"Grateful"

Last week was a week of celebration in our home. It was Anna's third birthday. The actual day of her birthday we went to Young's Dairy for dinner. While in the dining room I shouted for everyone to hear, "Everyone it is Anna's third birthday." The place erupted with applause and cheers. Anna hid her face but she could not hide her smile. Then on Saturday all of our family gathered at our house for a "princess Birthday party". Jen Watkins from our church family made an amazing cake that looked like a castle. Anna was so excited to have her cousins in town and loved the extra attention that she got from her grandparents and the rest of the family. It was a fun day (even though something inside of me could not believe that my baby girl seemed so grown up already). Then on Monday morning, as I was preparing breakfast (i.e. pouring cereal in a bowl), Anna said, "Dad, let's have my birthday again!" Such are the words of true gratitude. So grateful was she for the birthday experience that the only thing that could make it better was to do it all over again.

Grateful is the word that best sums up my experience in week six of my sabbatical. To be a Follower of Christ means to follow Christ down the path of gratitude. To be a Christian is to be grateful. Thanks and praise are as core to our faith as confession or any other aspect. Think about it...every week we call ourselves together from our various life ventures to worship together. And at the core of worship is not me and you as individuals, but an expression of corporate gratitude for what God has done, does and will do and for who He is. "While we were yet sinners God demonstrated his love for us in this: He sacrificed his son." Talk about reason to give thanks...while I was yet totally self-absorbed and uninterested in relationship with God, the Father made the ultimate love act on my behalf. That is powerful! Christian people ought to be the most continually grateful people in the world.

One thing I have come to appreciate from our Brothers and Sisters in Celebrate Recovery and AA is something called a gratitude list. It is taking the time to sit down and just start writing all one has for which to be grateful. They say this is especially important on those days when you feel like there is nothing to be grateful. My friend, Greg Hurst, once explained it this way, "Everyone has some ting to be thankful for. You may have a day that is so bad that it is hard to think of something, but if you can thank God that you can tie your shoes that will get you started and before long you will overflow with a list that could go on and on." Of course, CR and AA got this principle form the Bible. The Bible says in more than one place to give thanks in all circumstances. Why? Because thanks moves our focus from what is going from to what is going right and when we can see what is going right we are able to see WHO is right even when everything is going wrong. Our Father is always right in love, mercy, strength, comfort...

So, today, as I sit in the airport preparing to leave on a trip that has been a lifelong dream, I am grateful. If you are willing to keep reading, I would love to have you look in on a portion of my gratitude list...

I am grateful for...
this opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. For me it is deeply personal and spiritual.
the realization that even though I am excited about this trip, I have a big ache in my heart for the time I will be away from my wife and children. I already miss them and I thank God for that. I have a home that I can't wait to get back to and that is a tremendous gift that is largely do to a wife who has made our home a refuge.
family...as I leave I know that Kimberly and the kids will be surrounded by grandparents and other family members. And this is no exception to the rule, this is just how our family is to us and we are so grateful.
church family....as I have been away, more than ever, I have come to see that I just happen to be the pastor of the most incredible church family in the world. Truly you are not just people I work for, but people our family loves and is loved by like family. Thank you. I love and miss you.
My Father in Heaven....all he wants is intimate, life-changing, world-changing relationship with me. The one that holds it all wants to hold me. How col is that!

Thanks for listening in...my prayer for you and me both is that someday we will get to the end of our lives and look back and, like Anna, say, "Let's do it again." Something tells me that the only way one has a life like that is to live a life of gratitude.