I Am Soooo Embarrassed!

 

 

Have you ever wished that the earth would open up and swallow you?  Or have you ever longed for a rock to hide beneath?  Have you experienced a time when you dreaded having to face another person?

 

Well, I am there!  I look so terrible!  People are laughingly asking if I was run over by a Mac truck!  It is true that I do look like I have been in a street fight.  Both my eyes are dark (they are not quite black), my cheek is bruised, my nose is broken, my arm, leg, and foot are scraped and bruised, and I have butterfly bandages covering a gash between my nose and lip.  I just look pitiful, and besides that my whole body aches.

 

The embarrassment comes though not because I look so awful, but when I have to explain what happened.  I thought about telling everyone I was in a car wreck or a skiing accident, but that would be a lie.  So I reluctantly admit that I just was not paying attention and fell flat on my face.   It really becomes embarrassing when they ask where and how I fell.  Unwillingly, I confess that I was walking up our back steps into the kitchen.  This is a feat I have literally accomplished a million times.  You just have to put one foot in front of the other, step up one concrete step at a time, open the door, and enter the house.  No big deal.  Our two-year-old granddaughters do it all the time.  You simply have to watch where you are going.  You have to pay attention.

 

As I sat nursing my wounds and painfully struggling to eat and talk, I wondered what God could possibly teach me through this experience.  Humility?  Definitely!  Empathy and understanding? Yes.   But could He also be telling me to slow down?   Lord, I was not rushing that morning … I was just not paying attention.  I was distracted because I was thinking about something else.   I had entered the house by those kitchen steps so many times, I guess I thought I could do it blindfolded.   I had become careless and lazy.  The result was a terrible fall, painful recovery, and many embarrassing moments.

 

The Lord seemed to tell me that it is often like that in our Christian lives.  Even though we are in the habit of having a Quiet Time each morning, we can become easily distracted.  The enemy takes our focus from the Lord and causes it to be placed on things around us.   We are busy teaching Sunday School and children’s choir, are involved in a challenging weekly Bible study, our children are enjoying a great school year, our husbands are blessed with satisfying jobs, and things seem to be going along quite smoothly.  Our lives seem to be on automatic pilot.  We have preformed our daily tasks so often we believe we can handle them blindfolded. We attend church; but instead of worshiping, we concentrate on where we shall go for lunch or arranging food for Susie’s family while she is in the hospital.  Or, our bodies sit at our child’s soccer game while our minds are occupied with our Bible study lesson.  We are comfortable in our little corner of the world; and we become careless, lazy, and easily distracted.

 

Most of all, we fail to pay attention to the reason we were created.  We neglect to give credit where credit is due.  We fail to praise His name and express our gratitude to Him for all of His gracious provisions.   We take satisfying jobs, buy homes and cars, and take health for granted.  We rarely acknowledge that by His grace we have air to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat.  We overlook His gifts of refrigerators, air conditioners, beds, vacuum cleaners, and microwave ovens.  We are oblivious to hummingbirds, butterflies, caterpillars, sunrises and sunsets, daffodils and roses, and raindrops.  We expect Him to bless us and fail to recognize it when He does!   Our carelessness and laziness break His heart.  God will not be robbed of His glory (Numbers 20:10-12).  When we neglect to acknowledge and praise Him, the results are often terrible falls, painful recoveries, and many embarrassing moments.  It is far more embarrassing to have to admit to focusing on self ego (Editing God Out), neglecting to give credit where credit is due, and failing to praise Him than it is to confess to falling down.

 

Although we were created to praise Him, praise does not flow from our lips automatically.   We often live as though we are self-sufficient.   Has your spiritual awareness been dulled because you have carelessly taken God’s presence for granted?  Praise flows naturally from a grateful heart.  When is the last time you stopped your hectic schedule and paused to admire a rainbow, bluejay, or geranium?  Did you thank Him for creating them?  When is the last time you praised Him for the cool breeze refreshing your body as you sat in the hot bleachers at a ball game?  How long has it been since you expressed your gratefulness for His love, mercy, and forgiveness?  Have you taken a moment lately to think about the cross and how much it cost Him?  Have you thanked Him for His precious gift?

