Why Every Day Begs to be Thanksgiving

November 19, 2011

Reposted from Ann Voskamp’s 11-16-11 blog.

“If God really works in everything — then why don’t we thank Him for everything?”

She asks me this straight out.

My daughter, Hope, and I, we sit in the truck on the field’s hem, waiting to give the Farmer his lunch.

The Farmer’s planting bean seeds into earth’s dark bed. The sky’s rising darker in the west.

He races rain.

“For every drop of rain You keep from falling on us planting— thank you, Lord…”

I had murmured the prayer, water splatting hard against the windshield of the pickup.

We need at least one more day of dry weather to plant a year’s worth of beans, our livelihood.

“And for every drop of rain that You do let fall — thank you, Lord…” My daughter, Hope, whispers her strange echo.

Really? I turn, searching her face.

She looks me right in the eye.

“If God really works in everything, why don’t we thank Him for everything? Why do we accept good from His hand — and not bad?”

This is hard. Maybe the hardest of all. She is young. She has much to come.

I have held dying babies. Eaten with those who live on the town garbage heap. Wept with women who’ve been violated, with the bankrupt, the heart crushed, the terminal. And this never stops being true: Neglecting to give thanks only deepens the wound of the world.

Doesn’t God call His people to a non-discriminating response in all circumstances? “[G]iv[e] thanks always and for everything” (Ephesians 5:20 ESV).

If I only thank Him when the fig tree buds — is this “selective faith”? Practical atheism? What of faith in a God who wastes nothing? Who makes all into grace?

And yet — is thanking God for everything…thanking Him for evil?

Rivulets run down glass, blurring my husband and all our seeded prayers. What do I accurately see and know?

When we bought the enemy’s lie in the beginning and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Satan hissed then that we’d really see and know what is good and evil.

But the father of lies, he’d duped us in the whole nine yards. Though we ate of that tree we did not become like God.

We have no knowledge of good and evil apart from God. My seeing, it is not omniscient. Can I really see if a death, disaster, dilemma, is actually evil? Mine is only to faithfully see His Word and wholly obey Him in this. Therein is the tree of life.

Is this why He commands “giv[e] thanks always and for everything”? Because to thank God in all is to refuse Satan’s relentless lure to be god-like in all.

To thank God in all is to bend the knee in allegiance to God Who alone knows all.

To thank God in all is to give God glory in all. Is this not our chief end?

When I only give thanks for some things, aren’t I likely to miss giving God glory in most things?

Murmuring thanks isn’t to deny that an event isn’t a tragedy and neither does it deny that there’s a cracking fissure straight across the heart.

Giving thanks is only this: making the canyon of pain into a megaphone to proclaim the ultimate goodness of God.

Our thanks to God is our witness to the goodness of God when Satan and all the world would sneer at us to recant.

I lay my hand on the rain-filmed windowpane and I see clearer. But this is not easy: That which I refuse to thank Christ for, I refuse to believe Christ can redeem.

The grey sky’s drumming steady on the truck’s tin roof.

Storm clouds gathering

His perfect love casts out all fears and leaves only thanks and I listen to her sing it, like a chorus with the rain: Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

Like a song from the belly of the fish, like a Jonah refrain echoing off the walls of the whale: “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you…” (Jonah 2:9 ESV)

Like a haunting, holy answer to what she asks, the song of the saints, always thanksgiving — practicing here the only song that will be sung at the very last of time, “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving… to our God” (Rev. 7:12 ESV).

I lilt it soft with her — Thank you, Lord —  faith’s brazen song facing storms.

And I can hear it, agreeing, singing too —

the rhythm of all this falling rain …

Seven Building Blocks for Leaders

November 2, 2011

I can’t think of a better model of leadership than Nehemiah. I once sat down and looked over Nehemiah’s shoulder for a couple of hours, reviewing the things this ancient Jewish leader recorded while rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. As I read, it dawned on me that his journal is a storehouse of leadership insights. The first six chapters of Nehemiah ought to be required reading each year for all leaders as well as those who wish to be.

In his book, I found seven essential skills that today’s Christian leaders can use as stones on which to build their own strategy for leadership.

The first foundation stone is a passion for the project. Passion includes vision, enthusiasm, drive, determination, creative dreams, and innovative ideas. Leaders with passion can grasp the big picture without becoming enmeshed in or preoccupied with all the details. Nehemiah could hardly sleep as he imagined himself accomplishing God’s objective. His passion was off the chart.

The second building block is the ability to motivate others. Getting along well with others is a crucial part of leadership. This would include such skills as verbalizing ideas, dreams, and concerns; articulating goals succinctly and simply; and demonstrating organizational strength and boundless energy. Leaders who motivate inspire others to do their best. They quickly affirm and remember to give credit where credit is due. Nehemiah was strong at all those points.

The third stone is an unswerving confidence in God. Nehemiah’s journal is filled with prayers—silent ones, short ones, specific ones. He never failed to remind the people of the Lord’s presence and protection. Leaders who are genuinely Christian consistently turn others’ attention to the Source of strength—the One who can accomplish the impossible, the awesome Provider. Confidence in Him does not waver. Their faith is contagious. While they may occasionally doubt their own ability, they do not doubt God’s invincible commitment to His work.

