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I give you all the credit, God- you got me out of that mess, you didn't let my foes gloat. God, my God, I yelled for help and you put me together. God, you pulled me out of the grave, gave me another chance at life when I was down-and-out. All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God! Thank him to his face! He gets angry once in a while, but across a lifetime there is only love. The nights of crying your eyes out give way to days of laughter. -Psalm 30:1-5
I reflected on the words of this Psalm this morning. What struck me was the message of hope in times of difficulty. Each one of us have been faced with experiences that brought shock, frustration, grief or loss in our lives. Sometimes life's challenges seem overwhelming. I read one person's story today and she reminded me that during the hard part, it's difficult to move into a place of hope. Sometimes we try to rush, or maybe rush someone else we care about, to get to the good part rather than move slowly. She reminded me that moving toward gratitude and hope takes being specific. She said, "True gratitude is not a discipline you can impose on yourself. It is a joyful and heartfelt response to grace - and it is often through the most minute openings that grace reaches us."
As Christians, those that are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world, we have hope that things can get better. The hope we have in Christ is alive and moving through our being, but sometimes we may need to take deliberate steps of being specific with our gratitude to slowly move back into the space where we are joyful and grateful.
So with this knowledge, "Sing your hearts out to God! Thank him to his face!" one small, simple expression of gratitude at a time. We experience a love far greater than one challenging set of circumstances. Go out and share this hope we have in Christ with the whole world.
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