DAY 108 - LET'S GET [DIS]ORGANIZED
ZACH ATWOOD, YA EVENTS & OPERATIONS TEAM LEAD
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.”
Psalm 57:9
If you know me, you know I’m Type-A, I’m structured, and I like order in all things. Part of this thought process manifests itself by compartmentalizing areas of my life where I tend to group things based on how where and when I encounter them. What does that look like? If I work with you, we can’t be friends outside of work because you should just be in my ‘work’ bucket. If you’re a friend, I probably won’t invite you to family dinner not because I don’t think you’re great, but because I want to keep those lives separate. If I knew you from high school you will stay with high school friends, if I knew you from college you will stay with college friends, etc.
Although this is common for a lot of us (maybe I’m to an unhealthy level haha), where this can be detrimental to us is when we begin to separate our church-self from our life-self.
We go to a church service, listen to a message, and we put it into its appropriate brain bucket. Maybe our thought life changes a little and we bring the teachings we hear and the worship we sing into our hearts; but does it ever make its way to our lips?
One thing I love about this particular verse is that not only is David thanking God for what He has done, but he’s publically giving God praise, out loud and among people! I know that for me, it’s easy for me to thank God when I’m in a church service or in my Group, but when I’m out and about with friends or family, I hold back on praising Him.
I believe that as Jesus followers, we should take the messages, the worship, the Group discussion and all the things, and we should be boldy including them in conversations and constantly praising Him in all that we do.
We’re in a season where church can’t be compartmentalized into your ‘2-hours a week at a building’ bucket; we can’t join up, listen to a message, worship collectively, and have large community gatherings, but we can still take what we know about Him, we can still take all that He’s done for us, and we can declare His goodness in all of our conversations, in all of our hangouts, and in all that we do.