"Give Thanks"

Thanksgiving is not something that comes naturally. I have never heard of a child for whom their first word was "Thank you." That was certainly not the case for my children. No, children have to be taught to give thanks. And so parents, like a broken record, say to his or her young child, "What do you say?" and then the child looks at the parent as though they are from a different planet, speaking a different language and the parents ask again, "What do you say?" Then to save both themselves and their child from further embarrassment, the parents prompt the child with, "Say,'Thank you'." Finally...hopefully...the little one, at least, pretends to mean it when he or she says,"thank you," right before dashing off to the next item on his or her little agenda.

The point is thanksgiving is something we must learn, if we are to learn it at all. In fact, I think it is something that we adults must continually learn and re-learn as we make this journey called life.

You can always tell the difference between the folks who have learned to put thanksgiving into practice and those who have not. Those who have are not optimistic, they are realistic...they see the difficulty and pain of life, but they never loose sight of all the reasons they have to give thanks no matter how small those reasons might seem to others. Thankful people are incredibly resilient people because instead of seeing every challenge as the end of the world, they maintain a perspective that there is more to life than this new problem. Thankful people are just more pleasant to be around...when you leave them you feel like you have been filled up rather than having had the last drop of life sucked out of you.

But again, thanksgiving is something we learn. Regardless of your personality or your present life situation, thanksgiving is something we can learn. In fact, as followers of Jesus, it is something we are commanded to learn. I Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." It does not say give thanks "FOR", but "IN" all circumstances. This is something we can learn to do and we are given good reason to learn it..."this is God's will for you." If you have any kind of genuine relationship with Jesus at all then you know that God's will is not to make you miserable. Jesus said God's will is that we might have life and life abundant. Therefore, the command to learn thanksgiving is one of the keys that unlocks God's promise of abundant life in our lives.

I am grateful that we live in one of two countries in the world that have Thanksgiving as a holiday. Once a year, we are specifically and intentionally reminded that thanksgiving is something for which is worth stopping everything! I encourage you, brother and sister in Christ, re-learn to give thanks this thanksgiving...Be intentional about it...Be out loud about it...Make it personal... Make it real. "Give thanks for the Lord is good", Psalm 136:1.

"The Waiting Room"

The last few days I have spent a lot of time in waiting rooms. Where your loved one is, while you wait in the waiting room, much is being done…medical staff is prepping and doctors are working, but from where you sit in the waiting room you can see none of that. All you can see is the clock’s hands moving painlessly slow. In the waiting room there is nothing you can do for the one you love. You can pray, but by this point all the words you can think to say have already been sent up to God. No, the waiting room is appropriately named because all you can do is wait.

I am no fan of waiting rooms…I am much better at doing than waiting. I am less likely to stop and smell the roses than I am to plant, prune and weed the roses. However, life seems to not care what my personality type prefers. At times, life forces us all to take a seat in the waiting room. Sometimes life forces us to sit in an actual doctor’s office waiting room…waiting to see how things go for one we love or waiting to hear from a doctor what the tests revealed…there we all hope for the best as we fight not to think of the worst. Sometimes life puts in a waiting room that we cannot see, but certainly can feel…waiting for someone to at least acknowledge they received your résumé as you wait in the unemployment line…waiting for your child to see that you don’t exist to make them miserable, but your rules are out of love…waiting for that someone to show up in your life to move you from being alone to being with someone who wants to be with you…waiting to see God answer prayer…waiting for answers, waiting for help, waiting for direction, just waiting…

The waiting room is not an easy place to sit because the rules of the room are clear…in the waiting room the one thing you are suppose to do is wait. Don’t act, don’t think, don’t worry, don’t try to fix anything...just wait…wait in the waiting room and you have done your job. Are you willing to receive that assignment from God? Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who wait upon the Lord renew their strength; they mount up with wings as eagles...they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Waiting on God is not a waste of time; it is the best use of time. Because the more I learn to wait in the waiting rooms of life, the less I will interrupt what God is doing that I cannot see.

For instance, if you were in a hospital waiting room and grew so impatient that you barged into the surgery room, you would delay if not prevent the surgeon from doing his job. The same applies in our relationship with God. When God tells us to wait, he asks us to trust that he is working even when we cannot see it. If we will be still and wait upon the Lord, eventually we will see God’s work come to completion. But if we jump out of our seat and barge in and try to do what we cannot, could we delay or possibly even prevent God from working? I don’t know, but by his grace, I am learning the very hard lesson of simply staying in my seat and waiting when I find myself in the waiting room.

"Remember"

Today is a day of remembrance. The speaker at Centerville's Veteran's day ceremony put it well when she said, "Veteran's day is not a holiday it is a memorial day." It is a day to remember what others have given to gain and preserve our freedom as a Nation. As we remember the service of our veterans we naturally turn to gratefulness for their service. So, today we remember and thank our veteran's.

