Many years ago a famous song evangelist was traveling with some missionaries through Africa. His assignment was to lead the praise-worship time before the missionary brought the sermon.
The trip had been long. Heat and sickness had bothered this tiny team of itinerant travelers. The food was always unfamiliar local flavors versus American favorites. Many nights they slept on the ground. It had been too long since he’d seen his family. He just wanted to go home.
But there were many days left in this evangelistic tour.
Now it was time for yet another evening service. Doing his utmost to put on a happy face he led the singing as best he could. Near the end of the song service he opened up the selections to requests from the “congregation” of villagers. One frail African lady weighing no more than 100 pounds and with her face deformed from leprosy, raised a mangled hand missing a few fingers. The song leader wondered if she understood what he was asking or if he would understand what she would say through leprous lips. Was she merely looking for a handout?
Then came her painfully clear plea. She asked if they all could sing “Count Your Many Blessings, See What God Has Done.”
He crumbled. He could not lead it. His spirit of complaint contrasted with her crooked smile and radiant countenance just wrecked him. He had so much. She had so little.
How about you?
It may only help us temporarily to compare ourselves with others who have it worse, but this singer’s story serves as a challenging, cautionary tale.
Maybe that’s why the Psalm writer invited everyone to regularly enter the gates of the Lord’s Temple with a “ticket” of thanksgiving and a “sacrifice” of praise (Psalm 27:6; 50:14, 23; 100:1-5; 107:22; 116:17). If praising God, in spite of however dark our days, was easy, then it wouldn’t be called a “sacrifice of praise.”
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a SACRIFICE of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrews 13:15-16).
