On Being Thankful

Since Thanksgiving is next week, I think it is, once again, an appropriate time to think about being thankful. I don’t like to be repetitive and every Holiday season since I started blogging in 2016, I have talked about being thankful. The problem is, we forget! Nothing has really changed. Life is still demanding, and we are often stressed out, overwhelmed and tired. Forget those pictures you see on Instagram or those magazine covers you see, real life doesn’t always look like a Martha Stewart photo session.

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I think as women, most of us would love to have homes that looked like Martha Stewart’s or at least some version of it: clean, organized, not in ill repair, nicely decorated for each and every holiday. I’m being honest when I say, I would absolutely love to be that person, but I am not. My house is falling down around me, I have piles of clutter and my clothing boarders on being a hoarder. No lie! This is real life. But, over the course of my 55 years I have learned that I have to make choices. I can choose to spend hours getting rid of clutter and organizing my home, or I can spend valuable time taking care of my grandson while my single daughter goes to school and works. When I stand before the Almighty He won’t be looking at how pristine my house was. He will be taking stock of how I invested my life in the lives of others, who I shared His love with and whether I was thankful or not. On that note I want to share several points on this act of giving thanks.

1 - It is hard work.

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The act of giving thanks does not come naturally, at least to most people. There are a few Pollyanna’s out there who see everything in life with rose colored glasses (sorry for all the cliches), but most of us walk around with a little cloud hanging over our heads. I’m not talking about the Cloud where so much of our data is stored (which is a scary thought), but the clouds we create filled with fear, anxiety, bad attitudes, self loathing and despair.

Getting out from beneath the clouds we created is a monumental task, but it can be done. It requires we change our thought patterns. If you have ever done any reading on dementia or Alzheimer’s then you know researchers have found we have a better chance of staving off that mental decline if we are learning new things. They say changing our regular patterns helps. Getting dressed starting on the opposite side, driving a different way to work, learning a musical instrument or a new hobby can all help keep our brains active and growing, rather than becoming like dried up prunes.

The same is true in our thought lives. Being thankful is a matter of choice. You have to choose to be thankful and just like walking starts with a first step, so thankfulness starts with a first choice to find something you are thankful for.

2 - It requires discipline.

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Oh no, Amy, did you really use that word again? Ha, ha. Yes, discipline! Just as we need discipline to not eat all those holiday cookies we baked, or eat extra stuffing next Thursday, or just sit on the couch instead of going out for a walk after that big dinner, so too an act of thanksgiving is intentional each and every time you do it.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again. Before your feet hit the floor in the morning, be thankful. In the shower, be thankful. During the drive to work, be thankful. When you are dealing with a nasty customer, a worried patient or an overtired toddler, be thankful. The more we have the thought of thanksgiving front and center the more likely we will make it a habit, just like exercise, eating right and making other good choices.

3 - It creates connection.

To God -

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Thanksgiving isn’t just about changing our attitude and recognizing how blessed we are, it is about connecting. The choice to give thanks connects us to God. There are numerous verses in the Bible on giving thanks.

“...in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

— I Thessalonians 5:18 (NASB)

““Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the nations, And I will sing praises to Your name.”

— 2 Samuel 22:50 (NASB)

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.”

— 1 Chronicles 16:8 (NASB)

“That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”

— Psalm 30:12 (NASB)

“O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

— 1 Chronicles 16:34 (NASB)

“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”

— Hebrews 13:15 (NASB)

Even Jesus saw the importance of publicly acknowledging His connection to His Father.

“And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves;”

— Luke 22:17 (NASB)

“Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.”

— John 6:11 (NASB)

To others -

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Giving thanks brings us together as a family, a work force, a community, a church and a nation. Abraham Lincoln saw the need for a unifying event when he instituted the holiday of Thanksgiving in 1863. While he intended that all states observe the holiday, it was not fully realized until the end of Reconstruction in the 1870’s. While I was not inside our 16th president’s head at the time, I can’t help but think that his purpose included the healing and reunification of our tattered nation after the civil war.

Giving thanks takes work, and discipline, but the benefits are many. As you look ahead to the busyness of the holidays, especially if you are struggling try to find time to be thankful, even if it is while you are making food, driving to work or heading to the mall to look for the perfect gift. Giving thanks will refocus your mind, raise your spirits and reconnect you to God and others.

Have a great week.

