Cleaning a pool is a lot like cleaning one's life

Good morning,
I pray the day is finding you well.

Labor Day Weekend, a weekend spent with family.

Labor Day Weekend is a weekend that, just like many american's Laurie and I spend with family. Laurie's family in Minnesota is some 2000 miles away; My parents are some 250 miles away; our kids spent the weekend at Camp Collins, one set of kids could not get the weekend off so they were out of the "getting together" mix.

Lucky for us we have another set of family right here in Vancouver, we have our YMCA family.

Labor Day Weekend is also a time when we at our YMCA close the facility for a much needed touchup; we drain the pool, paint, move the weight equipment and clean, we go through the locker rooms with a deep clean...I think you get the picture that we use this time to create the best space for the people that call our YMCA home.

The "Y" family is a good family, we worry about one another, we cry together, we laugh together, we work together.

My job was scraping.

More aptly I was given the task of scraping the calcium buildup off the tiles in the pool.

I quickly found that this was not an easy task; calcium is hard, it gets harder than a rock. Well that is not exactly right, it is as hard as rock. It is a mineral after all minerals a rocks, so I guess I should say that calcium is as hard as a rock.

So there I am scraping calcium off the tiles in the pool, and I start thinking.

I start to think about all those milk commercials, "Calcium builds strong bones." I laugh as I lay on my stomach reaching over the side of the pool scraping. Strong bones, and nearly impossible to scrape off a tile.

Eddie, our Executive Director is scraping tiles too. We start to talk about how there has to be a better way.

I am not a chemist so I really do not know if calcium is soluble or if it is insoluble simply suspended in liquid; it does not really matter. I do know that it does come into the pool in minute form and then continues to bond to the tile and itself until it becomes this hard rocky thing on the tiles in the pool.

If we could figure out some preventative maintenance and get to the buildup before it becomes a buildup, getting rid of the calcium would be much quicker and easier.

I am laying there scraping.

I start to think about "sin."

I start to think how "sin" and calcium buildup are related; no I am not calling calcium sinful, nor am I calling calcium buildup sinful. I am laying there scraping calcium, thinking about the similarity between "sin" and calcium buildup.

Sin starts small. Sin starts with a thought. A decision is made and sin becomes an action. If left uncorrected this “sin” can then become imbedded in a person's life. The longer a person allows a sinful action to be part of their life, the harder it becomes to remove this "sin." If left long enough this "sin" can become as hard to remove as calcium is to scrape off tile.

We usually only get to see someone else's sin after there has been quite a buildup. By the time "sin" becomes visible to others, it has been there a while and is pretty hard to remove.

What is "sin?"

Sin is an old archers term for simply missing the bullseye, missing the mark, as they say.

Sin is simple an action that is not in the middle of God’s will, missing the mark, so to speak.

We like to talk about all the different kinds of "sin" in people's lives; I guess that keeps us from looking at our own.

I do not know how you know if you are sinning or not, this is how I know.

When a thought comes into my head, and I have many thoughts. I simply ask Jesus, "Would you approve?" If He says yes, I know I am in the middle of His will. If He says, "No." Then I know that I am not in the middle of His will.

If He says, "No." and I do it anyway, I had better be ready to scrape some "sin buildup" off.

I know two things after spending Labor Day Weekend with my "Y" family. I love them even more, and I really do not like scraping off buildup.

I wonder what the world would look like if everyone would just ask Christ if He would approve or not before we all did something.

Heaven on Earth comes to mind.

Blessings,

Will you help us help others?

Good morning,

I pray the day is finding you well.

Carlos came into the “Y” a couple of days ago; I was at an offsite meeting.

As usual, the front desk staff greeted him in their typical friendly manner, smiles on their faces, asking about his day.

Carlos responds, “My mom died this morning.”

Carlos is a regular at our YCMA; he lived with his mother and is developmentally delayed.

Carlos maybe developmentally delayed but he is all there.

When I got back to the “Y”, the staff told me about Carlos’ mom, they were pretty upset.

Yesterday Carlos came into the “Y” and I was in my office.

I grabbed Carlos and we went into my office.

Carlos is now all alone in the world. Last year his grandmother died. A few days ago his mother died. He has no family he is all alone. His pain wafts all around him. His pain permeates from his soul. He is trying very hard to be a grownup and take care of grownup things, like the rent, electric bills, and funeral arrangements for his mother.

I held Carlos as he cried.

