The gift of where you are

Dan Harper September 26, 2019 0 0

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Psalm 113 (NIVUK)

1 Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, you his servants;
    praise the name of the Lord.
2 Let the name of the Lord be praised,
    both now and for evermore.
3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
    the name of the Lord is to be praised.

4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
    his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the Lord our God,
    the One who sits enthroned on high,
6 who stoops down to look
    on the heavens and the earth?

7 He raises the poor from the dust
    and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
8 he seats them with princes,
    with the princes of his people.
9 He settles the childless woman in her home
    as a happy mother of children.

Praise the Lord.

Look where you are and see the good.

Listen to where you are and hear the good.

Be where you are and be the good.

In a simple and ordinary life it is easy to confuse ‘a life with material possessions’ with ‘a life that is good’. As you reflect on all that you encounter this week it is easy to look past the extraordinary encounter with God and think that it should lead to extraordinary wealth, or that the ordinary encounter with God is not an encounter at all. 

The circumstance in which you find yourself is due to a strange combination of luck and work; whose luck, good or bad, and whose work, hard or missing, you will never know, however wherever you are in the ordinary and extraordinary God is there. What is more, you have the opportunity to be a gift from God in that place and wonderfully you can and will encounter gifts from God there too. 

It is one of the great challenges in life to see the good that comes from God when life is hard, but that is when you need to focus on this week’s unusual gifts from God. These gifts from God don’t come in money but they come in the form of hope, justice and love. Hope, justice and love can be found wherever you are. Hope, justice and love can be in your actions wherever you are, too.

Dear God. 
Help me to encounter you in the ordinary and extraordinary
Help me to find you wherever I am, and look for you with others 
Help me to recognise the gift of where I am, and to be a gift there too
Amen.