9 Years Later or That's Why I Praise Him, That's Why I Sing

Sometimes I get discouraged by other Christians who are acting unChristianlike (in my estimation.) Recently, I let it get me down to the point that I was ready to turn away from Christianity as a whole. Of course, this way of thinking requires an attitude adjustment, but the thing I struggle with sometime is that if not everyone is becoming a new creation in Christ, then what is the point?

Then I remembered that my journey with Christ is about my transformation.

I actually discovered this tonight while I was driving to pick up Elise. I had my iPod and some old CDs and I had a little worship service in the car. Something beautiful happens when I sing. The words of "How He Loves Us" sum it up best, All of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory. For me, when I sing, everything terrible fades away. I can actually feel the love of God in my heart. It's literally as if my heart swells a size. And I can't stop smiling and sometimes there are tears. And nothing that I was or nothing that anyone else has done bothers me anymore. I am simply at peace with my Creator and I feel His love. In those moments, I see me and the world the way He sees me and the world.

It used to be that I was a singer who sang about how broken I was. About my misery and my mistakes and how terribly I had been treated by some. I wrote and sang songs about staying in bed for days or about how I was irrevocably damaged. That is no longer the case. All the songs that I sing are about hope and love and about how I have been redeemed. I love how God has repurposed my life. He took the very things that are me, my strengths and my weaknesses and shaped them for His will. It's still my life, just better.

My hope is that we all have moments like that doing what we love and feeling the gulf between God and us close little by little. I wonder what would happen if we felt how much He loved us every minute of everyday. I bet we could change the world . . . .