Forum for praise

This might come as a surprise to many of you (if there are many of you actually reading this) but the Saints are unbeaten.

To listen to the Saints forum writers on www.nola.com, however, disaster is just around the corner. "arm chair QB's and so called coach wanna be's. A win is a win. I'm just glad a lot of wanna be coaches on here are not working for the Saint's because we would be in a bind." That's but a tasting of the melodrama available for your reading pleasure.

I, myself, having watched the Saints with my dad from the moment of their misconception, certainly still feel the possibility of the wrong ankle turning at the wrong time or some such occurence that would simply devastate me. So to ensure I won't face the ultimate disappointment, I find myself saying things like: All the Saints have to do is play .500 ball down the stretch and they will win 12 games. I've even debated what is most important, winning 16 games or the Super Bowl.

The Bible doesn't speak, as near as I can read, of doing this half-hearted, glass half-empty sort of worship of God, though clearly we do that as well as anyone.

The Bible says this: May their sins always remain before the Lord, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted. He loved to pronounce a curse -- may it come on him; he found no pleasure in blessing -- may it be far from him. He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil. May it be like a cloak wrapped bout him, like a belt tied forever around him.

The he is is, unfortunately, you and I.

I don't think we have to walk around with a Pollyannaish attitude where every thing is so darn perfect all the time, though clearly it is not. Pain is pain. Death is death. Loss is loss. And sadness, though we paint it in hues of brightness, is still sadness.

However, if we simply praise God on a daily (hourly?) basis, some of that will "enter our bodies like water, into our bones like oil."

It seeps in, when we praise. When we praise, the goodness of the moment flows in. Dip a white shirt into a vat of red sauce adn one assumes it will no longer be entirely white. That's the same principal of curses (and of praises).

God has simply carried you this far. Now, you might disagree on how far you've come, but the truth is there is always a moment you could be worse, whether in pain or in sorrow. There is always someone in worse condition than you are. Therefore, praise a God who cares, a God who loves so much He sent his only son to die for you. That's praiseworthy.

The sky might be dark. The wind might be blowing. The boat might be rocking. But the truth is if the boat is rocking, it is still floating. Praise God, from whom all things come.