Fools in love

Facedown, hands up, guts out singing with gusto, the swaying, shaking crazies who weep and shout and whisper in strange tongues, this is who we are. All these bodies and all these stories coming together, people with arms and tattoos and voices and histories, a mass of grateful people come to offer what they have to a living God – this is our lively worship. We are just people who were grabbed from the brink of hell and now can’t help but sing our thanks. Some worship with pure rhythm, and others with their offbeat, awkward offering, and it all ascends to heaven. To love God with heart, soul, mind and strength – yes, the greatest command, the greatest joy. We are all fools in love, and isn’t this what worship is?


~lg

everything we need

Oh yes, we have everything we need.

A sun-dappled path, a bit of mud for fun, the confidential whispering of trees.

Strong legs and lungs and space to run, and a warm house to run into when our noses are cold.

A cup of tea and a cuddle in the chair, time to sit and not be rushed.

Time to gather up the moments of the day into an armful of praise to our Father.

And love, love, love, that is poured out, covering, binding all together!

Yes, this is life abundant. To have our days filled with meaning because He means for us to really live, in the midst of all these good and perfect gifts.

And so the striving for something other fades away in the light of this living.

Our fires are lit with contentment, and we are rosy in the glow.

~lg

a thousand tongues

Oh Holy One, how can I best gather up your praise? How can I tell the wonders of your beauty, the myriad of ways you show a glimpse of your face? In the smooth, wooden blocks my daughter stacks so carefully, in the play of shadow and light on the living room floor, in the rustle of summer foliage outside the window, in the soft, spicy sweetness of a cookie baked with kindness. This very room is bursting with goodness. You are worthy of praise in all these things, for You are the Giver of all good things. 

In the great and in the small, You are found by the seeking heart, the sensitive eye. You have filed up the earth, yet we walk around empty handed because our capacity is so limited. Give us larger vessels! Give us wider eyes! Give us open hands! 

Your kindness is everywhere - let it soften us into repentance, repentance for all the ways we ignore and limit You, the ways we adore and imitate other gods instead of the only Good there is. 

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise! Oh, for a thousand ears to hear the mighty chorus sung by all the living! 

Oh, for one, undivided heart to seek and find and worship You!

~lg