Bring the Gift of Laughter

 

As we wrap up this week, we have stepped back to see a wider structure (the forest for the trees), I pray you have found this helpful.  We’ve explored how the psalms can move from order to disorder to reorder, just as our lives do ~ often there are parts of our life that are in all three categories simultaneously.  That is, our volunteering can be going great ~ feels like it is on solid ground, and all is orderly - while a relationship with a friend can be in chaos/coming apart - while we can be exploring a new way of singing out our prayer.  We have seen that psalms can also be approached through individual/communal lament or individual/communal thanksgiving.  To be sure, not every psalm can be neatly classified and put in a box.  Some psalms resist and refuse to be labeled.  One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 100.  The Message translates the Hebrew this way:

On your feet now—applaud God!
    Bring a gift of laughter,
    sing yourselves into God’s presence.

Know this: God is God,

    God made us; we didn’t make God.
    We’re God’s people, God’s well-tended sheep.

Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
    Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
    Thank God. Worship God.

For God is sheer beauty,
    all-generous in love,
    loyal always and ever.

Bring the gift of laughter to God…sing to God with gusto…give thanks to God and enter the sheer beauty of God’s all generous love.  I can think of no better way to spend today or this weekend than trying to live and let these words guide my actions/words/life.  Amen.