Hey y’all! Man, it’s been a while since I’ve posted to the blog. Thank you guys for being so patient and for waiting so diligently!
I can tell you this quality time I’ve gotten to spend at home before I leave for ATL January 3rd has been sweet. I’ve seen and heard from good friends and spent many hours in the company of close family, soaking up every single bit of goodness in my life. In fact, the picture below is of myself and a couple college friends hiking in Rocky Mtn Natl Park near Estes pre-Thanksgiving Day. God’s been showing me I have a lot to be thankful for! And I feel like he’s just getting started.
Some of you know this, but for the month of November, I embraced a challenge called the #30daysofthanks. The concept itself is simple – post something to Facebook once a day about something you’re thankful for. Quite frankly, I’m usually the last person to hop on these kind of social media-based bandwagons. I typically hear about them and cringe. I wonder “can’t people nowadays be thankful WITHOUT posting to Facebook to gain approval?” and “Doesn’t the private and sincere outpouring of thanksgiving before God mean more to him than the loud and (possibly) less-than-honest blurting happening on social media?” I tell ya, I really wrestled with this before I accepted the challenge.
Before I go any further, you should know I’m not the most naturally thankful person you’ve ever met. I consider things briefly, take them for granted in the moment and after the thing has come and gone THEN I am thankful-ish…and usually in a sad way. My capacity to regard and treasure the good things, the tiny gestures, the subtle nonverbal cues of people around me has not been what it should be.
One of the ways I’ve felt God wanting to grow me in this was through the #30daysofthanks challenge. For me, getting recognition and 10000 likes on each post meant next to nothing. I’m not joking you. I went through a long period of time where my identity was wrapped up in how many people liked my posts or who liked my posts. Not so anymore. Truly, this was a journey between me and God. Yes, I opted to use social media to keep me accountable and disciplined to faithfully posting every day, but I also could have chosen to not use it at all and would have been fine.
What I learned from the #30daysofthanks, in a nutshell, was this: thanksgiving is a choice, but it’s more than just mental ascension or acknowledgement. It’s seeing a thing or a person for what it is or who they are, not just for what you want it/them to be for your own gain. Thanksgiving is something you do when you leave yourself out of the equation and regard good things unconditionally. In a way, giving thanks is FREEING. And what a season for giving thanks, huh?! The celebration of Jesus coming to be with us in our brokenness and loneliness!!! What on this earth could make me desire to be more thankful and grateful?!
God’s blessings and his children are so complex and reflect so many good things about Jesus. In these precious few weeks before the World Race, I can honestly say I am taking fewer blessings for granted. For example… hot showers, drinking tap water without caring, driving, having a full gamut of clothing options, hearing English spoken everywhere, my Foothills Community Church family (see pictured below), biological family, new friends, old friends, acquaintances. There’s so much! Some are big, some miniscule.
This in-between time at home has me learning to look at everything in my life with thankful eyes, eyes that are actively seeking to appreciate goodness. I’m hoping that, during the weeks leading up to Christmas, you’ll want to see more and more evidence of overwhelming thanksgiving in your life, too. And also, I hope you’ll give the thanks to whom thanks is due: the Source of Goodness.
A note to my supporters: thank you so much for praying and for giving!! My journey will be 100% richer knowing y’all are a part of it! I’m even getting more and more excited for your own journeys that you’ll embark on through the one you’re sending me on! Also, I am blown away at how much money has been raised through you guys over a measly 3 months. Already we’re halfway there! Wow. In hard reality, I am still needing a miraculous $1,000 more before December 18th so continue praying! Thank you, guys…. thank you so much…
The song below isn’t really reminiscent of thankfulness. It’s more about transitions…which is also weighing on my mind lately. Here’s Atonement by Anberlin.