I grieved with him.

I told Carlos that he is not alone in this world. He has his YMCA family.

I walked Carlos around the facility and had him sit with the Health and Wellness team. I asked Carlos if it would be all right to share, he said, “Yes.” I told the team Carlos’ story. The team shared in his grief and told Carlos that he is part of the YMCA family now and that family looks out for family. They set up times to meet with Carlos.

We then went to the membership team and I asked Carlos if it was ok to share, he said, “Yes.”

I shared Carlos’ story.

The membership team shared in his grief and told Carlos that he was part of the YMCA family and that he was not alone.

I called my friend Brandon.

Brandon is the pastor of the church that meets at our YMCA. Brandon came over and Carlos told Brandon what happened. Brandon shared in his grief and told Carlos that he is not alone, that he has his YMCA family to help him.

Carlos rides the bus he does not drive.

Usually Carlos comes to the “Y” in the morning and stays for a couple of hours; then goes home. Yesterday Carlos did not leave until almost 4pm. He stopped by my office before he left. Today is laundry day for Carlos so I probably will not see him today. I called my friend Kris at ARC, Monday we have an appointment with the Social Security office. Tuesday he meets with the Health and Wellness family. Carlos does not attend church but we are going to start meeting twice a week to read the bible together, something he used to do with his mother.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew.
And then they came for me—
And there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemoller penned this now famous quote after being imprisoned for eight years in concentration camps as the personal prisoner of Adolf Hitler.

Carlos obviously has moved all of us at the YMCA. We will speak for him. He is part of our family, just as everyone who calls the YMCA home is part of our family.

If you still think of the YMCA as simply a “swim and gym” think again.
People ask me why we do what we do.

My response is, “We are the Y, that’s why.”

I am reminded of these words that Jesus spoke:
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Matthew 25:31-45

Will you help us help others?

Blessings,

Please don't tolerate this blog

Good morning,
I pray the day is finding you well.

I am a word guy.

There are words that I like, words that I do not like, and words that I flat make up to describe something when I cannot think of a word that already exists.

The other day Laurie and I were at a friend’s house, she was throwing a summer party. She has some acreage, and on the acreage is a pond that has fish in it. She also has a zip line that starts on a platform up the hill from the pond. The zip line goes over the pond and ends on the far bank; it is really fun. One of the people at the party asked another person if she would go on the zip line. The other person said, “No, I have vertigo and am afraid that I would fall off.” I looked at her and said, “If you get vertigo on the zip line, and fall off, I guess you would be vertigone.”

Everybody had a good laugh.

I was talking with a member the other day and the word tolerance came up. The member said, “We need to show more tolerance to others.”

I have a hard time with the word “tolerance.”

Tolerance, as good as it sounds on the surface, comes from the root “Tolerate.”

To tolerate something suggests that one is annoyed or upset by someone or something; yet is not upset enough to actually do anything about it.

To tolerate is to “put up with.”

To tolerate is to “ignore another’s action.”

To tolerate suggests that at the current level of annoyance I do not need to respond; however, if the annoyance grows or becomes “more annoying” I will be forced to act.

When I think about tolerance I get annoyed, I wonder how long I will tolerate, tolerance?

I was thinking about tolerance the other day.

I thought, “What would the Gospel look like if I changed the word “Grace” to “tolerance?”

So I did.

I went through the New Testament, found the scriptures that had “Grace” in them and changed “Grace” to “tolerance.”

This is so not the Good News!

A few of the passages:

And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the tolerance of God was upon him. Luke 2:40

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of tolerance and truth. John 1:14

From the fullness of his tolerance we have all received one blessing after another. John1:16


For the law was given through Moses; tolerance and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17

I was on a roll and thought, What would the song “Amazing Grace” look like if I changed “Grace” to “tolerance?”

Amazing tolerance, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

T'was tolerance that taught...
my heart to fear.
And tolerance, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was tolerance that brought us safe thus far...
and tolerance will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.

When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.

Amazing tolerance, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see

Sure seems to lose its magic, doesn’t it.

I sat in church Sunday crying, I began crying when “Amazing Grace” started to be sung.

I was especially struck by it because of my thoughts of, “What if God had only extended tolerance instead of Grace?”

I am so glad the He loves us enough to extend Grace and not merely tolerate us.
Here is the Good News:

Those same passages:

And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John1:14

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. John 1:16

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John1:17

Amazing Grace as it truly is:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.

