“Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, my soul.” Psalm 146:1
How often during a day do we stop our hectic motions and pause to praise the Lord? What is there that has taken place in our lives to bring us to look up to the Heavens and gaze in amazement at what He has caused to happen in our lives? We give thanks for food, family, shelter, possessions and wealth, but what about a sliver of unbelievable proportions in our life when something just really smacks us with a “WOW” look at what God just did?
It happened to me at the rim of the Grand Canyon, at 110 feet under the Pacific Ocean, at the Trail Ridge Pass, at Niagara Falls, at the Hospitals in Western Nebraska watching my daughters being born, delivering a calf in the Sandhills and standing in doorway of this Lutheran school in Cap Haitian.
Looking at these children who make up just a sliver of the more than 52,000 children that are being fed every day in Haiti by you and me is a reason to say ‘Praise the Lord’ because it is an awesome sight. One of the Hymns sang at a funeral recently was ‘It is well with my soul’ that was written by Horatio Spafford in 1873. Feeding children in a small country that many will never visit is also a God thing in your life and in their lives. You are bringing a small piece of the love of Jesus into their lives each day, and “it is well”.
“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well, with my soul. It is well, with my soul, it is well, it is well, with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed His own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! It is well, it is well, with my soul. For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live: if Jordan above me shall roll, no pang shall be mine, for in death as in life Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul. But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait, the sky, not the grave, is our goal; Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord! Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul! It is well, it is well, with my soul. And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll; the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul.”
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay