Yesterday at church, my pastor discussed the ingratitude that plagues many in our society, and most certainly me. He discussed this problem in the context of Luke 17:11-19. In this story, Jesus heals nine lepers, but only one of the nine returns to thank Him. My pastor asked us if we are only truly grateful to God 10% of the time. How much do we each take for granted in our daily lives? In the spirit of last Thursday's Thanksgiving celebration, he challenged us to think of 24 things for which we are thankful. Here is my list:
1. Jesus. He paid my debt on the cross. Without His sacrifice I would have neither eternal salvation nor a relationship with God. Jesus cleansed me from my sin so that I could come before my Father blameless both now and for eternity. He is my only hope.
2. John. Each morning I wake up and marvel at God's goodness for giving me such a wonderful partner. We fit so well together in so many ways. He has been well worth all of the waiting I did during all my years of singleness.
3. My mom. She has truly been my best friend and closest confidante over the years. Her wisdom, prayers, and humor have dried many a tear and lifted my spirits when they have been at their lowest.
4. My dad. In spite of our differences and conflicts, I was blessed to know him for 24 years. Even since his passing, I continue to learn from him when I reflect on my relationship with him and his life.
5. My brother. For most of my life, I have enjoyed a close relationship with my brother, void of most ot the typical sibling rivalry problems. I am also grateful that he's found a wife who makes him happy even though our relationship has changed as a result.
6. My extened family. I have had the rare blessing of being able to know all four of my grandparents into my early 20's. I am also blessed to have married into a wonderful Christian family.
7. My friends. I remember after I graduated from college and moved back home that I asked God to send me Christian friends. He answered my prayer in a big way by sending me better friends than I could have imagined, friends with whom I can be silly or serious, and with whom I've made many great memories and look forward to many more memories to come.
8. My healthy and functioning body. In spite of my allergies and allergy-induced asthma, I am a healthy person whose amazing body can miraculously survive on a steady diet of chocolate and caffeine. I know I need to take better care of myself, but it is a wonder to me how well I function even when I'm not fueling myself the way I should.
9. My muscles. I may not fit the stereotypical standards of beauty in our culture, but I am strong and sturdy. For as much as I complain about the thickness of my legs, I am grateful that God created me with the heart-healthy pear shape. I am also thankful that I truly enjoy exercising and the feeling of strength I have afterwards.
10. My day job. While there is no doubt that my job is a big stressor, I am thankful to be gainfully employed. I am also thankful that God made my transition from graduate student to full-time counselor so easy by creating an opening for me at the school where I was an intern and therefore already comfortable with the system and the staff. As much as I complain about it, working with teenagers keeps boredom at bay and it's hard to beat the holidays in public education.
11. My coaching job. It may be a big time committment, but I love having the opportunity to be outside and to bond with some pretty amazing young teenage girls. In many ways, this part of my job is the most fulfilling.
12. My dog. Silly, maybe, but my dog really does bring me a lot of joy, and I'm thankful for her.
13. Disposable income. John and I are so blessed to have enough money left over from our paychecks to pay for fun things like expensive dinners out whenever the urge hits and the occasional fun vacation.
14. Our house. John and I are blessed with a roof over our heads in a safe neighborhood. We're also blessed to be moving within the next week to a bigger house in another great location.
15. Food in general. I love to eat, and I love that God has put me in a financial, cultural, and sensory position to enjoy an abundance and variety of wonderful food. I get very excited about a good meal.
16. Education. I am thankful for years of wonderful teachers and professors who gave me not only literacy but also a love of learning and a desire to always learn more.
17. Hot water. It may be simple, but I take hot showers every morning. I don't like to be cold, and I've been completely miserable the few times when I've been forced by plumbing or heatingproblems to a cold shower.
18. Family vacations. Even though the older I got, the more I dreaded the time away from my friends, our annual family vacations to upstate New York were always a time of peace and regrouping for me. Separated from air conditioning, television, and the phone, I learned to enjoy being outside on the water and to appreciate non-eletronic forms of entertainment.