When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see

I began to think, if God has extended Grace to me and Christ calls us to be Christ-like then I must extend Grace as well.

Blessings,

Don't forget to tell mom you are going fishing

Good morning,
I pray the day is finding you well.

It is early Monday morning, and I am sitting in my living room listening to the ripple of the river, the squirrels haven't started their morning ritual yet of chasing each other through the branches of the trees that line the river. The birds are still asleep. The world hasn't woken up yet.

Last night Laurie and I stayed up late to watch a meteor shower. We laid in the hammock, staring at the sky. We watched as satellites raced across the heavens; we failed to see the huge show however, and only saw a few bright lights racing across the sky.

When I was a kid, back on the farm, I used to watch the sky all the time. Back then there wasn't much ambient light to get in the way and the stars were huge. There were not satellites when I was a kid; well, there were satellites but not very many of them. I cannot remember seeing any.

The night sky has always been a place of wonderment for me. I can stare at the stars for a very long time. When I look at the night sky, I cannot help but feel the grandeur of God. I cannot help but wonder what He must have been thinking when He breathed life into the universe.

One day, Bob, one of my friends wanted to go fishing at one of the ponds that were only a few miles from town. I thought it would be fun, we made plans to go fishing and spend the night at the pond. As we were making the final preparations my dad shows up and asks us what we are doing. We told him. He thought it would be fun, so we asked him if he wanted to go along. He said, "Yes."

So we left.

We fished all night. Well, fishing is a very loose term; I think you actually have to do two things that constitute fishing: one, put a hook on your line, and two use bait.

Dad really wasn't much of a fisherman. He thought that actually catching a fish ruined the whole experience of fishing.

I guess it would be more accurate to say we almost fished all night since we never actually put lines in the water. We had conversations, we watched the night sky; mostly we sat silently together. One of dad's favorite sayings was, "You don't learn anything when your mouth is open."

The next morning we went home.

When we got to the house we discovered that we had forgotten one small detail in our preparations for the fishing trip; we forgot to tell mom where we were going. I tried to pull the old, "I was with dad." excuse. Dad tried to pull the old, "I thought Roger told you?" excuse. Neither worked.

We were in trouble an we knew it.

We apologized profusely.

The chore list went way up that day.

Sitting in church yesterday there was a teaching on "The Good Shepherd." Afterward someone talked about how they were a lost sheep and someone from the church had reached out to him and he was so grateful that he had been found.

Mom, wasn't so mad at us as she was scared. She was afraid something had happened and we were gone. She had looked for us all night.

At the end of the day, it is good to know that someone is looking for you even when you are not looking for Him.

I saw a cartoon on facebook that went like this.

Christ is talking to someone and says, "You see the footprints in the sand."

The person says, "Yes."

Christ says, "You see where there is only one set of footprints, that is where I carried you; the skid marks are where I dragged you for a while."

As I look back on our "fishing adventure" I am glad that mom was upset that we were gone; that only means that we were missed.

I know that the Good Shepherd is continually looking for His lost sheep, He will not rest until He finds all of them and brings them safely home.

I want to help Him find his sheep.

Will you help Him too?

Blessings,

Are we leaving Fishbombs or Roses?

Good morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

Memory is a funny thing.

I will go a long time without thinking of something or someone and then when I do it is as if my memory is doing a data dump on my consciousness.

I haven’t thought about Fishmonger for years, but ever since the other night she has been “on my brain.”

Fish lived to be almost twenty years old and so she was around from the time I was six until after I had left the house for good, which anyone that has children in college would understand this statement, I boomeranged for a while. Just when my parents thought I was grown and out of the house I would come running through the front door usually with an armload of laundry. Sometimes I would tie a ribbon around it and try to pass it off as a gift for my mom.

It never worked.

All this to say that Fish grew up and grew old.

As Fish aged her hobbies changed. Where once she could not get enough of “mousing.” She didn’t seem that excited about the whole thing later in life. In fact on one of my boomerang trips I sat with Fish on the floor in the basement of my parent’s house watching “Nightline with Ted Koppel.” As we sat there watching Ted espouse his journalistic wisdom a mouse ran by, well not exactly ran, more like jogged (if mice can jog) right in front of both of us.

Fish didn’t move.

I thought she must be asleep. I looked down at her, she looked up at me as if to say, “What, I’m retired.” It was left to me to get up, catch the mouse, put the mouse back outside, which I am sure the mouse spent little time coming back in from where it was deposited.

