The Glad Game

I need that movie. You know the one I mean? Disney’s Pollyanna. In that old movie, people are transformed because someone comes into their world speaking words of hope and truth. Pollyanna gave the people reasons to be thankful by teaching them to look through another lens - The Glad Game. Do you need a Pollyanna in your life? Are you one?

Another blogger (who I now can’t trace) quoted John Piper on her blog. He said, “The people who love God most enjoy God most, cling to him most, hug him most are the most broken people. They’re the ones who have felt most deeply how desperate they are. So let’s be a broken happy people.”

I am often lost between the optimist and the pessimist in me, the broken person and the profoundly blessed one. Loss must not be minimized nor ought it be dwelt upon. Life goes on. Hope can be found in the darkest of places and if such a hope exists, do we dare ignore it?

Yet, it is in my brokenness, my disappointments, and my sorrow that I cry out to God the most. It is often my circumstances that provoke relentless prayer. Yet as bad as circumstances might be, the depth of my brokenness is determined by my conscience. It is then that I know Who I really am! How can I be less than one of those broken happy people?

Pollyanna found reasons to be glad. I am determined to do the same and the words of this song sum it up for me perfectly. It is because of the truths expressed here that my spirit can be released to really play the Glad Game. This is what I’m thankful for:

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea
A great High Priest whose name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me

When Satan tempts me to despair
and tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there,
Who made an end to all my sin

Because the sinless Savior died
my sinful soul is counted free
For God the Just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Behold Him there, the risen Lamb
my perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I Am,
the King of glory and of grace

My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in Heaven, He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart

One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased with His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God
With Christ my Savior and my God