When the Monsoon Winds of Change Blow

I spent the morning doing a little bit of cleaning, putting away Halloween decor and getting out Thanksgiving decor. While I was doing that I was thinking about what to do with this Faith post. My life has never been one of discipline or routine. My spouse is a college instructor, so every semester the schedule changes. We homeschooled our two girls all the way through high school so that schedule changed in accordance with my spouse’s. There were times when Mark had several evening classes, so we would have our main meal together at lunch time. Other times, the girls and I would fend for ourselves, knowing dad wouldn’t be home until 9 or 10 at night. In addition to that all of our family is out of state. Holidays, spring breaks and summers were often littered with trips to see Grandmas and Grandpas, uncles, cousins and friends.

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Change is not a bad thing. Often, change can be exciting and something we look forward to with anticipation. Unfortunately, change can also be something that fills us with dread and despair. In just a few short weeks, my position as assistant manager of a university bookstore will be over. It was a position I grew into, as I started working when my girls were just little. I went from sales clerk, to general merchandiser, to shipping and receiving clerk, to assistant manager. I made the transition working part time, so I could still homeschool our girls and more recently help out with our grandson.

I had hoped that I could take a few months off, get my thoughts together and get through the holidays without the added stress of learning a new job, having a new schedule, blending with new coworkers and on and on the change comes. However, that is not the case. I have to find another job, so I am applying for something seasonal.

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Part of the reason, I am writing this is to work through the situation myself. Losing a job is like losing someone close to you. You didn’t get to have a say in when it happened, it just happened. You didn’t get to determine, what that change or that end would look like, it just ended. So here I am. I’m 55 and not sure what the next step is, other than to keep stepping.

There is a passage of Scripture that seems especially pertinent to my situation today, and maybe will speak to you as well.

“26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

— Romans 8:26-39 (ESV)

There are several key points that we can pull from this passage.

1 - Someone is praying for us.

Verses 26 and 27 plainly state that the Spirit intercedes for us. I love this. To know that someone is praying for me and not just praying but interceding with “groanings too deep for words.” Have you ever noticed when life is overwhelming it is also often confusing as well. In addition, knowing what God is trying to do through or in a situation is more often than not beyond our ability to understand. There are times I find myself saying, “Lord, I don’t even know how to pray.” That is how I have felt over the last few months as I have looked down the pike to losing my job. Sure, my heart would like to pray that everything would go smoothly and that I wouldn’t have to get another job right away. I want to be able to enjoy the holidays and not have them messed up with a new schedule and the stress of learning a new job. But, my mind is also praying for a new job as soon as possible. I have also entertained the idea, that maybe God would just like me to really trust Him. Ha, ha. It is exactly in this state of confusion that my prayers often hit the ceiling and go no further, so it is very reassuring to me that the Holy Spirit is praying for me and He is praying according to the will of God. Pure and simple.

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2 - Things will work out.

It would be nice to say, that things will work out, exactly as we had hoped and expected, but reality says that is rarely the case. However, according to verse 29, things will work for good to those who love God, and who are called according to His purpose. That may sound a little confusing, as though we have to figure out what God’s purpose is. The fact of the matter is, all we have to do is be present. Whatever the circumstance or difficulty, God will work it out and you can be sure it will be for your best and my best, because His will is always for our best. Our minds are limited in what we are able to see as being best, but from personal experience, I can say, it is only when I am completely submitting to Him and whatever path or direction He’s leading me that I have complete peace. That path may be wretchedly difficult, but He is walking it with us and the end result will be good.

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3 - We are known, called, justified and glorified.

Verses 29 and 30 pack a big punch. There is a lot going on in these two verses, and rather than delving into each word individually, just know that we are pretty darn important to our Creator. I am also not going to get into a discussion on predestination versus free will. My heart believes that both are possible and that God is the only one who needs to understand how it works. That is good enough for me. The fact that He knew us from the beginning, He called us to Himself, He justified us through His Son Jesus Christ, and He will glorify us at the resurrection with new bodies, reiterates the amazing love of this being we call Jehovah. The complexity of this relationship with an Almighty being becomes clearly simple when we believe that everything He does is done for our benefit.

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4 - God is for us.

This needs little explanation. The only thing you have to do is believe it!

5 - God will provide.

God, who did not spare His own Son, Jesus, for our benefit, will provide all that we need. Note, I did not say all that we want, but all that we need. What we are responsible to do is figure out, what is it, that we really need. Food, clothes, love, security. Think about people who have been persecuted, tortured or neglected, yet still survived and even thrived regardless of the adversity. What is it that we really need? Only to abide with Him.

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6 - We are secure.

