Sunday, October 19, 2014

We look to YAHWEH

A few weeks ago we sang a simple chorus in church that keeps coming back to my heart, like a hungry child who cannot seem to get full.  Those words sung by a few hundred people with rhythm only done right only in an African church.
             
                 "We look to Yahweh, Yahweh. Forever Yahweh, Yahweh."

Do you hear it? I still do. I decided to look deeper and let my hunger, God's hunger, lead me to more.

Yahweh is God's proper name, derived from "I Am", another favorite of mine. My curiosity with the Name propelled me to the words of John Piper, commenting on the worth and value bound into this great name:
God is the most important and most valuable reality and person in the universe. He is more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than all other realities, including the entire universe.
In all reality, there is nothing in the universe more important and exciting then looking to and beholding Yahweh. Why do so many other things seem to compete with my heart gone hungry, shouting their supreme satisfaction? Why do I end so many days feeling like I have simply beheld myself or my burdens from the day?

Recently I heard one of my Ugandan father's say that the way he judges a day as successful is not according to what he has accomplished or failed to accomplish, but by whether or not he has enjoyed God.  

After mulling those words around for a few days, I was in my kitchen rolling tortillas for dinner to come, arms deep in rice flour.  My thoughts, like my day, were only on my work until our Ugandan son quietly stepped into my domain. We had a simple exchange of how are you's, then he gave me food for thought with his parting words as he walked away, "Enjoy your work, Auntie." Instantly I was reminded of how enjoying my work entails enjoying God.  Look to Yahweh. Enjoy Him.

My thoughts return to the rhythms in my heart, choosing to look and gaze at Yahweh in spite of a messy home with guests due to arrive and flu wracking my baby-man's chests. When I look to enjoy Him, I give my time, my heart. Even this mama-gone-busy, in a world swirling with more chaos then I'd like to embrace at times, can look to and enjoy Yahweh, especially revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. It's in these moments, with my ears open, when I suddenly catch and hear my daughter belting out with reckless off-key abandon, "Behold our God, seated on His throne, come let us adore him! Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him"

  Enjoy your work. Enjoy your God. That's a successful day.