Quick: Name a hymn!

What did you say?

I cannot hear “How Great Thou Art” without being a kid again, sitting in the seats of my childhood church. I can see the exact shade of the carpet. I can feel the slightly scratchy cushion of the seatback behind me. I can hear the very off-key singing of Ella, the older lady who sat next to my family.

Almost a couple years ago, Sam and I went to Arizona for him to interview for an opportunity to work with a church planting organization. We went into the long weekend with high hopes and were praying that God would provide– Sam was looking for a job at the time.

Long story short, they didn’t offer Sam the opportunity, but they wanted us to see their “innovative” way of doing church so that we could experience God in the way their quickly growing congregation was. We went in, sat down, and worshiped through a carefully curated worship, a neatly-packaged sermon with four, easy bulletpoints, in an auditorium of people that were in and out within an hour and twenty minutes.

I remember singing “Because He Lives” in church as a little girl. From time to time, my childhood pastor would burst out into song in the middle of his sermons. Whether the tune fit into the message and was planned or because it welled up in his soul in the heat of the moment, there were often times where he’d start singing a hymn or a gospel tune from his childhood. 

I met Paul Baloche in 2019 with my husband, Sam, during a seminar for songwriters. Paul wrote a lot of worship songs that were sung when I was a kid, like “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” “Hosanna,” and “Above All.”

During his talk, Paul spoke at length about “Above All.” Most of his songs start either as prayers or from little thoughts written down in journals, and in this case, the verse was written out of the titular words jotted down in a notebook. The verses were a meditation on the greatness and wonder of Jesus; about how His Godship is so high and lofty over us and His majesty is awesome. The song originally had a different chorus and it was sung that way for a while but never felt right.

We’re all familiar with the fact that the word “love” has many different terms and applications in scripture. You have philia love, which is brotherly or platonic love. You have storge, which is familial love. You have eros, which is romantic love. And you have agape love, which is the love of God.

That’s because the Hebrew words for love had the ability to encompass different meanings and facets of love depending on where or how they’re used. But have we ever considered there are other words that are multifaceted in the same way?

Did you know the hymn “All Creatures of our God and King” is turning 800 years old? Okay, maybe not the hymn itself, but the poem the hymn was adapted from is.

The poem, written by Francis of Assisi in the final years of his life, was written in the year 1225. Francis had a long ministry of helping the poor, even going so far as to say he was married to “Lady Poverty” before he devoted his life to the Catholic church.

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to meet baby Jesus? What would your reaction be? Would you ooh and aah over the smallness and the preciousness of Him? Would you weep as you held the incarnate Lord? Would you speechlessly observe and take weeks to process what you witnessed? Would you marvel at the sheer wonder and beauty of the moment, as you met the God of heaven and earth, finally come to be with His people?

You are such a good God. You have walked beside me every day of my life, whether I deserved it or not. If I’m being honest, I never deserved your love, care, or grace. But you pursued me. You watched over me, protected me, and drew me to you. There were seasons in my life when I desired things that glorified me more than I desired you. I prioritized my friends, family, dreams, and pleasure, and still there are times where that creeps back in.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him among ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. These words start and end multitudes of church meetings every week, as Christians meet to praise the Lord and fellowship together. The hymn is so popular, it has come to be called simply, “The Doxology,” a word meaning an expression of praise to the Lord.

I grew up in the early days of the internet, when you still connected using dial up. You couldn’t use the phone when someone was on the web. As a kid, the internet was used for fun and games, but as I became a teenager, the draw became AOL Instant Messenger. That means I was part of the generation that abbreviated everything: LOL, G2G, TTYL, and probably the most commonly used OMG! Somehow, that turn of phrase became so embedded in the way I think and talk, to the point where I don’t even realize I’m using it sometimes. Lately, Sam has been correcting me more about it. “We have to start being aware of the language we use, because Piper is going to start mimicking it.”

If the first commandment is about holding God as supreme over our lives, not having any idols or distractions that take precedence over Him, then it might seem at first glance that the second commandment is a little redundant. Sure, the second commandment talks about not making images and bowing down to them. In ancient times, those ideas were closely linked. The Egyptian gods all had likenesses and images. Each god had animals that incarnated and represented each of their deities. As such, these animals were considered sacred, such as the cat which represented Bastet the goddess of protection, pleasure and good health, or a jackal which embodied Anubis the guide to the underworld and protector of graves.

This Christmas, I was gifted a book that lists out 150 popular hymns, their sheet music, and a bio of where the hymn was inspired. I picked it up over the past few days and I’ve been leafing through it; finding the hymns I have sung all my life and reading the backstory on where they come from. I have to admit, there are so many hymns that I don’t know, and yet the words to them are sincerely profound and beautiful. This past weekend, I found myself singing “It is Well with My Soul” over and over again as I did housework, so I decided to look it up in the book and find out the inspiration from the song.

If you’ve been with me since the beginning of this little devotional site, you’ll know that every year, for five years, I’ve tackled the Christmas story in the weeks after Thanksgiving leading up to the big day. This year, I pondered how I could make my Christmas devotions different from what I’ve done in the past. So what is something about the Christmas season that can immediately put a person in the seasonal spirit? For me, before we put up the tree or bake the cookies, before we wrap the presents or decorate the house, we all do one thing: turn on Christmas music. To me, Christmas carols can instantly get me into the Christmas spirit, bring all my childhood memories to the forefront of my mind, and help me remember that our Savior, Jesus, came to be with us in the flesh.

We’ve all done it. Maybe it’s the Sunday scaries, with a new work week looming on the horizon. Maybe it’s our family or the plans we’ve made for our weekends. Maybe our own personal workload between balancing a clean house, social lives, love interests, whatever it may be.

Just put yourself in this story for a moment. This passage is found in Exodus 12, which is the passage where God gives Israel instructions on the first Passover. So imagine, for just a moment, that you have been a slave all your life. You’ve broken your back building cities and monuments to kings and people that have abused and mistreated you. This slavery has been going on for generations… well before you were born. At this point, there is no before. This role and existence is all you’ve ever known.

Sometimes, when I read scripture, I am so blown away by the deep and burning desires of people to praise God and glorify Him with all their being. That’s something that I know I grow complacent in at times, but I think with the way the world is in 2021, those deeper burnings to honor God become less and less genuine.