By Dan Jones
The Germans seem to have a knack for coming up with words that precisely describe aspects of life the rest of the world just doesn’t have a word for.
“Schadenfreude,” which means to take joy in someone else’s misery, is one example many of us are familiar with.
Another, less known example, is “vershclimmbessern” which refers to the act making something worse by trying to fix it –often with tape.
I could see that one becoming popular in my little corner of the world.
But one that recently caught my attention is “wattebällchenkegler,” which literally translates to “one who bowls with cotton balls.”
And I wonder if we don’t approach our relationship with God like wattebällchenkeglers.
I’m not the first one to point out the incredible difference between the reaction of football fans at a game on Sunday afternoon to the reaction of a church congregation worshiping God on Sunday morning.
Just last Sunday, there were over 75,000 fans gathered in one place at one time screaming and yelling for “their” team (often at the top of their lungs) –and they paid an average price of about $5000 each for the privilege of doing so.
Granted, it was a phenomenal, amazing game, and I do not hate those who like football, but how does even a game like that compare to the God who created the universe and everything in it?
There are billions and billions of stars and planets and galaxies in that universe and He knows them all by name. He created them. He spoke them into being.
All that is and was and ever will be are His. He is amazing in His ability to create endless variety and incredible beauty and astounding complexity that is all interlinked and interconnected–including the very people who are down on that field each attempting to move a little oblong ball in the direction they desire.
And all of it is an expression of His infinite love and His magnificent, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign, glorious, holy, incorruptible, perfect and almighty power.
For heaven’s sake, He is God.
He burns and rages and glows with perfection so completely beyond our ability to even comprehend it that we would die at the very sight of Him had He Himself not took on flesh and died in our place to save us from our pitiful attempts to try and be like Him.
And He has said He will not be mocked and He will not share his glory with another.
So, when we begrudgingly slip five bucks in the plate and we feel all self-conscious and embarrassed to speak an “Hallelujah” or an “Amen” loud enough for even the person in the pew behind us to hear, it seems like bowling with cotton balls would be an exaggerated description of our praise.
Today’s Praise
“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.” Isaiah 42:8 (NIV)