Praise Him Anywhere
How would you describe the color gold to someone who couldn’t see it?”
I hear the question asked on screen, but I feel like it’s actually directed at me and my brain starts spinning.
Gold looks like the feel of honey on your tongue, warm and gooey.
It’s the heat of the summer sun on your face or the feeling of sliding your feet in between crisp, clean sheets at a luxury hotel.
It’s the first step into hot, fluffy sand.
Gold smells like buttered popcorn and freshly baked biscuits.
Walking along this line of thinking for a few days was such a delight for my brain. I want to do this exercise with every color now, allowing the fullness of my life experiences to seep into my perception of something I’m used to only seeing with my eyes.
And then—the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve wondered:
How would I describe God to someone who has never encountered Him?
How would I sing His praises to someone who has never heard of Him?
He is the maker and creator of every grain of sand, every delightful bloom, and every precious baby. He is the original crafter and potter, more creative than we could ever dream of being.
He is steadfast and faithful, unchanging in nature, wholly dependable. When everything feels like it’s falling apart, He is near and ever working for our good and His glory.
You can find him in a cool autumn breeze, as it blows the hair off your cheek.
He is in the laughter of your loved ones and the way your heart swells when you’re surrounded by the ones who know you best.
He’s the warmth that spreads through your chest, evidence of the Holy Spirit manifest in the moment.
He is the giver of every good thing.
He is the origin of the way our hearts leap to praise who we most admire.
It feels like I could go on forever. The refrain of “I could sing of your love forever” echoes through my mind right now.
When I first heard Brandon Lake’s new song last year, I was captured. I wasn’t finding praise as intuitive as I had in other seasons and the melody and lyrics awakened my heart afresh to the glory of praise, the necessity of praise. I love how he doesn’t discriminate: we’re called to praise through the fire and in the darkness. And it changes us.
I love this concept of praise anywhere and everywhere, but it does us little good if we don’t have a solid understanding of what praise is.
The Oxford Dictionary offers a definition of praise: “the expression of respect and gratitude as an act of worship.” The word praise in the original greek means “to sing, to tell of, to give, or to confess.”
In my best understanding, praise has little to do with thanking God for what God does and how he changes our circumstances for the better. Instead, it is entirely wrapped up in our worship of who God is and how He chooses to love and interact with us every single day.
Praise is for all of us. Every face touched by the warmth of the sun or the breeze in the air is qualified and called to praise its Maker.
Maybe it’s time for us to try describing God as if to someone who has never met Him. Just the practice alone might ignite your heart anew with all the ways He has revealed Himself to you.
And then, let’s praise Him anywhere.