On another day, some two thousand years ago, Jesus called his disciples to remembrance. He took the cup, broke the bread and said, "Do this in remembrance of me." Every time we participate in Communion we are invited to remember that Jesus' body was broken and his blood was spilled out so that through his act we can come into and live in relationship with God. Our remembrance then most naturally turns to gratefulness. As Romans 5 says, "God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners he died for us." Praise be to God!

So, where are you today? Has this been the best day of your life or the worst or just another ho-hum day of routine. I urge you to stop and remember. Remember Jesus. Remember his sacrifice. He loved you so much he received a punishment for which he was not guilty, he experienced pain he did not have to go through and he died so you could live. Receive his love for the first time or for the 1000th time as though it is the first. Then let your remembrance turn to thanks. Thank God out loud for his love for you. Thank God for his faithfulness in your past. Thank God for the fact that he will make a way for you in your future. Thank God for being with you and promising to never leave.

When we make time to remember it leads us to gratitude and where we find reason to give thanks we remember what makes life worth living!

"The Town's Spring"

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a town that sat along a natural spring. The town was a nice place to live and its natural spring made it beautiful. A path was created along the spring so that the people could enjoy the view of the spring with a stroll, a bike ride or a jog. Everyone loved their town and everyone enjoyed the spring. Of course, everyone also knew that the spring was poisonous. Decades ago the town's founding father's recognized that even animals did not drink from the spring and when one of them drank it to find out why, he soon grew very sick. Had he drunk more, he most certainly would have died. Nevertheless, what the spring lacked in function it more than made up for in beauty.

However, one summer grew hot. It was hotter and dryer than even the oldest citizen of the town could ever recall. It was a drought like none other. Farmer's fields shriveled up, the ground was parched and cracked and worst of all their drinking wells were quickly growing shallow. It was a desperate situation. People were hungry....people were thirsty...everyone wondered what they should do...how would they survive?

Oddly enough, the spring, still ran deep and cold...The local Mayor said, "It was a reminder that this too shall pass."

As it normally happens at times like these, leaders emerge form the background to the foreground. In this town, two well-respected men came to the town meeting each with a different plan.

The first man stood and said, "Fellow citizens these are difficult times. The drought is hot, long and the end seems to be far off. I suggest we all pull our resources. We collect our water and ration it. Instead of every farmer trying to save his own farm, we count them all a loss, but one and from its land have food for our families. The times are tough but together we can get through it."

The town people nodded their heads in agreement. "That makes sense," they said, "Together we can get through this drought."

Yet, one man disagreed. He stood and said, "My friend is right. The times are hard. The drought is hot, long and the end seems far off. But we are overlooking the most obvious solution. The spring. The spring has plenty of water to fill our wells and irrigate our farms. Even in this drought our spring has proven faithful. Let's turn to the spring and let it bring to our town all that we have lost."

The other man was quick to respond, "What are you saying? This is crazy. The spring is poison. Even animals know better than to run to it to quench their thirst. Not even grass survives where the spring flows. It is a beautiful, but it is deadly. Have we forgotten the lesson of our grandfathers?"

The other man rebutted, "Fellow citizens. Now is no time to hearken back to the days of superstition. Let's be realistic. Without the water we are all going to die any way, at least this water can get us through. If we are careful and we monitor how much we drink, any damage will be far outweighed by the benefits." And to make the point, the man drank a small glass of the spring water himself.

The towns people had quite a discussion, but in the end they believed the best option was to drink from the spring. The man who voiced the idea became the local expert. He created charts and measurements for how much a person could drink based upon their weight and size. And so, in the hot, dry drought, the people found a cool, refreshing supply. The truth was the water tasted good. People laughed and said, "Why did we go so long without drinking from our beautiful spring?" And so it seemed all was well.

Until about a month later a cry broke forth in the midnight sky. A cry of anguish. A cry of a mother whose little boy had died. "Its the water she cried...the spring killed my boy..."

The people were sorry for her loss, but no one could believe that the spring had killed her boy and if it had then it was her fault for the good man with the idea carefully prescribed how much was too much.

But then another grew sick and then another and then another until one after another the good people of this good town by this beautiful spring watched the spring prove not to be their savior but their murderer.

Disillusioned, heart broken and physically weak, the people of the town came to the man with the other idea and said, "You were right. The water is poison. The end did not justify the means. Tell, us friend, is it too late, can we turn back."

The man with the other idea, looked down. his eyes filled with tears. Though he wanted to give the people good news, he had none. It was too late to pull their resources for everyone but him had filled their wells with the poisonous spring water and everyone but him had water their fields with it. So, what they had to offer was poison and what he had to offer was not enough.

Now many years later, there is a beautiful spring where once sat a nice little town.

"The Fear Factor"

Wouldn't life be wonderful if all we had to fear were werewolves, vampires and the occasional witches brew? That would be nice, but we have much greater things to fear. Let's see...where do I start? Well, there is H1N1 that experts estimate will infect 65% of the population...and then there is the ongoing economic and unemployment threat...Terrorist are still blowing up cars and we are all too aware that their eye is on bigger targets that will cost a greater number of lives...North Korean and Iran are just fascinated with testing nuclear missiles...and, then there is Jon Gibson, at least he frightens me sometimes (Just kidding, Jon...well...no, I am kidding)and those are just global fears not mention more local and personal fears.