19. Music. I myself am tone deaf and can't clap on rhythm to save my life, but I have a great apprecaition for the music others make that captures my emotions. I have an odd gift for memorizing song lyrics. I can remember being in elementary school art class singing to the other students at my table (probably much to their dismay, although no one ever said anything negative to me about it).
20. Freedom. Not enough can be said about how blessed we are to live in a country with freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to vote for our leaders....All of us take our freedom granted to some degree simply because we've never lived without it, but it is something to be cherished.
21. Change of seasons. I am thankful that I live in an area where the tempertature can fluctuate from under 20 degrees F to over 100 degrees F in the course of year. Over the course of a year, I am blessed to see snow fall, rain pour, leaves change colors, chipmunks and birds scurry about, to feel strong wind gusts and gentle breezes, to hear crickets, wood peckers, and owls go about their business, to be ticked by butterflies and stung by bees, to slip on ice and be drenched in humidity, to smell fresh flowers and decaying leaves.
22. Humor. The ability to laugh at life and to laugh with others about life is sometimes the only thing that gets me through the day.
23. My imagination. I've always had a wild imagination, and it's kept life interesting for me and those who know me. I used to entertain my father by telling him stories when he came to tuck me in at night instead of vice versa. I always wanted to be a creative writer, but my imagination remains too scattered and chaotic to harness and form into an organized document. I'm grateful for it nonetheless.
24. Prayer. Being able to communicate with God and cast all my cares onto Him, being able to lift up other people that God's will would be done in their lives, and being able to connect with people and with God as we lift each other up. Being able to feel God's peace and sense His direction. The hope that comes from knowing that even when I can't do anything about a situation, God can if I ask Him.
After writing this list, I can see why my pastor challenged us to do this. I have so much to be thankful for. God has been so good to me. I have no excuse for my perpetual pessimism.
I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure, just as gold and silver are refined and purified by fire. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'These are my people,' and they will say, 'The Lord is our God.' --Zechariah 13:9
Life is not always easy. Sometimes we are so weary from our struggles that we feel like we can't handle any more. And then more comes. We cry out for relief, but it seems slow to arrive. This is not how we imagined life would be when we gave our lives to Christ. We thought we'd be blessed, yet we feel cursed. We think that if He is calling us His people then He should give us an easy life so that others will see how great it is to follow Him. Instead, God seems to be making life so uncomfortable that we have no choice but to rely on Him because our own limited resources are not enough to carry us through. This is not what we signed up for. In our language, a blessed life should translate into an easy life. In God's language, a blessed life translates into a holy life. We can't live holy lives while our souls are rife with impurities. So, since God is all-powerful, we ask Him to gently remove our impurities while we sleep. He refuses. We are His children, a people set apart for Him. He wants to strengthen us for His purposes as He purifies us, and strength is something that comes from testing and trial not from peaceful rest. Silver and gold aren't refined by a matter of will and neither are we. Just like these precious metals, God won't refine us without sticking us deep into the fire. Others see we are His not because we walk an easy road, but because we perservere on our way down the hard road and we come out better for it. Our joy is not based on easy living, it's based on hope and faith that endure and actually deepen through the pain. Like silver and gold, we are too precious to God for Him to keep us out of the fire.
For we walk by faith, not by sight. --2 Corinthians 5:7
We are told to walk by faith not be sight. To be guided by the truth we believe in rather than by what we can tangibly experience. But how do we know when we are stepping out on stupidity instead of faith? When we make big decisions listening to our heart, what if what we think is coming from the pure part of our hearts where God whispers to us is actually coming from the worldly, blind part of who we are that listens to the world's lies more than God's truth? The simple answer is to compare what we think we are being led to do with God's word. The simple answer is to pray for guidance and discernment. The difficult part of this process is learning to recognize the guidance when it comes. We must empty ourselves when we seek answers from God so that we can be guided only by His influence rather than our own falleness. We must open ourselves to whatever answer He provides so that we do not catch ourselves listening only for the answer we want to hear. When we are dead set on a certain path, it's so easy for us to be closed to God's tugs in a different direction. Sometimes when we don't listen, He lets us learn by falling. Other times, when we step out in the face of all the obstacles we see trusting in His guidance, He parts the seas or stills the waves for us to pass on untouched. When we step out on faith, He may show us miracle we would have missed if we let the fear of falling keep us from taking the first steps.
