Hallelujah.

It’s an embarrassing fact I have to admit, but, it’s a fact that I’ve got:

I didn’t realize that the word “Hallelujah” meant “Praise the Lord” until a shockingly short time ago.

I know, I know. I had the same thoughts you did, “Where has she been her whole life?!” “Who does this woman think she is?!” “Has she ever gone to church…like…ever??” “I thought she was a Christian,” “Who do I still read her blog???” “She probably thinks that Adam and Eve were blind and that’s why they couldn’t see that they were naked.”

Wait, what?

Ha.

But seriously. I didn’t know this until maybe like….2…well….let’s forget how long ago it wasn’t.

So yeah, the sorry truth is that I didn’t know Hallelujah meant “Praise the Lord” until quite recently. I was reading in Psalms and came to Psalm 112 which opens up with the great line, “Praise the LORD,” to which my study Bible then enlightened my eyes to the Hallelujah fact.

LIGHTBULB!!!

What did I think Hallelujah meant, you might be wondering? I haven’t the foggiest idea. To me it was kind of like “Amen.” There, but glossed over. It was something my more charismatic friends said during church. That’s all. In my mind it kind of meant the same thing as “Preach it, brotha!” because I heard them used simultaneously more often than not.

If you thought that fact was shocking, wait until you hear this next confession:

I listen to Justin Bieber.

*GASP*

*ROLL YOUR EYES*

*Continue Reading*

I am sighing and shaking my head as well. Trust me. I fought it for so long.

I have this best friend who makes me these mix CDs and she would always jokingly put Bieber songs on them. Obviously I would read what song came next on the play list, see his name, and say, “I don’t think so!” and pass it right along.

But one day…well… I like to think I must have been doing something with my hands full so that I couldn’t immediately fast forward when the song came on, because before I knew it, I had listened to the whole song. It was unintentional, I promise!

The bad thing is that I think Bieber must be kind of like a highly addictive drug: once you listen once, you’re done. That’s it. The damage is there, you can’t turn back.

Now, mind you, I don’t own any of his CDs, I don’t listen to all of his songs. As a matter of fact I really only know 4 of them.

I just happen to put them on repeat and listen to the same one at least thirty times in a row some days.

Yep. No joke.

So that’s how it started and that is currently where it stands. How this whole train will stop, I have no idea, but for now—I’m hooked.

As shocked as you were to hear those two confessions, I was double shocked to be listening to the Biebs one day when I hear a line in this song that just totally caught me off guard. The line goes like this:

“I don’t know if this makes sense, but you’re my hallelujah.”

WAIT A SECOND!!! Hold the phone!!!

“You’re my Hallelujah”?

Now, I know what Hallelujah means, and I know that Biebs does not usually go in the same sentence with that word, so why was this happening to me, and why did I think little Justin was onto something?

Because Wolfies, I think he was on to something. Yes.

Naturally, this was a love song—it was by the Biebs! And naturally this line was being said about a girl.

But I don’t think he is totally out to lunch!

Think about it. If you can believe the song, he apparently loves this girl, so to say to someone you love, “I don’t know if this makes sense, but you’re my ‘praise the Lord’” I think I get it. For who else gives you a better reason to say Hallelujah than someone you love?! After all, didn’t God give that person to you?

Now I am not married, engaged, or currently seeing anyone, but that doesn’t matter; I am not talking about just one of those romantic relationships being the cause for praising God, I am talking about all good relationships! People in all different capacities have caused me, more than once, to say “Praise the Lord,” and might I go so far as to say they are my most common reason I say “Praise the Lord”!!! The whole “Created in the image of God” thing is evident about people deep to the core of us. It makes perfect sense, then, that they would be a good reason for us to know gratitude towards that Creator God. His creation can’t help but make us praise him.

I will take this a step further, too. Of course I will! Family and friends and co-workers and sometimes random stranger are excellent things to draw our focus into one of praise, but what about all of the other little things? How often do we say “Praise the Lord” for those?

In Christian homes it is customary to say a prayer before you eat, but sometimes, and I am guilty of this, it seems a little trite. Like, we do it because it’s routine, because we are supposed to (we are Christians, after all), because we always have. When was the last time we stopped before a meal, to take in the bounty that WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN (for any food we DO have we have been GIVEN it), and to truly say, “Thank you, Lord. Praise you for this abundance.” When was the last time you legitimately looked at your lunch and said, “You’re my Hallelujah. You are my current reason to say ‘Praise the Lord.’ And praise the Lord we will”?

Or what about looking at your house? Your car? When you are taking a hot shower? Drinking a cup of coffee? Having a pillow on your bed? Or a blanket to snuggle under in your living room?

When was the last time you woke up when you were not sick and said, “Body, I don’t know if this makes sense, but right now you are my Hallelujah”?

See, I just don’t know how thankful I always am. Oh sure, I would like to think I thank the Lord everyday for my family and friends, but do I really? And yes, I pray before my meals, but can I honestly say I am so very conscious during every one of those prayers? And if I am not really thankful every time/day about those big things (family and food) what about all of those other things? What ABOUT that hot shower I take every morning because I feel like I am not awake until I have one? What about that cup of coffee to go with my breakfast? Why am I not thankful every day that I wake up and still have electricity?

How do I think these are “givens”?

Because they are not. And the majority of the world lives without them.

You will not get from me a sermon telling you that to be a good Christian we have to donate everything we own and live in a hut. I don’t believe that. And I can get into materialism more some other time, that’s not the point. But I will say to you all that to be a good Christian we have to view everything we have (or don’t have) as a gift straight from the hand of God. And not some gift that we are born into and therefore should expect again every morning, but rather as a gift that every single day He decides to give to us again.

Because that’s what this stuff is. That’s what pillows and showers and cups of coffee and cars and houses and clean water and food and friends and family and clean air and indoor heating is. It’s all gift. A favorite line of mine from a play I was in once goes like this, “What God has given God can take away. And for what he has given: be thankful.”

We have no guarantee that life will always be like this. That abundance is what is due us. And that’s fine. Our life falls under God’s jurisdiction and it is his to do with as he pleases. But for what he has given us, let us be thankful, never expecting, or heavens to betsy, demanding, that we receive the same gift tomorrow morning.

So my charge to you is this: In the words of a very blond, very young, very unwise Canadian singer, tomorrow morning when you get into your shower, when you are eating your breakfast, or when your child wakes up, look at it/them and say from the bottom of your heart, “I don’t know if this makes sense, but you’re my Hallelujah.”

Because that’s what we should say. Goodness sakes, we should.