Praising Persistently

Praising my Savior all the day long...

I have not been one who has ever understood the endorphin high that you are supposed
to get from exercise.  There is nothing about getting my heart rate up that feels good to
me.  It feels more like torture to me actually.  The only way I can make myself do it at
all has been in an aerobic dance class when I'm embarrassed to give up too quickly the
way I do with an exercise video at home or when trying to run/walk my dog.  Until 
Zumba that is. Now I get it.  In fact, there is something about the Zumba beat and the
unabashed unleashing of inhibition as even us oldsters shake a tail feather along with
the young gals, that totally is worth getting to the gym by 8 a.m. Can't believe I can say
that. 

 

Now this is something else I can't believe I'm going to say - and maybe you won't
understand it unless you actually try Zumba yourself.  But, I'm going to say it...I find
myself praising the Lord through this exercise in a way that totally gets me a natural
high! Yep, Praising Persistently though Perspiring!  I know it sounds crazy to be
thinking about the Lord while shimmying to the beat of totally secular music - 
"uh, uh, I work out."  But I'm here to tell you that is what happens everytime I start the
Zumba dance.  I get this picture of heaven where we all will be around the throne with
the legions of angels all dancing in perfect unison - a majestic wave of praise pulsating
up  and down and back and forth in  a beautiful syncopation. I also get this picture of
David and the old testament Israelites dancing in delight and worship.

All of the women there may not be thinking of heaven but the smiles and giggles as we
put ourselves through the gyrations tell me that it is truly community in the finest
sense.

I love those transcending moments, because as I grow older, I see the world in direct
opposition to heaven, as it really is, with all the sorrow and the pain that inevitably hits
us all.  Unlike the immortality thinking of youth I now know that we all  get a chance
at some point to feel like a modern Job, wondering what God is doing when He

doesn't always answer our prayers in the way we'd like. I used to think that meant
something was going wrong. But now, though none of us can know the mind of God
and understand why He allows certain pain and suffering that seems so unfair, I finally
have come to understand that He does use pain so that we can share in His suffering. 
Growth often comes because of the direct relationship to how we need to depend on Him.
The more intense the suffering the more we finally get the message that we aren't in
control and need to rely on a Strength beyond our own. 

 

Right this moment, I can think of a childless couple who would be great parents, a single
mom who has become paralyzed and blind with an autistic child, a woman who became 
homeless with three children evicted from government housing because her husband got
caught selling drugs.  Where is God in this?  And yet, if we look hard enough and wait on
Him, we can see how God does work all things to good (Romans 8:28).  I see the
friendships developing because of the prayers and the empathy for this couple.  I see
the testimony of this little mother who has so much physically working against her,
who continues to have a platform for shouting her testimony of faith by her constant
cheerfulness in the face of so much hardship.  I have watched this homeless woman find
an apartment and get a job, hitching rides for weeks until she had a downpayment on a
car - teaching her children what strength is and how important hard work is compared
to relying on the "easy money" that left them on the streets.  Not that all is well, but if
we look, we can see God shining bits of light through the darkness.

I recognize that this world was not meant to be heaven...and that any moment of joy
at all should be returned as praise.  The book "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voscamp 
speaks this message in beautiful, heartfelt prose.  A young mother, married to a pig
farmer in Canada  tells of trying to raise five children without getting caught in the
doldrums of unending chores and thankless moments of dealing with the demands of
children.  Recognizing that she is missing so many blessings, she sets upon the task of
watching for and making a list of one thousand ways she is blessed, until thanksgiving
becomes a way of life, smoothing the bumps in the road with a new way of seeing the
path. This book affected my own thankfulness sensitivity deeply.

 

And so as I began to recognize the praise welling up in me as I thank God that I can
still move my often aching body to the Zumba beat, I also recognize that it has taken
me years to begin to seelife from God's perspective.  To watch and pray (Mk. 14:28)
in the sorrows, and to lift up amazed gratefulness for the glimpses of heaven that we
forget we don't even deserve but that keep us from going under in the hard times is
the way to persistently remain in an attitude of hope and praise. There are so many
blessings that we  often overlook: the quiet of the morning, the smile of a friend, the
easiness of being with family.  And Zumba! Try it you might like it!

Holy Spirit
(taken from Cream for Your Coffee by Sherrill Schlimpert, available on Amazon.com)

Holy Spirit!
So that's what this is!
This wanting to shout
   to everyone that lives
With the joy!
The beauty!
I feel in my heart,
A joy I've recognized only in part.

I've felt it before -
In the heart of young love,
In springtime,
In nature,
All sent from above.

But for so many  years,
I sought it in circumstance,
And despite many tears,
I never stayed long enough
At my Savior's feet
To hear His calming Word,
His perfect heartbeat
That gives rhythm
To such a day as this.
Whether it be sunny or dark,
I can feel His bliss.

It's what I have searched for
My whole life through,
Knowing somehow, someday,
I would find it in You.
It's the Spirit!
Your Spirit!
That's been here all along.
Down deep in my heart
I've heard the sweet song
Of the Spirit,
Your Spirit!
Down deep in my soul,
That gives me these days
When I feel solid and whole.

And it's that same Spirit!
That inspires me now
  to take pen in hand
  and furrow my brow.
And allow thoughts to form
From deep in my soul.
It's the Spirit!
Your Spirit!
That I finally know!

Help me to see it
See it clear
Wherever you send it,
Which releases all fear.
Let me flow with it,
Dance to the beat.
Of the Spirit!
Your Spirit!
That makes me complete.