Polished Praise

"Sing to the Lord, you saints of his; praise his holy name." 

(Psalm 30:4)

     The lyrics were displayed on the screen of the church formerly known as a movie theatre. Some were standing but some for health or other reasons stayed in their fold-down red cushioned seats, the offering envelope tucked in the cup holder beside them. The worship leader and her team were all in their places up on stage. Some hands were lifted, palms up paralel with the shoulders. Some were raised in full surrender. Some would have reminded my college professor of the days of Hitler. Some hands found the lent in their pockets very interesting.

     Still for all intent and purposes if a stranger walked in from the back he would think he was witnessing a worship service--with the volume turned down. We just weren't giving it our all. Pastor Chris came out and apparently seeing the looks on our faces said that if we didn't like worship now, we'd be bored in Heaven. It's praise 24/7 and we'd better be getting ready. And he was right. I think we mean well but let our humanity get in the way. We can't sing well enough so we sing quietly. Or we're unsure of the song. Okay, that works for the volume but why did our pastor think we were bored? I wasn't bored. I was smiling but perhaps worry was showing on other faces. Or else people really were bored. I don't know.

     But if we weren't singing because we felt less than capable, what are we waiting for? I looked at many verses and none of them said: Sing if you can make all 4 judges on The Voice turn their chairs withing seconds of your first note. It doesn't have to be polished, it just has to be. Praise. So next time you're in a worship service, sing out for an audience of One. Sure it may be rough and unpolished but if it's from the heart it's beautiful to Him. I used to have a rock tumbler that promised to take plain old rocks and turn them into stones similar to those above. It was a long, noisy process involving sand paper and water. I couldn't get the machine to keep its promise.

Maybe that's where I am now, in the tumbler belting out my praise, knowing when the process is over and I am Home, it will be polished.