I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you–I whom you have delivered (Psalm 71:22-23).

Is your praise unfettered?

Are you able to throw your hands up, throw your head back, and dance and sing and shout your praise to God with all your heart and absolutely no reservations?

Me neither.

I go to church, and the music starts, and people around me begin to stand up and  I start to stand up too but then I think that maybe I’m only standing because other people are standing and I want to look as spiritual as they are and not like some pagan who doesn’t stand during the happy clappy song and then I see a guy three rows up on the aisle who isn’t standing either and I think “Good! Someone else isn’t standing” but then I realize he’s in a wheelchair so I really can’t count him and now I feel guilty because I was happy about a guy being in a wheelchair and I still feel like a pagan for not standing but I also feel resentful that I’m supposed to stand like somehow you’re not connecting with God if you don’t stand and people are going to see me and think I’m deeply disturbed or thoroughly backslidden because I’m not standing and now it’s the power chorus and people are raising their hands but I’m still sitting and I can’t raise my hands even if I want to because I’m sitting and I might accidentally smack somebody on the bottom and that would be significantly uncool and besides if I raise my hands while I’m sitting people will think I’m having a cardiac incident and waving for help or worse yet that I’m mocking the guy in a wheelchair because he’s raising his hands and finally the song is over and I have the announcements and the say howdy to your neighbor time to get a grip before it starts again…

But One Day, Beloved.  One Glorious Day…

Happy Thursday.