Resilience and patience through opposition mark the fourth piece. Nehemiah endured it all: sarcasm, suspicion, gossip, mockery, threats, anonymous notes, open letters, false accusations—you name it. None of it moved him. No leader can survive if he or she cannot stay patient and resilient through criticism. It is important to be firm in purpose without becoming cranky, vengeful, or mean-spirited. Anger expressed for the right reason and at the right time is appropriate and healthy, but holding a grudge is neither.

The fifth stone to lock in place is a practical, balanced grip on reality. While the good leader may have dreams and ideas, he or she doesn’t live in a dreamworld with a fixation on the ideal. The actual facts—the hard pieces of evidence—are in clear focus. As Nehemiah began his opening speech, it was obvious to all that he was no air-headed cheerleader: “You see the bad situation we are in” (Nehemiah 2:17). He told the workers to stay at their jobs, but he wisely stationed others to protect the wall from attack. Smart. Discerning. Tough. He acted without overreacting. He remained gracious yet unbendingly firm. Good leaders maintain that needed balance between being positive and being aware of the negative.

Number six is a willingness to work hard and remain unselfish. All Christian leaders have at least one thing in common: diligence. They also know the value of calling it a day (diligence and workaholism are not synonyms). Because of his hard work, Nehemiah was “appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah” (Nehemiah 5:14) even before the wall was done. He accepted his appointment humbly, refusing special treatment and willingly sacrificing for the good of the people. Nehemiah led a clinic on servant leadership.

Finally, leaders must have the discipline to finish the job. Good leaders are finishers. They know how to concentrate on essentials without allowing perfectionistic details to block the path. I am certain that some of Nehemiah’s stones were a tad crooked and a few of the joints may have been loose. Perhaps a gate or two wasn’t perfectly level and maybe no doubt a hinge or two squeaked . . . but that baby got done. Mission accomplished. The end. Done!

And when the task is finished, good leaders celebrate . . . they have fun! In Nehemiah’s case, they had a blast walking on the wall, marching and dancing, shouting and singing—they even invited two choirs whose “songs of praise and hymns of thanksgiving to God” (Nehemiah 12:46) could be heard from afar. What a grand party!

Christian leaders with character continue to be in demand. Ezekiel recorded God’s plea for leaders who would “stand in the gap before Me for the land,” but, tragically, He “found no one” (Ezekiel 22:30). His search continues today. Let’s determine to be the men and women for whom God is searching to close the gap. Let’s be the Nehemiahs of this generation—leaders who get things done for God’s glory, standing strong on the building blocks of leadership.

–Taken from Charles R. Swindoll, “7 Building Blocks for Leaders,” Insights (February 2007): 1, 3. Copyright © 2007 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Webs of Justification

March 15, 2011

After watching Inside Job last night–the documentary outlining how the economy tanked and all the bubbles burst in 2008–I was struck not by human greed and hubris, not by our materialism and selfishness, not even by the carelessness and recklessness that characterized the past two decades and created a culture where this could happen.  That’s not necessarily new for any of us.  And, after all, the film was designed to raise our ire.  I’ve been “administration” long enough to know that there are also multiple sides to a story.  So I worked to stay calm and balanced.

What struck me most was the power of education and the ease with which it can be manipulated if we’re not careful.  We shrewd humans aren’t content to just harm the community for personal gain; we have to invest vast amounts of energy justifying them and spinning them as good.  We’re not content to pad our own pockets and just plain take things that don’t belong to us…our consciences couldn’t take that very long.  Instead, we infiltrate the academic system and teach proteges to believe in our own ideologies and perpetuate our way of being through research and intellectual posturing for decades.  And we further expose our arrogance by telling others they’re not possibly smart enough to understand the complexities that we can embrace.

God, in all that I do, may I never be so certain that I close off my heart and my soul to You, your Holy Spirit, and the wise counsel of believers…and may I never be so flexible that I offer to others only “truth” that satisfies my temporal needs!

Timing for Best Deals

July 7, 2010

Summary from Woman’s Day Article

Hotels
Sunday, 4 pm local time
Call local phone line, ask manager “what can you do for me?”

Airfare
Cheapest time to purchase tickets: Tuesday, 2 pm Central time
Cheapest days to fly: Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday
Cheapest times to fly: first morning flight; noon; dinnertime

Groceries
Most sales weeks (thus biggest markdowns) start on Wednesday
Check locally and time accordingly: Example at one store – produce marked down at 7 am everyday; meats marked down at 4 pm everyday

Electronics
Shop for last year’s model between April and end of summer

Dining Out
Tuesdays offer the best deals (fewest diners and freshest food)

Clothing
Clothes go on sale six weeks from debut
Most sales begin Thursday; go early for best choice

Cars
Last Tuesday or Wednesday of the month (nervous about quotas)
Least busy (so most attention) in the early afternoon
September through December for the previous year’s model

Theater Tickets
If flexible: Visit the box office a few hours before showtime
If you’re needing to plan: StubHub or free GoldStar membership