 

Because praise is ascribing value or gratitude and appreciation of who God is and what He does, it results in genuine worship.  We pay attention to His guidance and protection in our lives and gratefully acknowledge Who is in control, regardless of the circumstances.  (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Remember Paul and Silas, though they were beaten and imprisoned, they still praised God (Acts 16:25).  It is not hypocrisy to praise God in difficult situations, it is obedience!

 

How many times have you fallen flat on your face spiritually?  Determine that you will not be embarrassed when God humbles you.  Protect yourself from falls and injuries in your Christian walk by choosing to focus on the Lord and His attributes.  Pay attention to His gracious provisions in your daily life, and acknowledge that they are gifts from Him. According to Revelation 5, we will spend an eternity praising God.   Why not start now?

 

I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart.  I will glorify Your name forevermore.  Great is Your mercy toward me.  You have delivered my soul from the lowest hell.  You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, gracious, and long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.  You, Lord, help and comfort me.

            I will sing of Your mercies forever.  With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations.  Mercy shall be built up forever.  Your faithfulness shall You establish in the very heavens.  The heavens shall praise Your wonders, O Lord.  Your faithfulness also praises You in the congregation of the saints.  For who in heaven can be compared unto the Lord?  Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?  God, You are greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be held in reverence of all them that are about You.

Every day will I bless You.  I will praise Your name forever and ever.  You are great, Lord, and greatly to be praised.  Your greatness is unsearchable.  One generation shall praise Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts.  I praise You for the glorious honor of Your majesty and of Your wondrous works.  I declare Your greatness.  I shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness.  (Praise Praying from the Psalms, pages 16-17, 37-38).

 

 

 

FOR FURTHER THOUGHT

The Power of Praise …Since praise is the offering of grateful reverence to God in words or songs, it becomes an act of worship.  We pause in our daily lives and focus for a moment on our Creator and Provider, our Almighty God.  Throughout the Bible we are told to praise God, and that praise gives God pleasure.

 

Read Isaiah 61:3 to discover what we are to put on instead of a spirit of despair?  Praising God invites His presence into our lives.  His presence comes to transform our circumstances and us.

 

Read 2 Peter 1:3-4.  From these verses, what are some reasons we should praise God?  Does He provide everything we need to live the Christian life?  Of course He does – first life itself through the new birth, then the power to live that life through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:1-4; Ephesians 1:3; 1 John 5:11-12).

 

Should we thank God for the commonplace blessings in life such as food and shelter?  Do we need to acknowledge His provision of friends and families?  1Thessalonians 5:18 will give you insight into His expectations of praise.  Praise causes us to focus on the riches of God.

 

How many times in Psalm 150 are we instructed, “everything that hath breath” praise the Lord”?

 

What are the benefits of praise?   Read Psalm 22:3.  Praise surrounds us with God’s presence.  You will see in Psalm 91 and 2 Chronicles 20:12,22 that praise offers us protection.  By focusing on God and praising Him, we can have victory over Satan.  The enemy hates praise more than anything.  Why?  Because praise enthrones God in our lives and releases His power in us.

 

Not only do our lives benefit from praising God, but praise encourages all those around us to focus on the Lord.  Learn to take advantage of every opportunity to praise His name.  Recognize Who holds the stars in the sky; makes the flowers to grow; protects us as we travel; gives us eyes to behold the beauty around us, food to nourish our bodies, laughter to warm hearts, and love to surround our souls.  Then as your life becomes a continual praise offering to Him, those precious lives around you will notice and begin to change.

 

Take a moment to glance through the Psalms.  They are full of praises to the Father.  I wonder … if someone glanced at your life, would they find it full of praises to Him?  Even when you fall flat on your face?

 

I’m praying for you!

Edwina