Happy Thanksgiving

SCRIPTURE: Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart]. Philippians 4:8 AMP

THOUGHT: Gratitude doesn’t come easily for me. It used to – people called me Pollyanna fairly often in my younger years. But life has happened to Pollyanna, and gratitude has become more like healthy discipline than personality trait. It’s okay though, because there’s nothing wrong with discipline. We exercise, we say ‘no’ to too much food or drink (usually, anyway, maybe not today), we love even when it’s not easy, we practice silence and stillness and fasting and prayer and Scripture reading – all as disciplines. It’s okay to practice gratitude as discipline when I find myself looking at the glass half empty. It changes the way I look at everything else just like faith does. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I missed that part of my personality where everything was sunshine, even though I know much of it was a ruse.

Life just wears on humans, some of us more than others. We get to looking more like the velveteen rabbit at the end of the book that bears his name. It helps me to remember that God has a different agenda than I. He is chipping away at a masterpiece, remaking and restoring the likeness I am made in: His. He is using the sorrow and mistakes and losses to reveal something deeper. A need for a savior. A need for others. A need for bowing a knee to one I trust completely as he does his good work, even sometimes with hammer and chisel.

Joy comes in odd ways at odd moments and I can see that I am progressing toward a day when everything will be as God once planned it – everything including you and me: pure again, lovely, free from the stain of the fall. Gratitude will have its fulfillment, but until then, I’m grateful for a day like Thanksgiving. A day to stop and remember how this holiday began among people who had suffered losses and heartaches too. To see my blessings for what they are. To recalibrate my attitude and chip away at selfishness. To humble myself by looking for what is good and right and pure and lovely, what is excellent and worthy of praise, and making those things the center of my attention, today and every day, implanting anew into my heart this way of looking at our world through God’s eyes.

PRAYER: Bless you, God, for blessing us with love and kindness and even your own hammer and chisel at times – and feasts of your amazing grace all around us.