Magnalia Dei- the marvels of God
“The person with an abiding spirit of gratitude is the one who trusts God. The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness.” -Brennan Manning
This year has opened my eyes to all the things I’m truly thankful for; mostly the things I used to take for granted. This month, my team decided to challenge each other, and a majority of us kept a thankful journal. Every day, we would write down 33 things we were thankful for, without repeating things. By doing 33 a day, by the end of the month we would have a list of just over 1,000 things we were thankful for. It’s been a really incredible and stretching experience.
I read this book a few months ago called “Ruthless Trust” by Brennan Manning that stated, “The root of joy is gratefulness…it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful”. Being in month 10, my team was exhausted, drained, and not feeling overly joyful. We didn’t want to just “survive” this past month, we wanted to thrive. And so we decided to challenge each other with this thankfulness journal. We looked for the Magnalia Dei- the marvels of God- every day.
It’s been one of the best personal exercises I’ve done on the race. It challenges you to be thankful for all the monotonous, every day experiences that are truly miraculous if you think about it. It completely changes you mindset about the things you’re grateful for. 33 doesn’t sound like a huge number every day, but after the first few days, you really have to think about it towards the end with what God provided you with for that day. It stretches you on those really hard or really bad days to still be grateful. It challenges you to choose joy when you just want to sulk in self-pity. It changes your attitude toward God, and toward every good gift He gives you. Some of my favorite memories of this past month are sitting on Sprads, Lindsey, and Britteny’s bed and writing thankfuls with them. It totally changes your attitude when you’re surrounded with people who build you up and remind you to be thankful for minimal things, too.
What inspired me to write this blog at so early an hour is currently what I’m witnessing. As I’m writing this, we’re driving to South Africa, and I’m watching the brilliant milky way fade over the African desert as the sun begins to rise, and the silhouettes of the trees along the side of the road are beginning to show themselves in the pink and orange sunrise. It’s scenes like this that I never want to take for granted, and that I constantly thank God for revealing His majesty to us through His creation. His beauty is everywhere, and if you look for it, there’s so many miracles to be thankful for every day.
So here’s my proposition to you: comment below on my blog
with a number, and as many numbers as you want, and I’ll post a blog after this with whatever thankfuls I have written for those numbers! If you ever wondered what month 10 racers are thankful for, here’s your chance. Some are comical, some are serious, and some you’ll be able to tell it wasn’t the best day and we were really stretching ourselves for thankfuls 🙂 but that blog won’t happen without your comment! Feel free to ask for as many thankfuls as you’d like!
“To be grateful for an unanswered prayer, to give thanks in a state of interior desolation, to trust in the love of God in the face of the marvels, cruel circumstances, obscenities, and commonplaces of life is to whisper a doxology in darkness.” -Brennan Manning
God bless,
Jenna
