Dressed in His Rescue

"In our encounter with Christ we, too, have been laid down, devastated by His grace. We have been covered by this same grace. We have been taken from death to life by this grace. Our identity is changed. What was before this new beginning has vanished. We have been given new clothes. We have put on Christ. We are found dressed in His rescue, redemption, and righteousness and, aware of this rescue, we spew forth praise. We wear this very rescue into our relationships, into our interactions with pals and family and work and play. It is present in our embodiments or neglections of justice, in our contention or ignore-ance of the poor, of the widows, of the sick, of those in need. To wear the rescue of Christ into every moment is for every moment to become alive with the possibility of revelation. With the awareness of rescue, things unsuspected will begin to revelate redemption.

            What choice is there to respond in praise? Praise is fundamentally a responding to the initiations and intimations of God. The way of living praise sets out to find God’s revelation…And this way of life should be so compelling and mysterious and other-than that people see us coming from a long way off and it stops them in their tracks and they wait and watch just to see our exchanges and wonder at this life that has been chosen and how to put it on and what is the deeper, truer way of living anyway?"

- from Praise Habit: Finding God in Sunsets and Sushi, by David Crowder. 

This is the book we're doing in small group this semester. And this is conviction. ...And a reminder, and motivation.

I'm excited to dive into this -- to capture those moments that twirl around your heart and all you can do is breathe out a simple praise to God, and live in them. For me, these moments are writings that capture emotions so perfectly, or an autumn tree aflame with color, but as we discovered tonight at small group, it's different for everyone. How beautiful that what we are passionate for and what we love to do is already, in itself, a response of praise!

My copy of the book is getting here on Wednesday. And I'll keep you posted.

[image via We Heart It]