We Delight to Praise

    

     "I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointment consummations. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete until it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with (the perfect hearer died a year ago). This is so even when our expressions are inadequate, as of course they usually are.

     But how if one could really and fully praise even such things things to perfection - utterly "get out" in poetry or music or paint the upsurge of appreciation which almost bursts you? Then indeed the object would be fully appreciated and our delight would have attained perfect development. The worthier the object, the more intense the delight would be.  If it were possible for a created soul fully (I mean, up to the full measure conceivable in a finite being) to "appreciate" that is to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme beatitude.

     It is along these lines that I find it easiest to understand the Christian doctrine that "Heaven" is a state in which angels now, and men hereafter, are perpetually employed in praising God. This does not mean, as it can so dismally suggest, that it is like "being in church". For our "services" both in their conduct and in our power to participate, are merely attempts at worship; never fully successful, often 99.9 per cent failures, sometimes total failures. We are not riders but pupils in the riding school; for most us the falls and bruises, the aching muscles and the severity of exercise, far outweigh those few moments in which we were, to our astonishment, actually galloping without terror and without disaster.

     To see what the doctrine really means, we must suppose to ourselves to be in perfect love with God - drunk with, drowned in, dissolved by, that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable, hence hardly tolerable, bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in an effortless and perfect expression, our joy no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable to the brightness it sheds. The Scotch catechism says that man's chief end is "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever". But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him."

C.S Lewis, Reflection on the Psalms, Chapter 9

Born to be Average

     Born to be Average, is not something you see or hear every day, as a title for a movie, a book or sermon title. In fact, you hardly ever have media or any other form of communication, depict anyone as being born to be like everyone else. No, they single out success; people who stand out and people who make a difference. All of this, with just cause, because who wants to hear about people who have accomplished nothing, where’s the fun in that?

     All this being said, most people settle for being average. They’d prefer others doing the hard work in getting somewhere in life and reaching their potentials; they’d prefer to sit and let others be prepared to fail, instead of trying themselves and running the risk of failing. Here’s the deal: No-one is going to be writing a book, making a movie or teaching a sermon on someone who was not willing to risk everything, in order to become what they were made to become. No-one is going to be speaking about you for generations to come, if you just stand by, watch and criticize, saying something cynical like, “Can you believe that guy? Weird!”

     The truth is that nobody was born to be average, we were all meant to reach our potential and therefor glorify God. If it wasn’t for God’s glory, there would be no glory on earth (Rev 5:11-14, 7:9-12). All creation has an element of glory, it reflects the glory of its Creator (Rom 1:20). When we, the crowning glory of God’s creation, reach our potentials by using our talents, it is God who gets the glory (Acts 14:15).

     An eagle, who decides to be a chicken, reflects very badly on its creator. The eagle is communicating to its creator that it really doesn’t want to be what it was made to be, to soar high and be the king of the air. It would rather scratch around on the earth, not risking the heights and the thermals of being an eagle. The irony is that whenever an eagle flies overhead, a chicken and its chicks will run for cover, so that the eagle doesn’t prey on them. Thus, an eagle, wanting to be a chicken, is at the mercy of an eagle that risks being an eagle!

     The above scenario of the eagle is what many people struggle with; the victim mentality. It sounds something like this, “Why are bad things always happening to me?” or “Why does it feel like I’m treading water and not going anywhere?” When we start fulfilling our callings, that which God has called each individual to, we transition from being victims to being people who determine how situations will end up. By putting your future in the hands of your creator (Rom 12:1) you can stop being a chicken and become an eagle; someone who will be remembered for what God did through you; possibly for generations to come.

Taking a FAT chance!

This guy was so desperate to sit down at the cricket, disguised as a patriot with his flag, he sat on a gas canister!I thought it was funny and told him as much!