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The art of thanksgiving

November 23, 2011 — 1 Comment

It hardly seems possible that the holidays could be here already. After all, didn’t I just get all those boxes of Christmas decorations back in the attic? Well, maybe not, but in my estimation this has been an incredibly fast year.

While there are still several weeks left in this calendar year, one thing is certain: This has been a year of dramatic changes. From political uprisings and civil unrest to record-setting weather patterns, 2011 will leave an indelible mark on this world. With all the negative news coming at us ’round the clock, it’s sometimes hard to focus on the good things.

America has long been the ‘land of plenty’ — or, you might say, the ‘land of excess.’ You have to wonder what the early settlers to Plymouth Rock would have to say about the way we live. After all, those folks — who, according to H. U. Westermayer, constructed seven times as many graves as huts — still saw fit to set aside a time to give thanks to God. These Puritans were arguably the most impoverished Americans ever, yet they acknowledged God as the source of their blessings. They understood the art of thanksgiving.

In this time of persistent protests and rowdy upheaval, there’s a lot of talk about ‘the  99-percent.’ I contend that pretty much all of us constitute the one-percent . . . at least figuratively speaking. Consider this:

Americans are some of the wealthiest people in the world, with a very high GDP per capita. Americans are top in the world for most material possessions. The number of televisions, vehicles, and other such products per person are considerably higher than in any other country. For instance, the United States has some 754 televisions for every thousand people. No other country is even above 700, with Japan being closest at 680/1000. [Source: economicexpert.com]

While Americans don’t necessarily blow every country out of the water, particularly when you consider the long hours so many of us work, we as a people are undeniably blessed. Even with higher-than-usual levels of unemployment, continued home foreclosures, and rising costs of living, for all intents and purposes Americans are indeed blessed. One thing is generally true about tougher times: We are forced to evaluate priorities, strengthen relationships, and develop character — and hopefully a much deeper appreciation for God.

This Thanksgiving, consider yourself blessed if any or all of the following statements are true for you: Continue Reading…

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Let there be light!

November 2, 2011 — Leave a comment

OK, most of you probably know by now that I’m a real night owl. Some of the most productive moments in my day occur between 11:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. I say that just to acknowledge the fact that, yes, I should be heading to bed as of this writing, but I just have to share something with you.

Don’t you just love it when God speaks to you through the most seemingly insignificant and every-day, run-of-the-mill stuff of life? I do — regardless of whether it’s a message I really want to hear. Something about those revelations just speaks to my heart as if to say, “Garrick, you belong to Me, and I care enough about you that I don’t want you to miss this!” The God of the universe in just a matter of a few seconds delivers a generous helping of knowledge that one can’t help but be a bit blown away.

I don’t know about you, but there are certain tasks around the house that I enjoy more than others. If I’m completely honest, I tend to let a lot of little things slide — especially when I’m consumed by the details of major projects at the church. One of the tasks I find myself ignoring is that of replacing light bulbs. For some reason our cars and our house love to eat light bulbs. Whether it’s tail lights, headlights, incandescent lights or fluorescent ones, we get plenty of opportunities to change bulbs in this household.

Well, one day last week I came in to find that not only was one of the long fluorescent bulbs out, it was also broken. This happened to be a fixture that I quite honestly know very little about. Michelle and I looked at it for a while but couldn’t figure it out. Not all that consciously, I kind of put that little project on hold — you know, waiting for just the right time when the moon and stars align and the family and work calendars are completely in sync. Like that ever happens. As a result of that decision — a.k.a., bad choice — we had to leave the kitchen light off all weekend. It wasn’t too big of a deal. We just used the light over the eating area as our sole source of light. I guess you could say that there was ambient lighting in the actual kitchen, but I’m not sure a Vent-A-Hood light and that wimpy little light on the fridge qualify for mood lighting.

Fast forward to Tuesday. I came in from the office, knowing I’d have just enough time to watch a little news and enjoy dinner with the family before heading out to puppy training class with Maggie. When I entered from the garage and stepped into the house, I was nearly blinded by the light in the kitchen. It seems that while I was slaving away at the office, the ‘light bulb fairy’ paid a visit. She apparently found a do-it-yourself video on YouTube to guide her through the process of fixing the broken light and installing the new bulbs.

Now you know how it is when you replace a bulb. It always seems brighter because you get used to it being a little more dim. But when I came in on Tuesday afternoon, the kitchen was lit up like the sun at high noon! I told Michelle that our kitchen now has better lighting than the operating room during my last surgery. You see, not only had we become used to the lesser light from the broken bulb, but we had also failed to notice that another part of the light was burned out.

As I thought about this today, I just kept feeling God say to me, “This is how your life is when you leave Me out . . . when you put Me on hold. You just get so accustomed to the dimly-lit room that you fail to notice the crumbs, the stains, the debris from the chaos of your busy life.”

I’ve never really felt convicted by a light fixture before — and I’m pretty sure that’s not exactly the source of my conviction now. But God used this little every-day matter to grab my attention. Several life applications come to mind. Failure to take immediate action when we realize there’s a disconnect between us and God can have profound consequences: Continue Reading…

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