“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 …

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.

If we’re too fearful to reflect on our own actions, how can we possibly begin to comprehend who God is and what God has done in our lives through Jesus Christ?  I know there are some of you who are quite hard on yourselves and need to cut yourselves some slack…but for too many of us, we don’t spend time in silence reflecting on our choices and our priorities.  We keep life busy and loud and distracting to keep from thinking too hard about our selves and how we relate to others and to God.

Now, do not be satisfied with merely reading through a chapter.  Some people thoughtlessly read through two or three chapters—stupid people for doing such a thing!  It is always better to read a little and digest it, than it is to read much and then think you have done a good thing by merely reading the letter of the word.  For you might as well read the alphabet backwards and forwards, as read a chapter of Scripture, unless you meditate upon it, and seek to comprehend its meaning.  Merely to read words is nothing: the letter kills.

It makes sense: in most cases, it’s quality over quantity!

Spurgeon closes with this: “In your private devotions, strive after vital godliness, real soul-work, the life-giving operation of the Spirit of God in your hearts.”  So for us today, what do personal devotions look like?  Robotic opening of a text and reading as much as we can before our eyelids fall?  There’s time for context and understanding the “whole” story…but there’s also plenty of time to savor a pearl of wisdom or a phrase that turns our hearts toward God–and we meditate on that for days!

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!

As long as our hearts keep vacillating among these many wants, it is difficult to move forward in life with inner peace and joy.  I think that is why we need inner and outer spiritual disciplines–to go beyond all our personal wants and dreams, to understand the WORLD’S needs, and to explore what mission God might be calling us toward.