The All-important 1st Runner-Up

I have a confession to make.

I have been in pageants.

OK…I said it!

I was not in them for the “glamour” (glamour being a relative term), but for the scholarship money. So my focus really was on pageants such as Junior Miss and those that were the preliminaries to Miss America (Miss Elwood, Miss Ball State…hoping to get to Miss Indiana), which had great scholarship pay-outs as prizes.

Some of the “merits” of the pageant circuit, besides the blingy crown (….and don’t you go rolling your eyes…you know you always wanted one…just put the moose on the table, girlfriend!) were friendship, panel interviewing skills, poise, & talent development.

But wait…
There’s more!
The untold merits of the pageant circuit:
Nasty girl-fights (entertainment for those of us who find that kind of behavior utterly ridiculous!), cans of Aqua Net for solidifying the big hair (it was the late 80’s/early 90’s, after all), working with a Pageant Coach, a box of gleaming trophies that you've moved from house to house in adulthood...secretly considering an Oscar-like display on the mantle, dyed-to-match 3-inch heals to go with your one-piece, and spray adhesive to glue the buns of your one-piece down.

I learned some very important lessons from pageant participation.

However, I never was “The Queen”.

I was the all-important first-runner up in the event that the Queen could not fulfill her duties…
…except that never once was she not able to fulfill her duties.

(No pageant queen in history has ever not been able to fulfill her duties, I think. Well, except for Vanessa Williams, but let’s not go there!)

Interestingly, this has kind of been a theme throughout my life, this first-runner up thing.

Over and over I have had instances where I was good, but not good enough. Talented but not talented enough, funny but not funny enough, smart but not smart enough. I can think of countless examples, and many times that I was “just” passed over. For years it almost plagued me. Even today there is month after month where I am a high achiever, but not high enough.

After years of feeling like I am good at lots of things, but not the best at anything I was highly frustrated. Then one day it dawned on me and the first part of that sentence stuck and the last part kind of just faded away.

I am good at lots of things.

No, I am not “the best” at anything. I can think of tons of people that are better at every single aspect of life and all that is in it than I am…how humbling. But God, for some reason, made me at least decent at lots of stuff…how humbling that is, too…that He would allow me those gifts, even if my gifts seem sometimes much less gifted than the next girl’s.

Ya know what? I am not the 1st Runner-up in my husband’s eyes…I am his Queen, stretch marks and all…might not want to be caught dead even in a one-piece though, let alone the dyed-to match heels!

And ya know what else? I am not a 1st Runner-up in God’s eyes. I am His Queen, and so are you. There is room at the throne, His throne, for all of us. He doesn’t have to crown just one of us. There are Crown Jewels enough for all of us, there is Royal Inheritance for all of us. And our reward for following Him? A full-ride to the U of E (University of Eternity)…I’d rather have that kind of “scholarship” anyway!

And so now, so much older and more mature am I, it is OK to not be the Queen in the world’s view because I am the Queen in a way that really matters and so are you.
“Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God." Isaiah 49:4
I am a Queen with two kings…my Earthly King, my husband…and my Heavenly King, my God. And I will always have a place of prominence in both of their kingdoms, this is the free gift they both give to me. And God has that free gift to give to you too, if you choose to accept it.

And anyway, my mother was right. She, being ever the spin-doctor, always told me that being a little good at a lot of stuff meant I was well-rounded. I like being well rounded. Besides, being a little good at a lot of stuff means that I can craft my own crown, grow and beautifully arrange my own victory bouquet, design my own gown (though I will have to pay someone else to sew it), write my own song for the talent portion, draw on my knowledge of current events to prep for the interview, do my own hair and make-up, and be nice enough to win Miss Congeniality to boot!

OK, well…gotta run. I heard the downloadable application for the preliminary to Mrs. America is now available on-line…

Question: When in your own life have you felt like the 1st Runner-up, like you just aren’t quite good enough? What has God taught you through that?

The Sacrifice of Praise

You have probably heard the phrase "the sacrifice of praise" and you may even know what it means.

But have you really experienced it? I will admit to not getting it for a long time. But I sure do now.

God wants our praise.
He wants our worship.
It is what we are made to do.
He even gifts us to offer our praise and worship in different ways…through our various talents such as vocal or instrumental music, art, loving the unlovable, giving our time, serving through physical labor, etc.

It is so easy to praise Him when things are going well. When things are good. When things are exciting. When you can see God working. (Anyone can praise through the good times.)

However, God calls us to live right, which includes praise and worship, even when it is not easy. When things are not going well. When you feel like crap. When it’s all falling apart. (This shows a maturing faith, a faith that you are serious about.)

THAT is the sacrifice.

It is sacrificial to dig deep and find a way to rejoice in the moment that you feel you are dwelling in the pit of hell. You don’t want to praise, you want to lay in a heap of your own despair and cry and stomp and throw a fit.

Whether in the really big, deep trenches of life or the little daily annoyances, God wants us to find the reasons to praise Him. This kind of sacrifice brings God ultimate joy because he knows the deepest caverns of our hearts and He knows how hard this is for us as humans. That’s why it is called the sacrifice of praise.

In the big stuff…
When I couldn’t get pregnant and "thoroughly disgusted" didn’t even scratch the surface on that subject, it was hard to find something to praise about. But over time I learned to praise God for the experience, to praise Him for the chance to help others who might go through it, to praise Him for helping me learn to rely on Him, to praise Him for the reminder that He is in control (Jer. 29).

And in the small…
He wants our praise for the chaos of life: Thank you God, for a rich, and exciting life…it sure ain’t boring at my house!
He wants our praise for the worries of life: Thank you God, for the opportunity to solve problems in a creative way and to give You the glory…cuz’ I know you are gonna help me figure this out!
He wants us to praise him for the annoyances of life: Thank you God for your protection…surely my running late has helped me avoid some kind of accident or problem.

And He wants our praise in the disappointments of life, too... I had a series of about 4 really big disappointments this past spring. A couple of things that I had worked very hard for that had fallen through, and something where I truly believed God was leading me in a certain direction only to have the door slammed. I was devastated and exhausted, especially with it all happening at once.
But somehow through my earlier "God School" education (this is my version of "home school", but where God is teaching you stuff that you must know in order to proceed on the path He has laid out for you), I knew what I must do: dry the tears if only long enough to thank Him for what I knew He must be doing... even though I had not one clue what it was at the time. (I can actually look back on it six months later and see what "the point" was! I truly praise Him for the learning!)

That, my friends, is faith.

It’s not too late…
No matter how far into the pit of hell you have fallen, I am convinced that finding a way to praise Him through it is the first step in climbing out.

Question: What can you praise Him for today no matter how bad things seem?