Its Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays, for various reasons. I love that it falls on a Thursday. Having a holiday on Thursday makes Wednesday feel like Friday so that when Thursday rolls around my internal clock is delightfully messed up and I feel like its Saturday, but of course it isn't. Then when Friday rolls around it feels like a bonus Friday, even if I have to work. I am working tomorrow but it doesn't bother me at all. Actually it makes today feel even more special, not part of a four day weekend but a special day.
We are having 10 today around our table ranging in age from 3 to 89. The turkey is in the oven, pies (pumpkin, apple and mincemeat) are waiting for a knife, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, a vegetable casserole and cranberries. I am very, very fond of cranberries. My mother tells the story of my first Thanksgiving (I would have been 4 months) where I only ate rolls and cranberries. I can forgo the rolls now but don't get in between me and cranberries!
I love the time with family and I am so looking forward to our house filling up with more bodies more voices the stories of our lives. I love the moments of prayer, the time to simply thank Abba for all He has given us, not only materially but spiritually as well. There is a peace to taking the time to reflect and thank from our hearts and with our voices.
I have been thinking about gratitude, thinking about what is entailed in the exercise of gratitude. I keep coming up with the word surrender, a giving over of myself, my family, my home and all my possessions, holding to all of Abba's blessings with an open hand. Nothing is permanent in our lives including the breath we take on a regular basis. There is a peace to knowing, acknowledging a power much greater and higher than we are. It actually is a peaceful place to be, to rest in Him who loves us with, as Brennan Manning says, a furious longing for us. I love those two words put together to create a mental picture. We are loved furiously, with abandon to the point His son came and died for us that we can simply be with Abba.
We don't know what the next moment of our lives will bring, tragedy or joy but we can know our Father who will stop at nothing to go after us wherever our decisions take us. So today I am in a state of surrender, surrender to the love that will not let me go, surrender to a Father whose heart is good, beats for me and every member of my family no matter where they are. Today my thankfulness, gratitude, is couched in surrender. I am His, He is mine.
Have a happy, blessed Thanksgiving surrendered to His deep, deep love.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
He's Got It
This might ramble a bit, just a warning.
I've watched this past political season fairly closely. I am sure many of us have. We almost all have some opinion one way or another. There have been a couple of issues of vital importance to me, so I have a bit of "skin" in the game. To some extent, most of us do, so we are likely to come out on the other side of this day either elated or dissapointed.
I've watched a lot of mud slinging as well. I am not speaking of the candidates, both nationally and locally, but rather the words of anger and frustration, the assumption of rightness at the expense of relationships. We just think we have so much at stake believing we are correct in our conclusions. The question then becomes, "How could anyone think differently"?
I think I've seen a lot of fear on both sides of our very divided house. Dismissal of others has been rampant. Fear that "we" will lose and what will happen if "they" win. Fear fuels the anger, the anger fuels the words; harsh, hurtful words.
So, I was driving home tonight after a very long day where I hit the ground running at 6:30 and didn't stop until I climbed in my truck for the ride home at almost 6 pm. I was mulling over this day and realized I really am at a very strange place of peace. I don't know how this night will end. It does matter, yet strangely, it doesn't. Let me say it again, I am at peace.
This is a God thing. I am not manufacturing a sense of unconcern, a very poor imitation of peace. I really do have "skin" in the game and do have an opinion about what "I" think is the right direction. But I am holding it all very gently, with an open hand. It really is a place given by Abba to my heart. Here is the thing, we often go to Him in concern, anger, anxiety, fear in a manner a bit like hitting the aspirin bottle with a bad headache. Its almost like we say to ourselves, "Let's add a bit of God to this mixture of angst and maybe I will feel better", or "Lets add a veneer of scripture over these tough places and we can overlook them". Frankly, I no longer believe this does justice to what He really offers us.
The offer is LIFE, not an aspirin bottle, not a spiritual panacea for what we think ails us, not a bit of "something" to add with a near-blind hope all will be better in the morning. Its LIFE offered to His followers in a time historically when those that were in charge could hang you on a cross for thievery. He didn't offer life with the caveat that Rome would be defeated, in fact, it got worse, much worse. So the offer of LIFE really must transcend the issues that have driven many of us to fear.
The offer is love, His love in the context of His sovereignty. He's in charge. Do I trust Him enough to let His peace come in, not as an aspirin but as something to totally replace the anxiety about who will win this night? Do I trust Him? For me, that is the only good question here. And if I say I do, then I really need to let Him have this, no matter how this comes out. There just isn't any room for all the harsh words that have flown back and forth for months now. There isn't really any room for anger or fear either. No room for gloating dismissively if you "won". What has been won or lost, anyway?
Yes, I am anxious a bit, but there still is this very wonderful strange peace that is overruling all as I ponder Him, His hand in the future days ahead of us. He's got it.
I've watched this past political season fairly closely. I am sure many of us have. We almost all have some opinion one way or another. There have been a couple of issues of vital importance to me, so I have a bit of "skin" in the game. To some extent, most of us do, so we are likely to come out on the other side of this day either elated or dissapointed.
I've watched a lot of mud slinging as well. I am not speaking of the candidates, both nationally and locally, but rather the words of anger and frustration, the assumption of rightness at the expense of relationships. We just think we have so much at stake believing we are correct in our conclusions. The question then becomes, "How could anyone think differently"?
I think I've seen a lot of fear on both sides of our very divided house. Dismissal of others has been rampant. Fear that "we" will lose and what will happen if "they" win. Fear fuels the anger, the anger fuels the words; harsh, hurtful words.
So, I was driving home tonight after a very long day where I hit the ground running at 6:30 and didn't stop until I climbed in my truck for the ride home at almost 6 pm. I was mulling over this day and realized I really am at a very strange place of peace. I don't know how this night will end. It does matter, yet strangely, it doesn't. Let me say it again, I am at peace.
This is a God thing. I am not manufacturing a sense of unconcern, a very poor imitation of peace. I really do have "skin" in the game and do have an opinion about what "I" think is the right direction. But I am holding it all very gently, with an open hand. It really is a place given by Abba to my heart. Here is the thing, we often go to Him in concern, anger, anxiety, fear in a manner a bit like hitting the aspirin bottle with a bad headache. Its almost like we say to ourselves, "Let's add a bit of God to this mixture of angst and maybe I will feel better", or "Lets add a veneer of scripture over these tough places and we can overlook them". Frankly, I no longer believe this does justice to what He really offers us.
The offer is LIFE, not an aspirin bottle, not a spiritual panacea for what we think ails us, not a bit of "something" to add with a near-blind hope all will be better in the morning. Its LIFE offered to His followers in a time historically when those that were in charge could hang you on a cross for thievery. He didn't offer life with the caveat that Rome would be defeated, in fact, it got worse, much worse. So the offer of LIFE really must transcend the issues that have driven many of us to fear.
The offer is love, His love in the context of His sovereignty. He's in charge. Do I trust Him enough to let His peace come in, not as an aspirin but as something to totally replace the anxiety about who will win this night? Do I trust Him? For me, that is the only good question here. And if I say I do, then I really need to let Him have this, no matter how this comes out. There just isn't any room for all the harsh words that have flown back and forth for months now. There isn't really any room for anger or fear either. No room for gloating dismissively if you "won". What has been won or lost, anyway?
Yes, I am anxious a bit, but there still is this very wonderful strange peace that is overruling all as I ponder Him, His hand in the future days ahead of us. He's got it.
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