When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But with wise and knowledgeable leaders, there is stability. --Proverbs 28:2
Tomorrow is a big election day in Maryland. We have the opportunity to vote for our governor as well as many other state and national officials. I was raised to believe that voting is not only a privilege of living in a free, democratic nation--a privilege that many Americans take for granted--but also a civic duty. Even beyond a civic duty, however, I also believe that we Christians have a moral and spiritual responsibility to vote for leaders who uphold the principles on which our nation was founded and on which we ourselves rest each night.
Voting for wise, moral leaders is an ongoing responsibility that neither begins nor ends on election day. Come election day, we should not blindly check off boxes based strictly on party affiliation. As citizens and Christians, we have a responsibilty to educate ourselves about each candidate before we enter the polling place so that we can make informed choices. We act foolishly if we judge candidate only on party line or on claimed religious preferences. We shouldn't naively take anyone at their word, we should look for the fruit before making a choice (Galatians 5:22-23). If we hope our for our nation to remain under God's blessing, then we need to select leaders who we think best represent God's standards in action (not just in word).
We also must remember that regardless of the outcome of the election, our duty to our community, state, and nation continues beyond election day. We are commanded to pray for all those in authority (1 Timothy 2:2) on an ongoing basis, even if the leaders aren't those who we ourselves would have preferred. We are given this command for our sake and for the sake of our children whose future truly depends on the wisdom of our leaders and the stability of our government at every level. Don't take your responsibility lightly. Pray for discernment, read up on each candidate, and vote tomorrow.
I have been engaged in an ongoing discussion with some friends about romantic relationships. One of my friends raised the issue of homosexual marriage. Unlike a lot of Christians, I'm not frightened of or completely put off by homosexuals. I had some very close, openly gay friends in college, and I appreciated them as individuals. Interestingly, this group of friends showed agape love in a much less muddled way than many of my straight friends. Do I think their sexual choices were morally right? No. I think the Bible is pretty clear on sexual sin of both the homosexual and the heterosexual variety.
As Christians, Jesus calls us to follow His example of hating the sin but loving the sinner. Honestly, I don't think I'm in any more of a position to throw stones at homosexuals than the Pharisees were to throw stones at the adulterous woman of fame in the Bible (John 8:7). Do I think that people are born homosexual? Actually, yes. I think people are born with homosexual tendencies the same way other people are born with quick tempers and others with an inclination for addiction. However, Christians are called to live above the temptations and callings of the flesh. While our bodies may be drawn to a lifestyle that differs from our spiritual calling, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we no longer have to live subject to sin (Romans 6).
So, back to the issue of homosexual marriage. My views on this subject are actually not entirely black and white. As a Christian, I believe that marriage is a sacred covenant that two people make with God. As such, I believe that the Biblical definition of marriage can only involve a man and a woman. On the other hand, as an American, I think the sacredness of marriage was lost a long time ago in our society. Our culture has disregarded the idea of marriage as a holy covenant. We see marraige as being all about another person rather than all about God. We see marriage as the next step in the relationship or a way to pubically declare our passion for a person rather than as an exercise in holiness. Our culture by and large has lost the true meaning of marriage because we've sacrified our spiritual life for materialism and hedonism. If you have any doubts that we have lost the idea of marriage as sacred, take a look at the divorce industry in the country (yes, industry). If marriage in our culture is no longer sacred, then should it really matter if we continue to move further away from the Biblical definition of marriage?
Certainly, I do not think the church should condone homosexual marriage. But I also do not think the church should condone unions between people who don't understand the nature of the covenant into which they are entering, regardless of the gender of the participants. An unpopular belief, no doubt, even among believers. If Christians want to fight to reclaim the sacredness of marriage, we need to start with a broader examination of the state of marriage in our society as a whole, rather than merely singling out one group as an easy target. By and large, Biblical marriage has been defiled for quite awhile even before the gender question entered into the equation. We need to go back and start where we have already been lax rather than suddenly putting our feet down in strict judgement now.