A few months ago we started ending our chapel service by singing the simple little refrain many people learned at church camp or in their Sunday school and youth group experiences. The tune is easy and the lyrics consist of one word: “Alleluia”. It can be sung as a simple tune or, if you have the right group of people in the room, it can be layered with much harmony. I encouraged people to not only harmonize but to carry that word into their week, to look for people or situations or sights they see that warrant an ‘alleluia’. It was in many ways a spur of the moment thing to say but in truth I really meant it.

Alleluia, an unapologetically churchy word, simply means to give praise or honor to something for the presence of the holy within it. It is a word that is littered throughout the scriptures and is the stuff of countless compositions of music over the centuries. It is not, however, a word that trips off the tongue of many 21st century human beings. My goal was to remedy this.

So in my encouragement I hoped to invite people to be aware and awake to the beautiful, the amazing, the precious moments that come our way every day. Experiences in which the Divine shows up to remind us that we are walking in a gift of a world. Even in the other definition of ‘alleluia’ which is an exclamation of thankfulness for something that happens that is surprising or ironic, the Sacred can also be found lurking around the edges. Situations like coming back to your car with the full knowledge that you have an expired meter and finding (alleluia!) that you do not have a ticket.

Putting this call for alleluias everywhere also primed that pump for my own experience. I found myself muttering under my breath this four syllable, quite ancient word. And I have found that one alleluia leads to another. It is like an amazing addiction to noticing and proclaiming.

I have found that I am now having alleluia moments more and more. I can’t stop myself. Last week when the full moon rose high in the sky with an even larger glowing aura surrounding it? Alleluia! Watching a father walk his beautiful daughter down the aisle this past weekend. Alleluia! The baby, new to the world, that I saw in the elevator leaving a hospital visit, her black hair so full it looked like a wig. Alleluia. The unfolding corn fields lining the highway offering their food to the world. Alleluia.

Over the weekend I was blessed to lead worship for a group of writers gathered for retreat. The community they have formed over the years, one of faith and the love of words and story, inspired me. Alleluia. And the retreat center where they met, so lovingly cared for and attentive to hospitality, was a sanctuary of nature and prayer. Alleluia.

But what may have caused the largest and loudest recent alleluia of all was the hibiscus bush that welcomed worshipers into the center’s chapel. Its brilliant red petals and yellow centers unfolded to the size of dinner plates. How could something so beautiful, so fragile and fleeting survive? Its existence thrilled me once again with this world, this nest home, I am privileged to rest in, a home held my a Mystery I do not understand but regularly glimpse.

And for that I am filled to overflowing with gratitude…….and alleluias.