Verses 33 through 35, and 38 through 39, reassure us of our firm foundation in Christ. No one can separate us from Him or His love. We can be persecuted, neglected, overwhelmed, or in despair, but still He is with us. We might be losing our jobs, our spouses, our families, our homes, our health, but still He is with us and we are secure in His hands.

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7 - We are conquerors in Him.

Verses 36 and 37, give us the kick in the pants we need, when we become self focused. When change is coming and the future is uncertain we can easily begin to look inward thinking things like, we’ll never get through this, we can’t do this one more day, we aren’t good enough or other such thoughts that take our focus off the one through whose hands every circumstance trickles. We can become anxious, self-absorbed and begin to invite friends to our pity party, but that is not what God wants for us. Verse 37 says, “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

Think about your favorite super hero movie. How did they get through the battles with bad guys, aliens and monsters? They conquered. They conquered their fear and they conquered the enemies. We have an Almighty, All Powerful God on our side. We can be conquerors too, in Him.

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Thoughts on Dia de los Muertos

I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the historical back ground of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. This holiday has long been celebrated in Mexico as a unique and colorful event to honor and remember relatives who have died. When the Spaniards introduced Catholicism to Mexico, the native peoples decided to blend the new religion with the old and came up with this festival celebrating the Aztec goddess, Mictecacihuatl (goddess of death) and the Catholic traditions of All Saints Day (remembering our loved ones who have gone to heaven) and All Souls Day (praying for all souls). These three remembrances, are celebrated on October 31st, November 1st and 2nd.

Image by Andy Giraud from Pixabay

The reason I began to take an interest in Dia de los Muertos was because of my grandson and the movie Coco. If you have not seen that movie, it is a fun, family film with good music, action and some very moving moments about the love between family, both the living and the dead. In true Dia de los Muertos tradition Miguel’s dead relatives are able to cross over on that one day to visit their living relatives. The living relatives do not know they are there, but the idea is that in remembering them, they are kept alive, even beyond the veil, or the bridge as it is portrayed in this movie.

Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay

Obviously, as a Christ follower, I do not believe that our relatives are all having a party over on the other side. I believe the spiritual realm to be a bit more complex and holy, because of the God who reigns there. I also believe that not everyone, necessarily ends up in the “good place” (another show, that I would recommend watching, because it is funny and it has some very thought provoking philosophical and moral content. Only for adults.) Death is part of this life, but it wasn’t supposed to be. The psalmist knew this reality of death.

“Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
8 for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
9 that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.

10 For he sees that even the wise die;
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they called lands by their own names.
12 Man in his pomp will not remain;
he is like the beasts that perish.”

— Psalm 49:7-12 (ESV)

The psalmist knew that one day every single one of us will see death. There is no way out of it. You can search for the fountain of youth, but that didn’t work out very well for Donovan, did it?

You can also eat healthy, exercise and do everything in your power to live to be as old as you can, but the reality is, you will still die. Death is something we all have in common. Death can be scary. The process or the thought of how we will die can be overwhelming, but death is part of life.

The book of Romans in the New Testament of the Bible talks about another death, the spiritual one.

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”

— Romans 5:12 (ESV)

This death is the one that not only separates us on that bridge from our loved ones, but separates us from the God who created us, the Savior who loved enough to die for us and the Spirit who so willingly comes to dwell with and in us.

The good news is, in the same way Miguel found out in CoCo, that in remembering, his relatives lived on, it is in our remembering and partaking of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we too will live on forever in our spiritual bodies with Him.

It is easy, as Christians to find fault with every religion and way of thinking other than our own, but what we need to do is examine each thing that comes into our lives with God’s microscope, learning what we can from every situation and thought process that we encounter. For me, I am going to celebrate Dias de los Muertos, by remembering in two ways.

1 - Remembering Jesus.

It was Jesus that made it possible for us to cross the bridge that separated us from our Creator. His shed blood on the cross is the payment that had to be made to stand before a Holy, Pure God.

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

— Romans 6:5 (ESV)

“We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”

— Romans 6:9 (ESV)

“For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.”

— Romans 6:10 (ESV)

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

— Romans 6:23 (ESV)

2 - Celebrating those who have gone on before us.

I find the idea of remembering my relatives an exciting prospect. My grandson knows very little about my father, who had passed away four years before Quintin was born. I thought it would be fun to share old photos and have some of my dad’s favorite snacks. like salty, hot buttered popcorn, and pretzel sticks. It might not be a bad idea to make Dias de los Muertos a regular part of our family celebrations as a way to share memories, food, fun, laughter and love.