Everywhere I have ever been, greatness has been self-evident…with the exception of the church.

Mount Rushmore, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Golden Gate Bridge are all places that when we see them in person inspire us and cause us to say with profundity: Wow!  Why?  Because their greatness is self-evident.  No one has to explain to you why these places are great.  These places draw us out of our daily navel gazing and cause us to be filled with the wonder and awe of humanity’s creativity.

When we catch a glimpse of  greatness, it doesn’t need to be explained.  It is simply acknowledged and appreciated.  Michael Angelo’s frescos are far superior to my pencil sketches.  Michael Jordan’s basketball success far outshines my hardwood antics.  Donald Trump’s riches makes my bank account look like his change drawer.  We understand greatness on an internal level.  We don’t need a text book to figure out why those people are great.

The same is true with God.  God’s greatness is self-evident in all that he created…or at least it should be.  However, in my experience, even though we all have this innate ability to determine greatness on a human level, we don’t seem to have the same ability when it comes to appreciating God’s greatness.  It is easy to be dulled by God.  Somehow the One True God who not only has created everything that ever was, but has also taken on flesh and blood to personally show us his love and grace can quickly become common place in the church.

We will talk more about why on Sunday, but thankfully we have people who continually call us to remember God’s greatness.  The psalmists are our prime examples in helping us refresh our image of God and his self-evident greatness.  They are so good at this work that they recapture our imaginations with the wonder of God again.  They help us to worship again because they help us to see God’s greatness with fresh eyes.

Worship is the next core value that we will be discussing this Sunday.  In order to prepare for our conversation, please read Psalm 96.  (Bonus: If you want practice in making the Word a core value in your life then consider not just reading Psalm 96, but also reflecting on it as we talked about last weekend.)