistic … I do it because I should.
“When I’m found in the desert place”
Some days our worship is intimate … I do it intimately, even in a crowded room.
“In the land that is plentiful”
Some days our worship is robotic … I do it, hoping the outward becomes the inner.
“When the darkness closes in”
Some days our worship is joy-filled … bursting from every cell in our body.
“When the world’s ‘all as it should be”
Some days our worship is loud and proud … I do it with a party in my soul.
“Where Your streams of abundance flow”
Some days our worship is silent … I am a face in the crowd, but I cannot open my mouth.
“On the road marked with suffering”
Some days our worship is against our will … through the clenched teeth of an angry heart.
“When the darkness closes in, Lord”
Some days our worship is saturated by the tears of our heart.
“Though there’s pain in the offering”
Worship is not limited to where we are, when we are there, who we are with, how we feel or the circumstances of our lives at that specific time. Worship is an act of love, respect and honor and it is received as that. Worship is good when things are going well, but it is even better when we can worship our Creator through times of difficulty, suffering and pain.
As I sang the words,
“You give and take away”
It, that which I lost, that which I loved, came clearly into my mind, and for a moment the sorrow of loss weighed heavy on my heart. For a moment that common heart response emerged into my thoughts … why?
When we lose something we love, when our life takes a u-turn, when plans change, and loss is what we feel most profoundly, it is then that why comes crawling back. The word without a consoling response. The word with no bandage effect. The word that causes festering, more pain, more sorrow.
Then came the next line, the one with the salve that gives healing, comfort, consolation …
“My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name”
To choose to say, in the pain, in the suffering, in the darkness, in the sorrow, in the loss,
Lord, blessed by Your name
That is the only covering bandage that will make what is lost to not be the end of the story.
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job 1:21
itsawonderfilledlife 