Praise is a language

Christian Century, June 15, 2004 by Jeff Gundy

Praise is a language

   The young preacher said so and then hurried on and the girls
   who had led the praise songs nodded and whispered in the front pew
   but wait, I muttered in my head, if praise is a language then what

   can we use it to say? How widely is it spoken, and should we maybe
   listen instead of talking so much? I have seen praise glowing
   in the cornstalks glazed with mud and snow. I have heard

   the fine twigs of the sickly high tree outside my fourth-floor
   window sifting the buttery wind. I have taken the stairs
   two at a time and groped for my key and dreamed that

   the language of praise might launch itself across the wide skies,
   cross vacuums and voids like radio or photons, carry some
   wild packet of data and yearning that would cause the High One

   suddenly to relent, to pass out the sports ears and the answer keys,
   to sit down alone and together with us all and tenderly explain
   the languages of bullies, traffic, RPGs, anthrax, patriarchy

   and cholesterol, propound in words glowing and clear the need
   for better mid more detailed articulations of the High One's
   splendor, grandeur, majesty and might, for the pretty good guitar

   strummed nearly in time, for the blond girl who sweetly sang
   Father, Father as the rest of us tried to follow the tune.