praise.

I finally started reading the book Praise Habit by David Crowder as my outside reading assignment for spiritual formation.

For those of you who know me well, you know I have a little bit of heterosexual man-crush on David Crowder, so this reading choice should come as no surprise. However, I've heard great things about this book, and being a DC*B fan has been to my benefit just because I can almost hear him saying the things he writes... Is that creepy? It is what it is.

But just through the two introductory sections of the book and already I have encountered some beautiful wisdom.

After giving a detailed outline of his morning routine, seemingly devoid of "spirituality," Crowder writes this:

"Where were the God moments? Where was the Living Praise? Did praise happen? Could praise happen? What if it did? Were opportunities missed? Was praise just beneath the surface? Could it be a flood? Maybe it's just dammed? Maybe if the dam burst we would drown in it. Do we dare pick up a sledgehammer and start swinging? It could be difficult. It could wear at you. This could be hard labor. I don't know if I have the back for it. And I think I like my water in smaller doses. I like the sound of the drip. But there is cracking in my lips and they bleed when I smile. My hands are dry to the touch. So dry I can't feel you anymore. Pick it up? It is needed? It is what is necessary? I want to drown. I want a different air than what I've been breathing. I will swing. I will swing with all my might. I will swing until there is the sound of breaking. I will swing. Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over . . . " 

There is such movement in this paragraph, swells of emotion, changes in pace... you can almost hear the music that accompanies it.

This is not to mention the recurrent thought as I read this passage that I wished I had written it first. Not out of a selfish desire to have beaten him to it, but rather, because these emotions have been written on my heart, and I haven't been able to express them this colorfully. You can tell Crowder is a gifted songwriter.

So let us pick up the sledgehammer and start swinging away so that we may quench our insatiable thirst for praise. We owe ourselves to God, we owe him our praise, we owe him our lives. So let us swing.

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out." - Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)