As I got up this morning the phrase “Simply the Best” kept running through my mind. There’s a theme for those things in the title for the blog today. Tina Turner certainly popularized the phrase with a song actually entitled “Simply.” Since the chorus starts off with the whole phrase “Simply the Best”, that’s what it is known by, even if wrong.
“Simply the Best” happens to be the title of an album I really like. It’s two cd’s of popular movie themes from days gone by and the orchestras that performed them. Quality music that doesn’t disappoint!
The picture is the handiwork of my beautiful bride and the recognition of being the best at the County Fair!! $5 check paid for half an order of cheese curds! Leah, your “Simply the Best!”
When it comes to the best, I can’t think of anything other than God. And if we were to list off the attributes that add up the sum total of why, there is one attribute that actually stands above all others. The attributes on the list certainly bolster the grand conclusion. His love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, justice, infinite self-existence, self-sufficiency, wisdom, steadfast faithfulness, goodness, and on and on…
The attribute I’m talking about is one that we in the church sing about frequently. It is a reminder of that which stands different from our experience of people here with each other. Our relationships with each other are frequently broken through duplicity. Saying one thing but doing another. Those events can be large and difficult to overcome. Something like marital unfaithfulness comes to mind as a big one in that category. But it can also be the little things, promises that go unmet, choices to invest time, money, and energy into something we agreed not to do. Saying you love someone, yet consistently doing small things that represent the opposite of that.
I think we have replaced this attribute of God that is central with other attributes of God and it actually changes our perspective in ways that can be damaging to the complete picture of God. It’s best reflected in a song title that we sing in the church. The version we seem to want to sing today is “Loving, Loving, Loving.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer in the Love of God, just like I’m a firm believer in everything else on the above list. But we have chosen one attribute and made it the whole. Just like if we took God’s omnipotence and began to worship that in a singular way it would change our perspective, probably make us a little power hungry instead of following the servant life Jesus modeled for us. Thus the reason for completing the picture.
The song we do sing is “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The Holiness of God sets Him apart, He exists in perfect purity and is eternally consistent with Himself. People grow, mature, age, but God is eternally the same. There is not a shifting shadow in His character. God is the source and standard of goodness. The moral code we are invited to is not a coin flip of today’s cultural ideas, it’s rooted in the person of God, the way He is always and as such, requires of us. Alignment with the Creator of the universe makes things go better, not simply compliance for compliance sake.
As we enter into Holy Week, there are many things to celebrate, most of those things spill over into our lives and are cause for us to see how blessed we are. The Holiness of God is why we speak of Him as an anchor, firm foundation, and a solid rock on which to stand. In a word where you can’t bank on much, it’s His holiness that informs us where to build. “Simply The Best.” better than all the rest…
Truth, Grace, and Time 