Monday, May 8, 2017
Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into
his courts with praise. Give thanks to
him and praise his name. For the Lord is
good. His unfailing love continues
forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
This Psalm
is the standard for preachers describing how you’re supposed to go to church,
all glad, shouting, and singing with joy from the heart. We are sheep led by the Shepherd, thankful
for His protection and faithful care.
But some
days you feel down, deflated, or just plain grumpy; life has gone wrong and you
can’t muster-up a grin, much less a joyful shout of praise. I have had a number of conversations with
people over the years who have told me they sometimes didn’t want to come to
church to face all the phony smiles
people put on their faces because it’s Sunday, and that’s how you’re supposed
to look in God’s house. Their confession
often was: I went anyway. And, mostly,
the follow-up statement was that they felt much better for having gone. A few confessed what I suspect is the more
common reality, that they felt better, but spent most of the worship time
despising those who had their pasted-on
happy face.
I call it flat tire worship!
I haven’t had
a flat tire in several years, but I’ve had enough of them to remember the
frustration of being inconvenienced, and having to get down in the muddy ditch
to work at putting on the spare (which sometimes was flat in the trunk, thank
you very much!).
Tires never
go flat at convenient times. The last
one I had was about four years ago driving home from a church meeting on a
particularly hot and rainy August night.
My car was new, but nails on the road don’t know that. It was nearly pitch dark on the back country
road, and I hadn’t even located where the lug-wrench might be. Even when I found it, I didn’t know you had to
use a hidden-in-the-glove-compartment
special tool to get the wheel covers off, just to start changing the flat. Had it not been for a Sheriff’s deputy who
happened to cruise by and stopped to help, I might still be there today!
So…what
about when our worship is of the flat-tire
variety? What about when all
we can muster is an insincere pasted-on smile to go along with half-hearted
praise?
Three
thoughts:
1.
God already knows what your heart is like, and
the kind of week you’ve had. He sees past
your pasty smile; so go ahead, offer Him what you can, even if you don’t feel
like it…you probably get an “A” for effort in spite of yourself.
2.
Confess
to God in that worship time just how much you don’t feel like worshiping, and how you’d like to wipe a
few phony smiles off some other faces.
3.
Consider
what a flat tire does to you, particularly when you least expect it, when you’re
in a hurry, or how this rude occurrence places you in a vulnerable position
where you are not in control, and least-able to handle the outcome.
Flat tires
force you to slow down, stop, face the problem, and change; you also might need
help.
Sounds like
worship to me!
For You Today
If a
flat tire comes your way, you have two choices, curse the thing, or make a
change.
NOTES
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