Cool Jesus Stuff

God has blessed me with a good memory, and the chance to learn music of several different styles. Thursday morning I was at work with my mom. She had me making enrollment packets that I do every year. I was in the library putting 500 packets together, all by myself. At first I wished that I had CD player or something of that sort. And then, I had a thought, or I guess really it wasn't a thought, it was an instinct. I started to sing praise songs, hymns, camp songs, kids songs. Any song that popped into my head came out my mouth. I got to stand (at work mind you) and praise God. I was not only praising God during the work day, I was worshiping on a High School Campus. It was so phenomenally awesome, I can't describe it.

I was almost angry when someone came in and I had to stop singing. I continued to sing in my head, but I could no longer raise my voice to God. Speaking about praying and worshiping on campus brings me to another point.

At graduation, the top ten or eleven people of each class are given part of the program, to speak, sing, or whatever. I chose to give the invocation. After the graduates had all filed in, before anyone sat down, I moved to the mike, and prayed. I prayed on at the graduation of a class from a public high school. And I never thought twice about it. I was excited, nervous. I was pumped because my older sister said the invocation at her graduation. I was thrilled because I got to share a verse that had recently calmed several fears of mine.

Proverbs 16:3 says "Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed."

I love that verse, and I got to share it will my class, and somewhere between 400 and 500 people. And I didn't even think about how lucky I was until someone mentioned it. A family friend (I've known him all his life) came up to me at the party and said "That was SO cool!! Tasha you did AWESOME!!" And I was like, "Thanks, what are you talking about?" And, completely astonished, he said "You prayed. And I public school's graduation." I said, "Oh, yea, cool huh?" I'd never thought about how lucky it was that I got to do that. I took it for granted. But there are places in the world where the mere mention of Jesus' name is punishable by death. And worse yet, in the United States, in the land of the free, there are places where Christians can't pray in public. It amazes me, saddens me, and makes me ashamed to think that I took for granted a freedom that soldiers have fought and died for. Especially since my nephew, a Marine, just went to Cuba for four months.

This doesn't really have a point, but think about all the freedoms we have, and what the price of those freedoms was. 'Free' for you just means someone else paid for it. We are 'free' because soldiers fought and died. And we are 'free' because God sent His Son to die for us. 'Free' for us has cost countless men their lives....it should be something that we are grateful and appreciative of.

The next time you voice a prayer out loud, or sing a praise song out loud, think about that.