Thank you! Thank you! Father, You are all we need!
This is the awkward year when my birthday falls on Thanksgiving. In an ironic plot twist, I’m usually a little bitter about this instead of grateful. Surprise, surprise. I’m not a very big fan of my birthday, usually the annual plan is to think about making plans, delay, not end up making very big plans, disappointment, back to regular life. As I enter year 27 the cycle is starting to fall apart and for the first Thanksgiving birthday I’m celebrating probably since childhood (my sweet 16 was on Thanksiginv, somewhat anti-climactic) I’m finally grateful.
I had never been anxious about aging and getting older. It seems a bit ridiculous to fight against and complain about time, but we as humans never cease to do it! The thing is, at one point 27 started to look old and I realized how much I haven’t done in my life and anxiety crept in. It wasn’t so much about the tasks and achievements I had wanted, I was more so disappointed that the blessings I had asked for and “waited” for for so long had never really arrived. Once again, bitterness.
I don’t know the exact time I became ready to turn 27, but it probably happened this year when God opened my hearts and I started saying “yes” to Him. It became very clear that I had put so much hope in getting the things I wanted and believed I deserved in life that I stopped caring about and being thankful for the life I DID have and all the potential there. Looking back it all seems so silly to have been stressed out and I now see all the good in my life and realize I can never discount that. Are there things I still want to accomplish and blessings I’d still like to see God put in my life? Of course, but will He be given the glory if all I do is wait around for the things I want instead of saying yes to what He can do through me? Yes, because He always gets the glory, but I choose whether or not I will be a part of that. Saying yes to pursuing God’s glory has made all the difference and I see now what my life can be with or without the desires of my heart because I already have all I need in Christ.
Around the world when Christmas comes we start looking at all we don’t have – usually in the process of making a gift wish list, but we also do this on a daily basis in our consumerism culture. I’m grateful that our country celebrates Thanksgiving when we do and (to the few who haven’t seen all the Christmas decorations in stores and songs on the radio) it puts a hard stop on when it’s appropriate to start celebrating the season of giving (and receiving) – once we are thankful for what we already have. We are blessed beyond reason and compare and I hope everyone has an opportunity to really reflect on that fact tomorrow, between the football and awkward family moments, and fabulous, forced over-eating!
Stay tuned for tomorrow when I create an all-encompassing list of how much I have to be grateful for!
