I confess that I’m bothered where the devil says that you can’t withstand the storm and you’re supposed to reply that you’re the storm. Maybe I’ve been reading it wrong all this time, but it sounds more like a humble brag than faith.

I think about the Apostle Paul who did anything but boast about how strong he was. If anything, he boasted about his weakness. That’s not something that makes for a good social media influencer post. Boasting about actual weaknesses? But you don’t have any, right?

The classic Jesus Loves me song has it right when talking about the little children, i.e. us. “They are weak, but He is strong.”

That leads to another pet peeve of mine. How about how so many of the worship songs are focused on me? As in I’m going to lift my hands, I’m going to shout, I’m going to declare . . . It’s like the focus of the worship is my experience of worship and not the object of my worship, God.

Again, I may be nit-picking, but I’d like to sing a lot more about how what God’s up to. How God rescued me, how God fights for me, how God loves me daily even when I’m not very lovable, how God is worthy of every praise and every song for no other reason that He is God.

That’s why I have a growing appreciation for the old hymns. They had the right perspective. It’s not how I’ve got it all together and choose to have God be a window dressing in my life. It’s that I’m a big hot mess on my own and I need God and oh yeah, God’s not just a part of my life — God IS my life. God’s not a supplement to my strength — God IS my strength. God’s not just an option out of many throughout my day — God is my only hope at the end of the day, every single day.