Yesterday I attended a bat mitzvah for the first time. It was via Zoom, so I was able to bear witness to my young friend’s entrance into Jewish womanhood from the comfort of my own sofa. While the whole experience was moving—I wept happy tears watching as she co-led the chanting and then read from a beautiful Torah scroll—one quick comment by the song leader made a profound impression on me.
While transitioning between a reading of Psalm 150 and a song, the song leader referenced the words of the song that say the breath of all living things praises God. As an aside he threw in, “It isn’t something it has to try to do. It just does.” That simple, off-the-cuff statement moved me to the point I had to write it down so I would remember it.
In the Pentecostal churches I grew up in that psalm was used to pressure people to physically and vocally participate in the leaders’ idea of “praising God”. Furthermore, if you were not demonstrative enough to please them, you were shamed. But the song leader’s assertion flies in the face of that. In that context, my mere breath, the fact that I am breathing in and of itself, praises God.
In other words, who I am is more than good enough. Selah.