So Fish found new hobbies.

Her new favorite hobby was to come and visit people as they came into the house and sit in the living room. She would say hello and then leave the room only to sneak back into the room behind the couch and leave what affectionately became known as a “Fishbomb.” These were rancid, slow moving smell fronts that always seemed to stall out in the middle of the room. Usually the only relief that one could find was to go outside until it dissipated, mom would retaliate with sufficient and often copious amounts of Lysol.

I grewup with three sisters. With sisters comes the inevitable boyfriend. Boyfriends have the annoying habit of hanging out at their girlfriend’s house.
As you might guess these boyfriends always had a “first time” at their girlfriends house.

The first time was always the same.

Fish would come into the living room and say hello.

Fish would then leave the room.

Fish would then sneak back into the room behind the couch.

Fish would leave a “bomb.”

Fish would then leave the room.

People would look at each other each knowing that “they did not do it.”

People would leave the house and mom would come in to battle the “Bomb.”

You are probably wondering where all this is going?

As I thought about Fish and the “Fishbomb.”

I thought about how we sometimes leave a wake of smell, pain behind us, when we are focused on ourselves and not on others.

I thought about how when we focus on others and their needs above our own we leave roses and smiles.

The question is how do we want to leave others as we leave the room, smelling roses or Fishbombs?

Something to think about.

Blessings,

Dancing for God

Good Morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

The wind was blowing the other day.

I noticed a leaf being blown in the wind.

First it blew one way, then another.

I watched as it went back and forth tumbling along. Tumbling over its stem then over the tips of the leaf.

I sat there for quite a while watching this leaf.

At first I was amused by the back and forth action, thinking about how the wind changed direction causing the leaf to change its direction.

I thought about how the leaf really didn’t have any say, or influence, on where it wanted to go. The wind was in control.

I began to think about how most of us live and work at the whim of others. If someone decides to go another direction, or the economy takes another dip, our job might go away, and we will have just about as much say in it as the leaf does with the wind.

Then God said, “Relax and watch the leaf.”

I sat silently watching the leaf.

After a while my heart began to change.

I began to see the leaf differently.

I began to see it dance.

It no longer was this out of control leaf being pushed here and there. The leaf was dancing.

A still small voice said, “This leaf makes me smile. It is dancing for me.”

I sat there and watched the leaf for quite a while.

In the end, I was no longer thinking in a negative fashion. My thoughts went to thinking about all the blessings, and small miracles that happen everyday. I just need to have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to accept.

My prayer is that we all choose to see the beauty in God’s creation, to see a leaf dance; to ask the question, are we dancing for God or merely allowing ourselves to be blown out of control?

It is a matter of perspective.

Blessings,

Inception, more than a movie

Good Morning,
I pray the day is finding you well.

People get some funny ideas in their heads.

I am often amused by a person's train of thought, more specifically the origin of that thought.

A few years ago a movie came out called "Inception" starring Leonardo Decaprio. It is a movie where Leonardo enters a person's dream and infuses a thought, when the person wakes up the person thinks it is their thought and then acts upon it. I found the movie interesting.

When I was growing up I had a person that was particularly good at "inception." It was my sister Katie. She was very good at infusing a thought into me, me acting on it, getting into trouble, Katie then giggling that I actually did it.

Looking back I like to think that I was just gullible; looking back Katie thought I was just a dimwit.

This particular "inception" took place on a beautiful spring day. It was my senior year in high-school I was enjoying the fact that I was a senior, and starting to look forward to going off to college; all that was left to do was stay out of trouble and graduate.

The Signing team was enjoying its second undefeated season; I am still upset that I was cut fromt the team. I was still enjoying trudging around the track, typically coming in last in the 100 yard dash. It really was not so much of a dash for me, the coach used to get upset when I would get in the starting blocks holding my sack lunch for halfway through the race. It took me a while to finish.

Katie and I were walking to school. We had walked most of the way there; we were walking past the park, we were almost to the bandshell which is the centerpiece of the park.

My best friend Tim drives up and asks if we want a ride to school, of course we said, "Yes." The thought of walking the remaining block and a half was just silly.

We jump in Tim's car.

Of course, getting a ride to school meant that we had to ride down main street in the opposite direction of school, getting to the end we turn left and drive up past the Dairy King, down the frontage road past the Vickers gas station, turning left once again and ending up at the school.

