Choices Pt. 4: The Choice to Praise

Happy Thanksgiving from your eternal optimist!  Ok, maybe the “eternal optimist” title is more of an inside joke between me and a few friends that know I can be anything but.  Yes, some people always see the bright side, and others of us…  well, we like to call ourselves “realists.” :)  At work one day I joked to a colleague saying, “Hey, someone’s got to remind us we’re all going to die!”  He responded with, “And you sure do a good job of it!” Haha...

I won’t lie – it’s sometimes hard for me to be thankful.  I do tend to see the problems, the issues, the difficulties.  And I have to make sure to worry about them – because how would they get fixed otherwise??  Sometimes I just wake up stressed, depressed, anxious, and not seeing the light.  I don’t want to praise.

But in some of these very times, I’ve clearly heard God say, “Praise Me anyways.”  “But Lord, I don’t feel like it right now!”  “Praise Me anyways.”  So I’ve been trying it.  I pull out my journal and just start praising God for things – things He’s done, who He is, and yes, even what’s NOT solved yet:

“Lord, thank You that things are crazy right now and I have a chance to trust You.”

“Thank You that You are GOING to solve this!” 

“Thank You for saying ‘no’… because that means You’ll be faithful to give me something better.”

“Thank You for promising good to me, even when I don’t see it all.”

“Thank You that Your ways are better than mine.”

“Thank You that Your covenant is all about what YOU do.”
“Thank You that I don’t have to live up to people’s expectations for me.”

“Thank You that You are stronger than my feelings and You created my desires.”
“Thank You that I don’t have to “help” You fulfill Your promises to me…”

I wish I could say I always choose to praise.  I’m still a work in progress....  But when I do choose, I’ve found something interesting: freedom.  There are times where I will literally see my whole mood change and sense the lifting of a dark cloud that I couldn’t see a way out of before – all between the time I start praising and the time I finish.  Sometimes the change is so marked it’s almost weird!  Though I guess that’s what a miracle looks like.  My faith grows.  I actually start believing and standing on the very promises I express that previously seemed like simply abstract words.

Yes, they say that expression deepens impression.  I believe it’s true.  In fact, I actually have created a whole “praise” playlist on my iTunes to help with this!  We talk about praise and worship, but really, praise IS worship.  Just see Psalm 22:3 where it says God “inhabits” our praises – and this in the very messianic psalm that predicts Christ’s suffering and death, starting out two verses before with “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me.”  That must have been a type of praise that was much more than just counting blessings.  That must have been the epitome of true faith and worship.  And if Christ could choose to praise there, certainly I can choose to praise with what I go through.

In the words of the Steven Curtis Chapman song:  “This is a moment made for worshipping, ‘cause this is a moment I’m alive.”  So if you see/hear me driving in my car, hand raised, going a bit Pentecostal, you’ll know why.  After all, it’s just your “eternal optimist” driving by. :)