Joyful Noise

It’s Monday night.  Soccer was cancelled again because of rain.  We had dinner, I read with my youngest.  I’m sitting in the living room of our small apartment finishing up my journal entry for school.  My youngest has gone to bed.  And what do I hear coming from the back room?

My oldest and my wife are singing their favorite songs from church.  From Elevation to Hillsong and many others.  I hear them talking quietly.  Going over the words.  My wife is getting sick….like so many, and right before I started my homework I went in to see what she was doing.  She was reading Esther from her Bible.  Esther?  I’m pretty sure I’ve never read Esther.  I told her she was going to have to teach me when she is finished.

The Spirit of the Lord is in this place.  It’s been here for a while now…..well always, if you really think about it, but we now can feel it….sense it.  It’s so peaceful.  The spats between the boys and between us and the boys still happen….but that’s what parenting is I guess.  I’m not sure it will ever go away, but it’s in these moments….as I listen to my family praising Jesus that all that other stuff goes away.

“There’s no shadow You won’t light up
Mountain You won’t climb up
Coming after me
There’s no wall You won’t kick down
No lie You won’t tear down
Coming after me
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn’t earn it
I don’t deserve it
Still You give yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God”

The lyrics to the song they are now singing.

As David said, “I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being (Psalm 104:33.)”

Praise and song are so powerful.  I see it every Sunday at church.  I even sing these days…not something I ever did in the past.  In fact, it’s harder for me not to sing and praise God than it is for me to sit there quietly.

Ask Paul how powerful singing and praise are…..”But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened (Acts 16:25-26.)”  Their praise brought such a presence of God that the prison almost fell down.  Have you ever sang so hard you thought that might happen?

I thank God He has put us in the church we are at.  My oldest thinks our worship pastor is soooo cool.  He even wanted the same hairstyle.  You can see my oldest light up whenever he is around.  Last Sunday we were picking them up from his class and the classroom is right across the hall from the green room…..the place where the pastor and the worship team hang out before services.  My oldest looked in the room and was like, “Oh, this is cool.”  We turned around to walk away and the worship pastor walked out….my oldest almost fell over.

It’s nice to have role models….but it’s even better to have role models at a church.  And it’s not half bad having a role model that spends his days worshiping and praising the Lord through song.  Isn’t that what David did his whole life?

It has quieted down around here.  It’s time for my oldest to go to bed, and I’m pretty sure my wife won’t be too far behind.  But for just a little while tonight we had a praise service in our house.  And a praise service in our house is something that would have never taken place in the past.

I think back not too long ago, when in the car I would turn on “my music” and I could almost see the eyes roll…..and now they are all singing it….without me, while I’m doing homework.

I thank God everyday for what He is doing in our lives…..for the places He is taking us and the things he is putting in our hearts.  Tomorrow is just Tuesday…we were just at church yesterday….but tomorrow we are going back after I get the boys to work on a project that needs fixing, and then to a missions meeting to see if there is somewhere else God can use us.  None of this is said in bragging, trust me, but if one person can see the fire that has been lit in our souls, and that leads them to find a church where they can do these things, then maybe I have accomplished God’s plan.

But as tonight comes to a close…..for just a few minutes I had to stop my homework and listen to the joyful noise coming from the back room.