With all these things to fear in our world, it makes me wonder, how much of what I do or don't do is driven by fear? Before we are too hard on fear, let's be thankful for fear. Fear can be healthy. For instance, I want my kids to fear sticking their finger in the light socket. However, it is very easy for fear to very quickly leave the realm of healthy. You can always tell when fear crosses over to being unhealthy, because when we have unhealthy fear it keeps us from living.

You see, healthy fear helps us live (not sticking my finger in the light socket helps me live without being electrocuted). Unhealthy fear keeps me from living by causing me to withdraw from life and others. Unhealthy fear paralyzes. It isolates. It convinces me the only way to be safe is to stop living in some way...For example, since H1N1 is spreading so quickly, unhealthy fear says, "Don't leave the house." Unhealthy fear says, "Terrorists may high jack an airplane again so never fly again" or "The economy may never improve so cash out and hide your money in a mattress." Unhealthy fear moves fear from serving as a healthy safe guard to an irrational trying to control what we cannot.

Recently, I heard another pastor say, "As the world gets darker, the church ought to shine brighter." Of course, he stole that from Jesus in Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before all people, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

In other words, for the Follower of Jesus our response to the fears of this world is not to deny or ignore them, nor to hide from them. instead, we are to shine all the brighter. We are to live life to the full in Jesus and as we live by faith and not fear may others see God and praise him.

"The Point of No Return"

The other night I went through a Yellow traffic light and said, "Past the point of no return." I suppose I said it out loud to some how try to justify that I hit the gas when the light turned yellow rather than slow down (What are you looking at me like that for...Like you've never done that). The truth is I learned that phrase in driving school many years ago. In all reality it is a phrase not of justification but permission. When the light turns yellow and you are already committed to go, it is better for you to keep going that to try and stop after you have gone past the point of no return.

I was thinking about how life is regularly calling us to go past the point of no return; to commit ourselves to going all the way in one thing or another. For instance, when you jump off the diving board you go past the point of no return. You are going in the pool whether you change your mind in mid-air or not. Marriage is going past the point of no return. Dating is easy to get in and out of but marriage makes a spiritual and legal commitment that is costly to end. Major purchases such a house require a past the point of no return choice. No Bank will agree to let you sign a loan that says, "I agree to pay on this House the next 30 years unless it would seem otherwise financially inconvenient". Everyone who does anything valuable at all in their life does so because they make "a past the point of no return" choice...it applies to relationships, jobs, education and 100 small choices every day. The reason we move forward in life is because we hit the gas and go past the point of no return.

The same is true spiritually speaking. If I am to keep moving forward in my relationship with God, then regularly God will bring me to "past the point of no return" choices...some of them are small such as will I incorporate corporate worship into my weekly schedule, while others are as significant as teh decision to be baptized.

Baptism is a choice to go past the point of no return. It is saying, "Father, you went all the way for me and I am ready to go all the way with you." In baptism my faith is no longer merely personal, it is public meaning that God can use my faith not just for my benefit but anyone he should so choose. It means that I am committed to living in his forgiveness and following him wherever he leads. For our spiritual forefather's, this meaning of baptism was nothing to be ignored. During times of persecution, when people made a decision to be baptized they were most literally putting a target on their backs. And yet, they chose to follow Jesus' command to be baptized. That is going way past the point of no return!

Romans 6:1-4 expresses this past the point of no return faith: "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live any longer to it? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore, buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

So, far 12 people have signed up to go past the point of no return in baptism this Sunday! It is not too late for you to make this decision as well (just email or call me). For those of us not being baptized, our presence is just as important. Their baptism will remind of us of our own. Furthermore, it is our chance to celebrate and support our brothers and sisters in Christ in going past the point of no return in their faith. It is going to be a powerful day of celebration. See you Sunday!

"She Noticed"

Last Sunday he came to worship with a cast on his broken hand. As he stood in line to pick up his child from the Kidz Zone, a little girl noticed his hand. Sierra is her name. (Sierra is a little girl that our society would say has special needs, but around here we just call her special). She signed with her hands to her mom and asked, "What happened?" Her mom asked and he explained he had broken his hand. Then Sierra asked, "Does he need an IV?" Sierra has had to many IV's in her life to keep track of...she has been through so many surgeries and has many more to come, so she was concerned that perhaps he would need one too. He explained he did not need one. Then she asked, "Did it hurt?" He said, "Yes, it did." Then Sierra did something he did not expect...her eyes filled with tears...she hurt for him...with him. Already in her young life she knows all too well physical pain. And because of what she has been through, already she has learned a lesson that many adults fail to learn that when you hurt, it means a lot to have someone else notice. It means a lot to know someone else cares. It means a lot to have someone cry with you. He said to me, "Chad, I just met an Angel" and then he told me the story.

I was going to find a Scripture to go with this, but then I thought, isn't this what the entire Bible is about?

Thank you, Sierra, I needed to be reminded of the powerful ministry of noticing!