{{2012_08_28_t1.jpg}} {{2012_08_28_t2.jpg}} {{2012_08_28_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2012_08_28|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_iv|| Topics Collection iv ]] ======Praise and Reality ...====== Tuesday, Aug 28, 2012. Exploring the world of praise, I realize that praise can have a very important role. We all live in an environment, which has both good things and problems. We can get focused on the problems ... then we need to balance our negative attitude, and praise is a good tool to get out of our hole. {{2012_08_28.jpg }} **Praise within heterogeneous systems ...** The world is full of problems and of conflict. You read about the Euro crisis every day in the news. Politicians are tempted to be negative and stir our fear and emotions even further. They need to see both the good things as well as the problematic parts of our social and economic systems. Working in a large company, you probably see all the things which are really crazy. Even if you try to do good work, there are structures which keep you from being very efficient. But if you go the route of frustration, you end up in a loop of pain and lamentation. Praise is needed, since there are good things in the structures around you ... and our systems are quite capable, even if they have some severe problems. Let us call the good things good and the bad things bad. It is of no value to be deceptive about problems or stupid features of a system. I think it is reasonable to call stupid rules stupid. But often, they have been introduced to help at some point, and they are not completely stupid. So it is important to keep the balance. Praise can help a lot here. Praise what is to be praised. Call good what is good! {{ 2012_08_28_2.jpg}} **God helps quite a lot ...** For me, the bible is extremely helpful. When you read the praise of the psalms, you are drawn out of any vicious circle. Your mind is opening for the Lord, for his creation, for his wonders. And indeed, the world is full of wonders, we just don't see them usually. God helps a lot. He can help me during a normal day. He can help me keeping my mind balanced, keeping my thoughts and feelings pure and straight. He is the great comforter in my struggle. He is the great helper, like a mother or a father ... All this leads to praise, he is just wonderful. He is the center of the universe, but still there for every single individual. In his surpassing power, he can be there for everyone, as if there would be only you and him! God has promised help in all trouble. He has promised to be there and hold us. This promise holds in every system, in every environment, in your household, in your job, in your neighborhood, everywhere. With the knowledge of his help, praise leads us to reality. Let us praise him, the one who is honest, friendly and capable to save us once forever, and day by day ... (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_iv|... more texts]]