Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is fast approaching! As a matter of fact families and groups, Sunday School classes and such are having turkey dinners this week. I have a dinner tonight with my family as well and will probably have another turkey dinner next week. Immediately following 'turkey day' we throw ourselves full tilt into the Christmas shopping season on BLACK FRIDAY! What an appropriate name for this pinnacle of all shopping days. You can't give me a good enough discount to be standing in line at 5:00 am. Now I'll get up and be out in the woods during hunting season but that's different. You are there as all of God's creation awakes and you see, smell and listen to the beauty of creation, taking in all that is pure and good and undefiled by man. Compare that to the mall on BLACK FRIDAY with honking horns, people cutting line, the rudeness and the attitudes, commercialism of a Holi-day and well there is no comparison is there?

We don't take the time to give thanks as we should. Thanksgiving needs to have it's season, like Christmas and Easter, not just a day of gluttony. We prepare for the turkey dinners and football games knowing full well that before the leftovers are gone we'll be in Christmas mode and far too often not for the right reasons. As Christians we often find ourselves not only 'in' the world but 'of'' it as well. May I challenge you to take time this year to truly take an assesment of your lives and give thanks to the God who so graciously has given it to you. Take some time to look back upon this year and take inventory of the Godly gifts you have received and give thanks to Him.

While I do have a great many blessings from God in my life I would like to share one that has made this year one to remember. I am thankful that God provided a way and the time to travel on a Pastor's Work & Witness mission trip to Costa Rica to show the Jesus Film in October. Please don't visualize the resorts and sandy beaches of those Costa Rican Holiday vacations that we are used to seeing on TV for they are there exclusively for you and there is nothing like them inland where poverty is the law of the land and their income is pennies on the dollar compared to ours. I am thankful for those who were obedient to God's lead in using their gifts to make it possible for me to go and for the adjustments made at my place of secular employment in scheduling which allowed me to go as well.

I am thankful for the Nazarene mission, La Finca, in San Jose and for the outdoor toilets and the cold water showers. I am thankful for the sweltering heat that kept us perspiring from the time we opened our eyes in the morning until they were closed at night once we traveled to Liberia. I am thankful for the simple meals prepared graciously with love and for the complete exhaustion that came at the close of every day. I am thankful for the misquitos that I spent the first ten minutes killing in my room in which I slept. I am thankful for the spiders that were in the corners of the bedroom and the bathroom. I am thankful for the red ants who had an assembly line working from a window in the bathroom, across the shower door and into the wall. I am thankful for the bugs that roamed around in the living room and for the lizard that would occassionally scurry across the living room wall. I'm also thankful for whatever it was that woke me from my sleep trying to burrow between me and the mattress that last night.

I'm thankful for the Costa Rican family that I stayed with and for the fact that they spoke no English and I no Spanish. I'm thankful that because of this we would sit on the couch and look at their family photo albums and practice our English/Spanish vocabulary. I'm also thankful that on the last night the wife, who was the spiritual lead in the family, and her two daughters and I sat up with our Bibles and communicated by sending each other to different passages of scripture, bridging the communication gaps with the Word of God. I am thankful for the tears shed as we parted ways and for the hurt in my heart for the brothers and sisters that I'll have to wait till we arrive in Heaven to see again.

I'm uncertain where you'll read this from but if you are in the United States of America you must guard against the fact that we are cursed with blessings. Many will spend more for Christmas than most families on this planet will make this year and we'll throw away more food this Thanksgiving than most families of four will eat in November. So give thanks for the life you have been given and for those you are blessed to share it with. Allow me to share with you a photo video of our trip and the precious souls we met along the way.