Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Psalm 63:3**
Almost daily, I am enticed to covet. When my life and calling feel too thick, green thoughts drop into my head: why couldn’t I walk the road of another? Why this road Lord?
But You, oh God, speak a better word about the better-than life. You are the better-than God.
I praise You, God, for being my way out. You offer me another way. You are the back-alley away from all that perishes and fades and leaves me hungry — into all that expands and grows deep as I press in further. I never come to the end of You, God; there is always more of Your lovingkindness.
Just when I think I’ve stared into a new dimension of You, Jesus, one that I have never seen before and can’t imagine that I was ever able to live without grasping, You whisper: you’ve only just begun. Life on this earth constricts. It confines. The more I make it to be something that it just cannot be, the smaller it gets.
But You, oh God. You unfold, You unravel, You broaden before me. The more I look away from me, and my life here, and up and onto You, the larger You become in my insides. God of expansion, Your lovingkindness makes anything of this world fade into the background, when I just look at You and what Your Word says of You. Your technicolor beauty makes anything not of You feel grey. I trade me and my life for You, and find You to be better.
Jesus, You are better. Your lovingkindness is better.
When this truth hits my spirit, I can’t help but worship. Out of the doldrums, into declaration: Your Words to my weak flesh and back to You, they change me. Ever-so-slowly my heart agrees with Your words which my mouth speaks.
And then just one taste of You is not enough…
**So what do I do with these posts, you ask, other than just read them? First, if you haven’t yet, read: Why I Adore to give you a context for this little space on my blog. (This post also gives context.)
If you are compelled, I invite you to participate. Set up a space and time in your own life to begin adoring. Over laundry or dinner dishes, on your commute to work, or in the wee morning hours — five or ten minutes is a great start. You can use the verse I list here every day or two as a launch pad for your own adoration.
Then practice praise.
Add to my adoration here, by posting a comment with your own words back to God about God …or hide it in your heart. Or wait until a Monday and link up to my adoration posts (beginning October 17th) with your own adoration.
I promise your weary soul won’t regret it.
***You can easily subscribe to these devotional meditations as they are delivered, by using this feed: http://www.EveryBitterThingisSweet.com/posts/chai/feed or by entering your email address in the second box on the right-hand side… (scroll up a bit)
Additionally, all of the Morning Chai Posts can be seen, in the order of posting, by clicking here or adding this address to your reader: http://EveryBitterThingisSweet.com/posts/chai
