Page 4 - praiseandthanks

history, down the road came a truck with a crane on the back of

it. The crane driver said we could use it if we had someone with
a licence. Then the powerhouse man said he had often

wondered why he got a licence to drive a crane. Before the day

was up the purlins were up on the stone wall and the colour
bond roof was being attached. I claim it is the best museum in

the Kimberley – thanks be to God.

The first thing I discovered in practising praise and thanks was

that it was going to involve a letting go and an allowing of God
to be God. What we are looking at is an ultimate good, the

intricacies of which only He Himself knows.

In allowing God to be God is to open up our lives to Him. We
are to open the doors and throw all understanding to the wind,

confronting the very meaning of belonging, depending, trusting

without that understanding.

We find ourselves looking past what is going on, or perhaps

looking through it as through deeply coloured glass to see what

else is there. Perhaps the glass is too dark to see through. We
believe that we see something but must await the revelation.

Scripture says, “we have not here a lasting city but we look for

one which is to come.” Now it is very normal and natural for us

to say: I see, I want, I know, I think, I can…. all of which begin
with,” I”. It is that “ I” that settles for a city here and now, the “I”

that is so short-sighted when it says it sees, the “I” that is so

unsatisfied in its wanting, the “I” that is so incomplete in its
knowing, the “I that is so confused in its thinking, the “I” that is

so unable in its abilities.

A lasting city, as of that which is to come, requires no less than
divine wisdom. We are invited to leave behind all humanly

acquired wisdom and preferences, all self inspired answers and

4