Every so many weeks each member of the Eureka Ministerial Association is asked to write an article for the local paper. This is what I submitted today. It is only my second time doing it, and I am a bit nervous that I used some lines from a song without listing the singer or the writer. I made it clear that it wasn’t my own words and named the song, but for some reason, I skipped the other information. Yikes, I haven’t heard from the publishers, so am not sure what to do. Maybe I will have to use the old-fashioned device called a telephone and give them a jingle in the morning. Anyway, here is the text that I sent to them. It won’t be published until next Monday, thus you are getting a sneak peek. By the way, the song is “Happy” as sung by Pherrell Williams. I think that I have ranted about it in a previous post. Just know, I like the beat and I love the chorus.
Also, the scripture was taken from The New Revised Standard Version. Have a great day.
“O Lord, how manifold are you works! In wisdom you made them all, the earth is full of your creatures. … I will sing to the Lord as long as I live, I will sing praise to my God while I have being…Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, praise the Lord.” Psalm 104:24, 34, and 35b. After the long and cold winter we have recently endured, it is good to be able to praise the Lord for the warmth of the summer sun. Another school year has come to a close and already we are gearing up for the rejoicing involved in summer reunions and vacations and a wedding or so on occasion. Let us be mindful that God is our God in all things. God is certainly with us through the dark and cold days of winter when we hang on the edge of the deep pit of doom and gloom. What we need to remember is that God is also with us through the warmth and happiness of the long days of summer. It is then that we need to remember God and rejoice in the blessing and riches, which we are given. It is in the good times and the happy times that we need to tend our relationship with God as a farmer tends his crops. A right relationship with our Lord does not just take root and spring up on its own. It takes cultivation and feeding, and what better time to commune with God than outside in the sunshine under the very heavens God made. I am intrigued by the chorus of a song I was introduced to recently. It is the song, “Happy.” The tune is light and catchy and the lines of the chorus are interspersed with “Because I’m happy.” The song asks you to “Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof” and “Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth,” and “Clap along if you know what happiness is to you.” I would challenge all of us this summer as we go about our occupations, vocations and vacations likely in the great outdoors which is really a room without a roof, to consider our own happiness in terms of our relationship with God. I would venture that what we find is a greater truth and happiness than we have ever known. God is there for us in all times and places; we only need to seek and listen and maybe clap along a time or too. Have a safe and blessed summer!
lucindalines 