Why Praise God?

I may be stepping on some toes here, but recently I have been asking myself why I'm in praise band. This is not to say that I'm thinking of quitting the band, that I don't like singing or praise: my love for all three will never change. It is not to say that I don't think I can sing, but merely that I see myself as small, and others larger, more important, and far more talented than myself. Whenever I join the others on stage, I join people with multiple talents. I'm up there holding a microphone. On a music stage, that's all I can do, and even that imperfectly. But it doesn't matter if I have one talent to offer God- or two or three. It only matters that I'm offering it (Matthew 25:14-30).

There are others in the congregation that can sing too, some better than I can. And I know that God doesn't need me to praise Him at all; even if no man or woman had a praise song on his or her lips (or guitar, drums, keyboard and etc.), all of creation would cry out in praise (Luke 19:39-40). I praise God because because I believe myself to be particularly talented, but because I'm in love. Praising God is the outflow of deep, obsessive love, and this outflow is part of His plan to change the world.

A great deal of the music, if not most, is devoted to love. You can't escape it; on the radio, it's just about everywhere you turn the dial. It's a modern adage that most contemporary Christian songs wouldn't change much if we exchanged "Jesus" for "baby." I don't think that's because Christian music is watered down these days, but because love is what we as humans instinctively seek.

The search for love is the search for intimacy with something greater than ourselves. The man or woman who is not a Christian innately knows that he or she needs love, but may only know to seek it in human intimacy. If there is anyone who doesn't want love, I don't know him or her, and I don't know of them. It who we love that we love that concerns us: will we choose love of self, or to love God?

Praising God is a way to show the world that we love Him. When I love someone, I can't help but to talk about him, sometimes past the point of the hearer's tolerance. Loving God is no different except it's better. The hearer wonders what's so great about Him that I might choose Him above others. What is it about Jesus that He's always on my mind? It's always Jesus this, or God that. He's so dreamy, and He's so awesome. Blah, blah, blah. Can't I talk about anything else?

Not really. There are times when I'm focused on myself, but when my focus is on the One I love, I can't talk about anything else. My love isn't perfect, but it's real, it's obsessive, and it can't help but to talk about its object. And even when I'm silent, He's always on my mind. Those thoughts leak out in verses posted on my desk and on my fridge. I want to always do things that make Him smile, and I love what He says to me in His word. I praise Him because He really is that great. I praise Him because I can't stop. It's my hope that my enthusiastic love for God will cause others to want the same thing (Song of Solomon 5:9-6:1).

I praise God with words, with my voice, with the admittedly off-rhythm clapping of my hands (offstage), pouring my thoughts into music and prayer, and the tapping of my feet: mind, will and strength (Psalm 150). Although I don't always get this right, I praise Him with abandon, no matter what the person next to me at church is doing (2 Samuel 6:1-23).

The only difference between praise band and the rest of my life is that onstage, I'm holding a mic. I can't think of a better use for it.

Cats and God's Timing

Guidelines for Singleness, pt 2

I tend to learn through best through allegory, so God used my kitten to teach me something about my life as a single, His timing, and that it's ok (and important!) to trust Him.

Sometime around the end of November last year, I had a strong desire to get a new kitten. I wasn't sure where that impulse came from. I was working in a contract position, and I had just moved into my new apartment. I wasn't sure how either was going to work out. Would I stay in my job? Or my apartment, for that matter? How would I afford vet bills, or even take the cat to the vet? Or worse yet, would I find one that I liked? There were so many unknowns.

Yet I had this amazing peace about buying a kitten. I knew that things would work out no matter what, and the very thought of a new feline friend made me smile. Even with so many things unknown, I decided to trust in God and take the plunge.

Once I looked at the cats at Lollypop, one of the first kittens I met was Nellie. She was just a little ball of fuzz. She stood right up and looked at me in her cage, as if to say, "That's her! She's my owner!" But it couldn't possibly be that easy...could it? Surely there was more to it than that. More complications, more cats to meet.

I was escorted into the cattery, a room full of other cats, just in case. Some hid; some hissed; some merely walked away.

I felt at a loss as I walked back to the cages. The cattery cats came with little posters to recommend them. Some were "assistants" that would hop on the keyboard; some were cuddlers; some were shy, but sweet, but if those cats were in there I had no way of knowing it.

When I walked past the cages, I came across Nellie again. She was curled up fast asleep, back to me. She had given up.

My heart melted. "How about that cat?" I asked.

Once I met her, I just knew that she was my cat. Nelllie's not perfect - no cat is - but she's perfect for me. Every day I'm thankful that God has allowed me to be the caretaker of this beautiful creature.

It's been 9 years since I've been "ready" to own a cat. Each place I lived in either didn't allow cats as a rule, or had prohibitive pet costs. My hopes sunk with every move, and was unable to house my childhood cat. I began to believe I wasn't meant to ever own a cat, and that I should be content with birds.

After 5 months of being Nellie's proud cat-momma, I've learned that the only reason I didn't have a cat is that I had to wait for Nellie to be born. With every day I am convinced that no other cat would give me the joy that comes with Nellie's lovably spunky personality.

Waiting for Nellie is like waiting for romance. At times it can seem more like Waiting for Gedot: I never saw the opera, but I hear the guy never shows up. I'm learning to be content with the "birds" of my life God has blessed me with, for however long He chooses. I don't know what or who God has for me, but I do know I can trust Him.

Maybe, just maybe, it's just a matter of timing. Just like I had to wait for my kitten to be born, it could very well be that my special someone just isn't ready yet - or shock! Maybe I'm not ready for him either! I don't know how it works. If a writer of Proverbs couldn't figure it out, what chance do I have? I just know that there's a time for all things, and God knows when those times are.

I leave this post with some words from the Song of Solomon:

Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem, by the gazelles, yes, by all the wild deer: Don't excite love, don't stir it up, until the time is ripe--and you're ready.