You're All Invited

I just finished my 19th year in education and this past year was in a different role. I’ve been in the process of reflecting on the school year ever since our students exited our doors on the last day. For some reason, something has felt unfinished. It’s like I wasn’t going deep enough or really arriving at true reflection. I’ve started my God Runs back up, now that I have a little more time to run in the mornings by myself. It was on my most recent run that I figured out the missing piece.

I had decided, on this particular outdoor excursion, I would just thank God for all He had done in this past school year. As I started running, the praise started flowing… and flowing… and flowing. Wow! I knew it had been an incredible year, and I knew God had blessed me immensely, but I didn’t fully realize the width and depth of these blessings until I started naming them. At the end of the 30-minute run, I found myself out of time for the exercise, but I was not out of blessings to count.

I was in awe as face after face of incredible people came to mind; people I get to work with each day… students… people who lead in our school system… families… friends and family who have supported me on my new journey. I also reminisced and rejoiced in the extremely difficult times the Lord brought me through. My prayer life was strengthened this past school year, my faith increased, and my confidence in the Lord skyrocketed. At the end of the run, I couldn’t believe that I had been praising Him for 30 whole minutes. Maybe this is a common occurrence for you, but for me, this is the first time I had ever intentionally focused on praising Him for that long at one time.

I wish I clearly articulate how it felt to just focus on counting my blessing and praise Him for that long. As I left the running path and got back in my car, I felt weightless. I was incredibly grateful. I felt free: free from “ I wish…”, or “ I worry about…” or “Why can’t I…” It’s difficult to be sad or angry or anxious or worried after a 30-minute praise party. I had just attended a Praise Party and I had a giant gratitude hangover to prove it… except this hangover didn’t have me hugging the toilet. Quite the opposite. This gratitude hangover left me in awe of His goodness. It set me up to conquer my day with confidence. It shifted my perspective on anything and everything I had been complaining about or concerned about prior to my Praise Party. (I hope I didn’t lose any conservative readers with the gratitude hangover bit. There was no alcohol involved. I promise!)

The rest of that day, I continued to think about the wonder I had experienced that morning. The Bible has a lot to say about praise. The word itself can be found in the King James Bible 248 times. You could probably guess that over half of the word’s appearances can be found in the book of Psalms. David and the other psalmist got it. They knew God was worthy to be praised. They used their musical talents to exalt Him. Praise wasn’t what happened once a week in a corporate worship setting (as it can be for us at times). Praise was a way of life. It was a common part of their daily lives. And it wasn’t requested or provoked by others. It was a natural response to the goodness of God; goodness that they acknowledged instead of selfishly taking credit. Look at these songs of praise the psalmists wrote:

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. Psalm 28:7

I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. Psalm 34:1

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:3

I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Psalm 104:33

Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws. Psalm 119:164

Y’all!!! I wanna praise like that! Don’t you? I want to constantly be aware of His goodness and blessings all around me. I want His praise to always be on my lips. I want to never forget that His love is better than life. Multiple times throughout the day, I want to praise Him.

What would happen if we lived every day like this? Researchers have found that gratitude produces better sleep, increased happiness, leads to better resiliency to stress, and even improves health. (Click here for a gratitude infographic.) But more importantly, think about what this would do to our relationship with God!

In her book One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp describes experiencing extreme tragedy at a very young age which eventually led to bouts with anxiety and depression. In the book, she chronicles the epiphany she had when she realized what Jesus did right before He made the ultimate sacrifice. He broke bread and gave thanks. She read the text in the original language and found the word eucharisteo for “he gave thanks.” When Jesus was staring down the face of an excruciating death, he gave thanks. Ann Voskamp applied this concept to her life. She end up starting a list of 1,000 gifts in an effort to give thanks. It became life-changing for her. After revealing the first three gifts she listed, Ann penned,

“That is the beginning and I smile. I can’t believe how I smile. I mean, they are just the common things and maybe I don’t even know they are gifts really until I write them down and that is really what they look like. Gifts He bestows. This writing it down- it is sort of like… unwrapping love.”

What a beautiful visualization: unwrapping God’s love as we list the gifts He’s given us.

Ann writes later in her book, “The gift list is thinking upon His goodness- and this, this pleases Him most! And most profits my own soul and I am beginning, only beginning, to know it. If clinging to His goodness is the highest form of prayer, then this seeing His goodness with a pen, with a shutter, with a word of thanks, these really are the most sacred acts conceivable.”

I believe eucharisteo, giving thanks, propels us into a posture of praise. I love this idea of listing our gifts. I knew God had been so very good to me through this past school year. I saw His mighty hand time after time. But I wasn’t fully aware of all the many ways He had provided and blessed me until that God Run. I’m still amazed and there are still numerous other blessing from this past school year to list!!!

Ann’s praise party started with her list of gifts. My party started with an out-of-breath attempt at a 30-minute run (I may or may not have walked a bit. Don’t judge me.) The thing with a praise party is there’s no dress code, there’s no starting and ending time, there’s no limit on attendees, there’s no shame in attending alone, there's no set venue, and you’ll leave more satisfied than if you’d eaten the best cake in the world (may be hard to believe but it's true).

In all seriousness, I think some of us have been missing out on the party. I know I have. I’ve missed countless opportunities to reflect on what I’m thankful for and praise God for those blessings. One of my favorite parts of the Lord’s Prayer is the very end, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.” It’s not by accident that Jesus taught the disciples to end their prayer by giving God all the glory. It refocuses us. It reminds us that it's not about us. God is the one who is responsible for all the good!

You are all invited! Join me in this praise party. See what happens when you’re intentional about giving the Guest of Honor praise for every good thing. I have a strong feeling your life will change. It’ll be a party you never want to leave. And there won't even be any calories involved. 😉