Psalm 150

Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!  2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!  3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!  4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!  5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!  6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

I love old school Disney movies.  Summer Magic, The Absent Minded Professor, and the Love Bug are just a few I enjoy to watching.  One movie that I didn’t really like when I first saw it was Pollyanna.  I didn’t like the ending.  I enjoyed most of the movie – hypochondriac Mrs. Snow, cranky-old Mr. Pendergast, and staunch Aunt Polly; I enjoyed watching their personalities change as they were affected by the fun, loving Pollyanna and her “Glad Game.”  These complaining, black cloud characters became thankful, silver-lining individuals.  The change was almost miraculous.

Then Pollyanna gets hurt.  She’s taken away on a train that leads to a medical procedure that might cure her paralysis…but we don’t know the outcome.  I didn’t like it.  I wanted to know she was going to be all right.  But I was missing the point.

It’s easy to see the darkness in life.  Things never go our way 100% and it’s easy to focus on what is going wrong.  When traffic is crazy and we’re late to work we grumble about how other people can’t drive!  When we go through the drive-thru and the employee gives us the wrong food, we complain about how others can’t do their job!  (Never mind that we have a car that runs and money to buy food).  That’s the point of Pollyanna.  Even though she was hurt, at least she wasn’t killed.  She was surrounded by people who loved her; at least she wasn’t all alone.  There was a procedure that might help; at least there was something they could try.

In our life we need to be thankful and praise God for all things.  We need to play the “Glad Game.”  My challenge for you…when you find yourself complaining, think of a reason to celebrate.  When people are driving you crazy, find something to be joyful about…and Praise the Lord!

I’m praying for you!

Pastor Amy