Bicycles
January, or early spring auctions at many local police departments

Sports Equipment
Take advantage of others’ spring cleaning by visiting Goodwill or second-hand stores in early spring
Spring charity races bring out great sales on running shoes

Toys
October and November (shortly after new items arrive in September instead of intuitively shortly before)

Furniture
January and July

Linens and Bedding
“January White Sales” date back to 1878

The Best Time for Returns
10 am any day except for December 26 (most experienced staff work the day shift and are well-rested and ready at their posts)

Creation as God’s Handiwork

June 18, 2010

Handiwork isn’t a word we use much anymore.  The work of someone’s hands; that is, something done very personally.  All this talk about “green” things and “creation care” and “sustainability” gives some yet another opportunity to choose sides: are you going to care about God’s creation, or do you believe that God gave us dominion over the earth and we can do with it whatever we want.  Of course, most of us fall somewhere in the middle of that and think that neither are mutually exclusive.  We do have the opportunity–and thus responsibility–to care for what God has provided, but I think too often our focus is misplaced.

How do we live in creation?  Do we relate to it as a place full of “things” that we can use for whatever need we want to fulfill and whatever goal we wish to accomplish?  Or do we see creation first of all as a sacramental reality, a sacred space where God reveals to us the immense beauty Himself–the Divine?  As long as we only use creation, we cannot recognise its sacredness because we are approaching it as if we are its owners.  But when we relate to all that surrounds us as God’s “handiwork,” created by the same God who created us and as the place where God appears to us and calls us to worship and adoration, then we are able to recognise the sacred quality of all God’s handiwork–the “personal toil” of His very hands.  Then, “creation care” is less about recycling and frustration about low-pressure showerheads and more about loving our neighbors in time as well as space, and honoring the Creator behind creation by protecting His handiwork for generations to come.

Can We Fix It? Or, Who’s in Control?

June 16, 2010

You know…we’re just not good at dealing with things we can’t fix.  In general, there is nothing that Americans that work hard enough, organize around, or throw enough money at that we can’t lick.  With pride, we recall the ways we swooped in to aid the Haitians, the victims of the tsunami, the families affected by 9/11, even a tanking economy on the verge of utter disaster.  All we have to do is get the right people at the table, find enough donors, and use enough brawn, and we can handle any adversity that comes our way.

Except this.  But we’ll get it eventually, right?

The oil problem and a growing list of that which ails the world–cancer, AIDS, earthquakes, oil leaks–should reiterate to all of us that WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL.  The real question in this is simple: how do you respond when you realize that you’re not in control?  The answer to that question probably reveals a great deal about what you really think about God and who you really think you are in that context.  Do you throw your hands up and give up?  Run and hide?  Do whatever you want because it doesn’t matter anyway?  Live a more rigid lifestyle to control all the temporal things you possibly can?

I’m reminded of a phrase God the Father and Jesus the Son repeated in one way or another: “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”

Our Unique Call

June 15, 2010

I was speaking with a recent grad yesterday who was so discouraged by the events of the world and how insignificant her contribution to the world seemed in comparison.  I asked her if I could share some of the highlights of that conversation…

So many terrible things happen every day that we start wondering whether the few things we do ourselves make any sense.  When people are starving only a few thousand miles away, when wars are raging close to our borders, when countless people in our own cities have no homes to live in, our own mundane (or just local) activities can seem futile.  Thinking about it with that perspective, however, can paralyse us and depress us.

That’s where I think the concept of ”calling” becomes important.  We are not called to save the world, solve all problems, and help all people.  But we each have our own unique God-given, Spirit-inspired call, in our families, in our work, in our world–our circle of influence.  We have to keep asking God to help us see clearly what our call is and to give us the strength to live out that call with trust.  Then we will discover that our faithfulness to a small task is the most healing response to the illnesses of our time.

Freedom from Judging, Freedom for Mercy

June 12, 2010

We spend an enormous amount of energy making up our minds about other people.  Not a day goes by without somebody doing or saying something that evokes in us the need to form an opinion about him or her.  We hear a lot, see a lot, and know a lot.  The feeling that we have to sort it all out in our minds and make judgments about it can be quite oppressive.  The desert fathers said that judging others is a heavy burden, while being judged by others is a light one.  Once we can let go of our need to judge others, we will experience an immense inner freedom.  Once we are free from judging, we will be also free for offering mercy and grace in abundance.

Let’s remember Jesus’ words: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged” (Matthew 7:1).  In this verse, the Greek krino may mean either “be critical of” or “condemn.”  I can’t imagine Jesus offers this prohibition as a strategy for success in temporal relationships; rather, it is a call to live in the light of the dawning kingdom of God.  And this doesn’t mean that we avoid confrontation and don’t concern ourselves with the moral failings of other community members…it just means we need to move beyond the distant and removed “judgment” of someone’s condition and move toward deepest love for one another: involvement, discernment, willingness to confront one another in love, and forgiveness.

Remembering…

May 31, 2010

Thankful for those who have served obediently and sacrificed their time and lives so that I may have a more abundant life…like Jesus.