As we drove, we started to talk about the band competition in Oberlin that day. How school would be a waste because almost all the kids would be going to Oberlin along with most the teachers that were accompanying them; Katie was going to the competition too. Katie says, "They won't be teaching you guys anything today. Most of the classes have subs anyway."

Tim and I agreed.

Katie then says, "You guys should just skip school."

Inception.

We had never skipped school before.

Tim and I look at each other.

I say, "Skipping school is a wonderful idea. Tim, we have never skipped school before"; I have been practicing being the master of the obvious for along time.

Tim says, "You think we should?" I said, "sure, what can they so to us?"

This all happened before the car past the Dairy King.

Just then we see Bob and Brad in Bob's car, we signal them that we want to talk.

Signaling another car in Sainty amounted to pointing your arm out the window and signaling the car to go around the block, a move that every highschooler in Sainty masters "dragging main street." Dragging mainstreet amounted to driving up and down main street for hours, waving at the same ten cars over and over again until you have to go to Vickers because you are out of gas.

They go around, we tell them our idea, they agree. Now all we have to do is find Danny and we are ready to skip school.

We find Danny, do the signaling thing, tell him our idea, he agrees; walla we are in business.

We had never skipped school before; in case you had forgotten. We did not know what to do? We ended up sitting on my front porch brainstorming. My dad comes out and says, "What's going on?" I say, "We are skipping school." Dad just looks at me. Once again I was perfecting my skill at being the master of the obvious.

Just then the phone rings. My dad gets up and answers the phone. We hear my dad say, "I see, thank you for telling me, goodbye."

Dad walks out onto the porch and says, "You guys have to get off the porch. That was Mr. Alvers, the principle"

You can see where I get my masterfulness from.

"He informed me that you have skipped school and sheriff Ray Lee is on the lookout for you boys."

We sprang into action. We had to get out of town, and right now. Nobody wants to go to the poky.

We decided to go to Bonnie Dam. I was saddened to hear that Bonnie Dam is no longer there. Many a good time was had there. Times like waterskiing with maneating carp, and perfecting the forward roll through the firepit on the beach. As I said, good times.

We all pile into the car and go to Bonnie Dam. At the dam we met this old couple fishing on one of the docks. The wind was blowing, as it usually does in Kansas because there isn't anything like trees or tall buildings or hills to get in the wind's way. A fact I did not totally appreciate until I joined the Navy years later. Without wind sailboats would not go very far. Without wind Columbus would have jumped onto his ship, say the famous words, "I am going to discover a new way to India," and just sit there bobbing in the harbor. Magellan would never have sailed around the world. Classic sea battles would have been reduced to boats bobbing in their own harbors signaling insults at each other. Without wind, the old man would not spit his chewing tobacco and have it blow into his wife's cheek. Jim Corcie comes to mind, "You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask off the ole lone ranger, and don't mess around with Jim."

We got bored at Bonnie Dam and we were starting to get hungry too.

We decided it would be a lot more fun to go back to school, eat lunch, and recruit more kids to skip with us.

Another brilliant move I might add.

We go back to school, eat lunch, recruit more kids, and leave again.

There is always an end to every day, and with the end of every day there is the inevitable next morning.

I walk into the school and Mr Alvers is there to greet me; he is not a happy camper.

I am informed that I have two weeks detention; one week for skipping school and the other week for coming back and recruiting other kids to go with us.

Here we are; Tim, Bob, Brad, Danny and I sitting in detention. This is another new experience for us. We had never had detention before, we did not know what to do with ourselves; Actually Tim, Brad, Danny and I did not know what to do with ourselves, Bob used it to study. Maybe that is why he is a heart surgeon now.

We started in Mr Jenkins classroom, but this did not work out. When we came out the whole school was in the hall and they were cheering us. Looking back, the breakfast club had nothing on us at that point.

We got moved to the library the next day.

Ms, Gertz, the librarian was a tough lady, she rode motorcycles. In fact she had a broken leg from a motorcycle accident. We did nto mess with Ms. Gertz.

I tried to get Katie to make a banner for when we came out into the hall.

Inception.

It didn't take.

We finally got through our detention, the signing team completed its undefeated season, I amost lettered in track, well almost is subjective, and we did actually graduate.

I learned my lesson about infusing thought though.

Have you ever wondered if there is more to life than just living?

What if all the things told of Jesus are true?

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!


When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.


Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!


And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.


Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!


When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"


Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

Think about it.

Blessings,