Sunday, August 23, 2009

Dear God,

“Standing on the promises of Christ the King, through eternal ages, let his praises ring…” We sang out that glorious hymn to your glory. Rousing me to sing my best for you, I thought of the countless many times I have stood on your promises, leaned on, clinged to, sat with, breathed in, hoped in, marched with, ran with, climbed with, and crawled along with your promises. The promise of your presence keeps me breathing, hoping, and living in joy. Your promise is the promise of light that illumines every millisecond of every day.

That’s one more reason why I love your church! We sing our faith. We join our voices with the angels and saints and all those who rest from their labors. We sing together our rich, dynamic faith. Those who do not join us on Sunday mornings, Saturday nights or weekdays miss the joy. And it’s not just the joy of singing or being in your church or being together, it is an intentionality of reaffirming what we believe about life. Composers, those persons who felt a movement of your spirit to write, tell their story and make their witness every time we sing. Surely the writer who penned Standing on the Promises knew something about your promise and how at one time or another he stood upon it.

The hymnals and song books, the Bible and the prayer books are all about your never ending mercy, your magnificent grace, your constant love and your living presence. Sing them, read them, pray them and we fill our beings with you. That’s church.

Eternal God,

how joy dances

in my soul

when I sing

to you.

I reclaim

my relationship

to you

every time

I sing;

I tell you

of my wanderings

and my reunions.

I offer praise,

devotion and thanksgiving.

You make

a weary heart

sing again.

Love, Andrea