Reckless With Our Praise
Did you know it is possible to be reckless with our rejoicing and praise? Consider the fate of this poor LA Dodgers fan who accidntally blew off most of his hand while celebrating their 2024 World Series victory.
A World Series celebration Wednesday night turned tragic for one Dodgers fan ... who blew off their hand while lighting a firework in the streets of L.A.
The horrifying incident happened in downtown just minutes after the Dodgers beat the Yankees in Game 5 -- and it was all, unfortunately, captured on video. ...
The explosion caused a fireball that engulfed the man ... and moments later, he could be seen stumbling away from the smoke in what appeared to be a state of shock. ...
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Dept. tells TMZ Sports ... first responders got to the scene at 2:30 AM Thursday -- and found the 25-year-old conscious and alert, but suffering from bilateral hand wounds. ...His injuries have been described as debilitating, but not life-threatening.
A UK media outlet, UNILAD, put it this way:
Seeing your favorite sports teams win is a sense of pure euphoria, and there are many different ways fans can celebrate the occasion.
Whether it be a pint in the pub with your pals after the big game, or going the extra mile and making a night out of that all important victory that puts your team on the right path.
Setting off a firework to mark a victory is certainly a new one on me, however, with one Dodgers fan doing such as he celebrated their World Series MLB victory over the New York Yankees.
WARNING: The graphic video is very hard to watch.
Looks like this poor Dodgers fan was pretty reckless with praise ...
Earthly joy and celebration are all part of the gift of being human. Such experiences, can, as the journalist above observed, bring us a sense of pure euphoria. Yet such experiences were never intended to be our sole, or even primary object of our praise and celebration. That role is reserved for God alone.
So don't be reckless with your praise! Enjoy this life and all its joys, all while recognizing that all praise, all glory, all "real" celebration, belongs to your Maker.
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2: 9, ESV).
"Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!" (Psalm 150:1-5, ESV).
"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods" (Psalm 95:1-3).
The Cumulative Effects of Spiritual Blindness
"I had no idea what was coming at me," said California ophthalmologist Katerina Kurteeva as she painstakingly removed one contact lens after another from the eyes of an elderly patient. All in all, Dr. Kurteeva removed 23 layers of lenses.
It seems the elderly woman either didn’t know or had forgotten that she must remove previous contact lenses before placing new ones. The ensuing blurred vision caused her to keep inserting more lenses in the hopes of correcting the problem. Her vision blurred more and more until she finally sought medical help.
Fortunately, the lenses were removed before permanent damage was done.
Amazingly, this wasn’t even the worst case ever reported, with a UK doctor having removed a record 27 lenses from the eyes of another elderly patient back in 2017.
Follow this link to observe a video of the procedure.
Like the blinding physical effects of these layers of lenses, the effects of spiritual blindness can build up slowly, creeping up on us as we focus on life through worldly lenses.
When we view the world without benefit of the light of the Word of God, we just keep adding layers of worldy perspective upon previous layers, until we either realize our perspective is skewed and seek help, or we simply, over time, become “blind” to our own blindness.
It may take someone else making us aware of our skewed vision, helping us to remove the layers of worldly perspective, and opening our eyes to the clarity of a scriptural worldview.
Don’t give into delusion. Don't wait until you are utterly blind. Seek help. Look to the Word of God to bring clarity and light to the eyes of your soul.
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18, ESV)
“For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17, ESV).
“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4, ESV).
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins” (2 Peter 1:5-9, NIV).
When Evil Became Good
One day Good and Evil met on the seashore. They said to one another, "Let us bath in the sea." Then they disrobed and swam.
After a while, Evil came out and put on the garment of Good and walked away.
When Good came ashore, she could not find her true garment. To hide her nakedness, she had no choice but to robe herself with the garment of Evil and walk away.
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When Evil steals the garment of Good, Good is left with no choice but to wear the garment of Evil. That's what we see happening in the world today, as evil actions and attitudes are lauded as good. In such a world, those who do good are given no choice but to assume the role of being considered evil.
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Isaiah 5:20).
"Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness" (Luke 11:35, NLT).