Thursday Thoughts - Such Great Joy!

 Note: This was a brief devotional I wrote for our Church Council meeting held on Wednesday, August 4th and I thought I'd share it with a wider audience.

 

Sun behind clouds 8/5/2021

“Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness!  Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!  Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” Psalm 150: 1-6 (NRSV)

 You may have learned that sometimes hearing particular pieces of scripture can do one of two things for me.  It can either bring to mind a pop culture reference or a musical reference.  The musical references are tougher for me, only because they then become those dreaded ear worms and it takes awhile to get it out of my head.  I sing them in my head.  I sing them in the car.  I sing them at home.  (I sound like I’m a Dr. Seuss book!)  I sing them at work while listening to them on my laptop – so much so that I instituted a new rule since my office space is filling up, “If Jenn starts singing too loudly, throw something at her.”  (Note: this was said because he was right next to me at the meeting:  Oh, and Pastor Jody, if I encounter you singing the Phantom of the Opera while on the Rail Trail, I’m going to sing along with you and then that will become my next ear worm.)

Psalm 150 is no exception to me getting a song stuck in my head.  It was in one of my readings today and all I could think of was this song from my childhood where the chorus went “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, Rejoice and sing and shout ‘Hallelujah!’ Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, Kick up your heels and sing!”

It is a short Psalm, but it is packed with joy.  Joy that may just make us happy.  Or it may cause us to sing and shout and dance.  Or even just smile and know that we will get through the day.  We have had a rough year and a half.  And it continues on.  But it is important to remember that underneath all that rough stuff there is still joy.  Joy because God is with us and God loves us.

We may have to make or support tough decisions during this meeting.  We may have bad days at home or in our jobs or whatever else it is that we do.  But know that even amid the tough stuff and the hard stuff and the sad stuff and rough stuff, there is good stuff and God loves us and there is great joy in that.