A facebook friend posted one of my favorite videos, Lecresia Campbell singing “We Magnify Your Name.” I began to sing the song to myself and as I did so, it came to me why I am still here. Life has not been fair to me, in the worldly terms of fairness. Things have not gone the way I would have liked them to proceed. There has been loss and abandonment. I am at a season in my life where the future should not be as hazy as it currently is. I have been forgotten and kicked to the curb more times than I want to count. I am not getting any younger and my bank account is not getting any fatter.

It is easy to complain about the stuff life serves up to us, the chaos we have to straighten that was created by others, the slights we endure simply because someone thinks “it is so,” though they have no proof and do not have the courage to talk to us in person. Yes, it has taken me a while to get to a place where I am comfortable with the skin I am in. I have learned to accept the things I cannot do and rejoice in the things I can still accomplish. My sleep is not as sound as it once was, but I still am able to lie down and go to sleep. My walk is not as comfortable as it once was, but I am still able to walk. I have to pop a blood pressure pill everyday, but it is the only medication I have to take right now.

If I were to get caught up in all the minuses of life, I would have to wonder “Why am I still here? What is the point in my still being around if life is just going to keep throwing me negative curve balls?” It would be oh so easy to count the scars and point out the bruises, but what would any of that accomplish? Still, there is the temptation to wonder, “Why am I still here?” The world in which I live does not value age and discounts any wisdom I may have, so why am I still here?

Ms. Campbell answered the question for me this morning as the song resonated in my heart, “Oh Lord, we magnify your name; O Lord, we magnify your name. For the awesome things you’ve done and for your gift, your only son, O Lord, we magnify your name.”

I am still here to magnify His name, in season and out of season, through the valleys and over the mountains, in the doldrums and when the winds are briskly blowing. I am still here to magnify, to make great, to celebrate in praise, His name. Everything else is extraneous.

This is the challenge. This is the blessing. This is the reason I am still here.

O LORD, WE MAGNIFY YOUR NAME!!!