by Pastor Douglas Brauner

A Life of Praise

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!”
Psalm 113:3 English Standard Version

Birdee Pruitt speaks one of my favorite lines from the movie, Hope Floats. “Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it is the middle that counts the most.” 

You might have woken up this morning with a sense of dread, fearing a confrontation with a coworker or family member. You might have a sinking feeling that all is not well in your life, and you have a sense of foreboding about the future.

You might have laid your head on your pillow last night with a sense of sadness, feeling the loss of friendship or the continued grief of the death of a confidant. Your sense of loss might be due to a missed opportunity to comfort a stranger you recently met.

Birdee was correct, “Beginnings are scary, and endings are usually sad…” The psalmist reminds us that the sun rises on our beginnings and sets on our endings, but in that middle time in the time between, as the sun makes its journey from east to west, we praise the name of the Lord. Why? Because it is what happens between those sunrises and sunsets that matters most.

In the anxiety of our beginnings, Jesus is present.

In the sadness of our endings, Jesus is present.

“…and I am with you to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20 ESV

The middle of our lives matters most because the One who gave everything for us, dying a criminal’s death for those who were guilty, promises to be with us in the middle between our beginning and end, from the day we first experienced a sunrise until that day when we view our last sunset.

Today is the day to praise God for his presence and in that praise, to find him using us to make a difference in this crazy world. It’s the middle that matters most.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO