I wrote this very personal article a few weeks back. I really felt God calling me and putting these words on my heart to express. I also felt the need to share it. I tried to have it published. Unfortunately, no one is biting. So, I figured I would just publish it on this blog.
Dayenu
By
Mark J Garmise
As the
father of three children I don’t always find myself with time alone during the
day. My wife is a stay at home mother
and home schools our children. I work as
a restaurant manager to pay the bills, and due to my schedule, my alone time is
usually late at night. I think, watch T.V., meditate, play games, read, or what
have you, before I head to bed. The
daytime however, is a different beast all together. My mornings are often filled with the yells
of playful children and the crying of a new born baby.
On this
day however, as I stepped into the shower, I found myself quite alone. My wife and my children had run off together
on an errand. As the hot water began to
pelt my body, I felt the need to worship my Lord and Savior Jesus. I can’t say what in particular triggered
this, maybe the sheer silence of the apartment, but it was clear that God was
laying this on my heart.
Before
I tell you about my prayer, I think it is important to tell you about my friend
Brian. Brian is a relatively new
Christian, but filled with the Holy Spirit.
Brian’s spiritual growth has been fast, and from what I have observed,
very intense. One of the ways in which
Brian worships is in tongues. He
believes in his heart that God wants us to pray to him in tongues. He brought 1 Corinthians 14:5, “I wish you
could all speak in tongues, but even more I wish you could all prophesy. For prophecy is greater than speaking tongues,
unless someone interprets what you are saying so that the whole church will be
strengthened,” to my attention the other day to show me and implored me to give
it a try. I did try to pray in tongues,
but it just didn’t feel right to me.
That is not to say that one day God may not show me how to worship in
this manner, but I didn’t feel it at the time.
Back to
the shower. As I opened my mind and
heart for prayer, I once again thought of Brian and praying in tongues. I began to pray. Not prayer based on asking for forgiveness,
not prayer based on asking for God’s blessings, but truly a worship filled
prayer. I praised God for his love, his
grace, and his sacrifice. That is when
it happened. I began to let the words
flow without a filter. Letting whatever
words God was putting on my heart to be given voice through my prayer. It wasn’t tongues. Every word was something that could be found
in an English dictionary, but I gave up control of these words to Him.
I began
to repeat the same word, in different phrases over and over. It was some form of the word satisfy.
Either “Lord, allow me to satisfy you.” Or “Jesus let me give all glory
to you today and fill you with satisfaction.” It caused me to lose my
momentum. Satisfy? When I was in
elementary school, if I got a “satisfactory” on my report card, it was NOT a
good thing. It meant I was just doing
enough to get by. They tell you in high-school that a C means the same thing,
“satisfactory,” or “meets expectations.”
But meeting expectations is NOT a good thing. We are taught that we should be getting B’s
and A’s and exceeding expectations.
So I
went and looked up the word satisfy.
Merriam- Webster’s online dictionary defines satisfy as: “to cause to be happy or pleased.” Or “to
provide, do, or have what is required by someone.” What an aha moment! Society has been trying for so long to make
satisfaction seem like such a negative thing.
We don’t want to satisfy, we want to do more! We want to overachieve. Strive for that extra. Push yourself to that next level.
As a
Christian, I know that the next level is eternal life with my heavenly
father. He isn’t asking us to go above
and beyond. He isn’t asking us to push
ourselves to the very brink to achieve the unattainable. God just wants us to do the job he set forth
for us in his word. All we have to do is
satisfy him, please him. He has given us
a set of directions. He has given us a
handbook to follow. If we please him, if
we do what is required of us, then he will be satisfied. He will be pleased.
As all
of these thoughts were cascading onto my heart, like the water onto my body, I
flashed to the Passover ceremony that my family performs every year. There is a section called Dayenu. Which roughly translated is, “it would have
been enough,” or “it would have been sufficient.” In other words, it would have
satisfied us. It is an oral tradition in
which the leader of the Seder reads lines from the Haggadah (the book everyone
reads from during the dinner) and those around the table respond to each line
with “Dayenu.” It sounds something like
this:
If He had brought us
out of Egypt and had not carried out judgments against them
DAYENU
If He had carried out
judgments against them and not against their idols
DAYENU
If He had destroyed
their idols but had not smitten their first-born
DAYENU
It continues like this for around 14 verses depending on the
translation. What is important is that
all of these things are miracles.
Miracles that God performed for his people. After each one, the members of the family
proclaim that they would have been satisfied.
Satisfied at being freed from slavery? Satisfied, not elated? Overjoyed?
Yes! Satisfaction is powerful. Satisfaction
can mean all these things. So I tell you
this, when you seek out the Lord, and you do his will, and you accept him as
your lord and savior, and follow his word, then come judgment day, Dayenu.
I’d
like to end with a prayer. I will be
saying these words as I type them and I hope you can read them and raise them
up to your Lord and Savior as well.
Dear Lord, in all things I do today allow me to give all glory to
you. Allow my actions, my words, and my
thoughts to satisfy you. Amen.
God
bless.
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