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Translating
praise
Thaddeus Nichols
Hesston (Kan.) MB Church
 It’s hard to say just why or how
things affect us. Sometimes something as simple as
watching a bird fly can take on profound significance.
As I was attending Anaheim I was searching so
desperately for the profound, deep and radical things
that I began to lose sight of the simple things. I found
the profound in one woman’s worship.
She was the deaf interpreter for
the conference—the woman who stands on the edge of the
stage and does the sign language, someone we so quickly
overlook and so quickly forget about. She opened my eyes
to a whole new world. In her simple everyday work
activity she was performing the extraordinary. Though
she may have thought she was translating English to sign
language, to me she was translating praise.
This translator understood the
meaning of Psalms 119:175: “Let me live that I may
praise you, and may your laws sustain me.” She lived to
praise and she praised to live. Every aspect of her work
showed this. She moved and swayed to the beat of the
drums. She threw her arms joyously, and it didn’t appear
as if she was signing anymore. It appeared more like a
dance. This was her spiritual act of worship; no words
were needed for her to praise because she simply used
what she was given.
I may never know her name or ever
see her again, but she has left a mark on me. For now I
think, why should I sing if I do not praise? Praise is
more than words and music. It is the heart’s sincere
desire, that outward sign of an inward reality. Because
of this one woman, I now want my life to be a life of
praise. I want my job, my schooling, my every act to
reflect praise to the awesome Creator of the universe.
As Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise you because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are
wonderful, I know that full well.”
NOTE: The Anaheim ’07 interpreter
was Heather Lemon from Neighborhood Church in Visalia,
Calif.
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