God and a garage door

 

 

How many thousands of times heading out of our neighborhood, I wonder, "Did I close the garage door?"

I am trying to combat that urge to turn around and check yet again (yes, I did close it) by being more attentive as I push the remote, by repeating out loud, "Closing the door."  Unless I verbalize it, unless I say it out loud, I am rarely mindful of doing it.  As soon as I back out of that narrow garage opening, my mind races ahead to something else.  Two minutes later, now navigating on the main road, I think, "Did I close the door?"  I have no idea.  I am plagued by doubt.

In my scripture reading this week, I came upon yet another verbal repetition: 

"O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever."  

It appears as the first and last verses of Psalms 118, a profound truth at the beginning and end, past tense and present, and then again tomorrow, engraved a little deeper each day.  The same phrase is repeated in the Old Testament scripture over and over again.  It was not just a rule, ritual or required refrain by the people.  Nor as mindless rote of words, but as a repeated acknowledgement of a promise.  It was a reminder front and center throughout their day and recited again in the evening-tide.  Not a once and done, but a pattern of acknowledging what they have observed and experienced by trusting God in the now and next.

They did not have to dig out that truth in the midst of crisis, because they did not just believe those words but knew them to be true and staked their lives on that good and loving God.

As little as I am conscious of closing that garage door, how mindful am I about God's Presence in my life, front and center, nothing random but enormously eternal, walking with me, guiding me, aligning my heart with His, not in prevailing circumstances?

Do I forget as easily?

And how different would I see God, see others, see myself, and respond in the midst of the situation at hand, if I recited and repeated out loud each morning and night:  

O give thanks to the LORD,

for He is good,

for His steadfast love endures forever.

Not as some kind of mantra or magic motto, but reciting and repeating scripture, the very word of God.  Not to appease God, or remind Him, but to engrave those sacred words of His faithfulness into my day, my heart, my thoughts, my response to what is before me, and remind me out loud Who is with me.  Even in this.

Out loud.  Over and over again. Lest I forget.

When our children are young, we often said, "What do you say when someone gives you something?"  "Thank you."  We guide them to be attentive, not just to accept, but to respond out loud.  Lest they forget.

And what does it this passage and promise start with?  "Thank You so much."   A grateful heart recognizes and acknowledges that He is good and He loves us forever.  And that resets my mind and aligns my heart with His.

Recite.  Repeat.  Not just in crisis, but grasping the reality of His Presence and His faithfulness even in the ordinary. 

And that changes everything.