Hallelujah

Watch this first. Watch it.

I love this song. I also love this video. In case you don't know who this is, it's Leonard Cohen. He wrote the song "Hallelujah," which has since been used in everything from TV shows to movies to who knows what else. When writing this song, Cohen wrote about 80 draft verses. At one point he was reduced to sitting on the floor in his underwear banging his head on the floor. 

What I want to discuss, however, is the very end of the song. You know, the part that most people don't hear. At the very end of the song is, naturally, the last verse. The verse states the following:

"I did my best, it wasn't much. 
I couldn't feel, so I learned to touch. 
I told the truth I didn't come here to fool you. 
And even though it all went wrong, I'll stand right here before the Lord of song with nothing. Nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah."

This song makes me wonder how we really approach our faith. It seems like so often we believe that if we do our best and work hard, that God will automatically make sure we have everything we *think* we need in this world.

But that is not the point of faith. That is not the point of God's relationship to us.

The point of it all, of everything, is God having relationship with us and bringing us to His side. The point is the embrace of a God that loves us and wants us to be His - holy, complete, and loved.

But love does not exist in a vacuum. Nothing does. Love only exists where this is a choice to do so. God gives us that choice: to love Him or not, and allows us to live as we wish. The choice to follow Him, you see, is really a choice to love Him.

My question is a simple one. Do you choose to follow and show your love, or not?

How you answer that question will determine how you answer every other question in your life.

How will you treat your kids? How hard will you work today? What will you watch and listen to today? What will you do to take care of the body and blessings God has given you today? Who will you tell about Jesus today?

It all starts with this: Do you choose to follow and show you love for Christ today, or not?

What we do may not seem like much. Sometimes all we have left is praise for the sake of praise. If that is all we can do, then we should do it.

Usually, though, we are capable of so much more.

Let's travel together, and show this world our love and our Lord as we travel through today (and every day).