Thoughts on Thanks

The day of Thanksgiving is now behind us and it was one of my most refreshing and needed breaks. 
Unfortunately, remembering to be thankful is not something I have done on a regular basis. How sad it is we don't really remember our gratitude until that one day of the year and even then, our gratitude is short lived (if lived at all) after the big meal as we begin to prepare for Black Friday shopping, Christmas gatherings and, if your a student, finals. 


It's almost like being thankful is another thing we've added to our checklist of things we *should* do but more often than not we *don't* do. And if we so happen to accomplish one of those things on our check list, we give ourselves a gold star, a pat on the back, and delight in the fact that we did something good. 


Recently, I saw a quote posted on facebook that said "What if you woke up today with the things you thanked God for yesterday?" (Thank you to the person who posted that.) I shared it with my roommate and we both sat silently a minute as we began to comprehend the weight of that question. The truth is, I wouldn't have woken up with much. In fact, I probably wouldn't have woken up with anything.  : /


Seeing as I lead a Bible study, I figured that this really important topic would be our next thing to learn and thus began searching out things about thanks and why it is so important. Why does it matter if we are thankful? 


Here is what I found: 
1)Your thankfulness keeps you close to God.  How seriously huge is that?? When you think about people who "drifted away" from the faith, you don't picture someone turning 180 degrees and walking the opposite direction. Drifting is subtle. It's sneaky, it's hard to notice. When you're in a boat and decide to sit still in the water for a bit, unless you drop anchor, you're gonna drift. And if you're not paying attention, you're gonna eventually find yourself way off course and perhaps you will wonder how on earth you got to where you found yourself, but anyone could tell you that the water has a current and it will pull you with it while you idle in the water. 


I imagine as believers, we are rowing upstream. 
The world is like the water. It has a current. It pulls in different directions and really just wants to take you with it. It'll take whatever it can really. It's going the opposite direction that we're going and if it can find you in a moment where you are not rowing against it, it will surely cause you to lose some ground. It's strong. Beautiful, enticing, and sometimes dangerous. Sometimes it's calm and friendly and delightful and then storms come along and it is no longer friendly. It sends waves of discouragement that crash down on us.


Putting our faith in Jesus is like climbing into a boat. We are safe there and we can rest. We won't get eaten by the mean fishes and we won't drown. Sometimes when the storms come we get knocked around a little bit, but we're ok. We learn how better to grip onto our boat so we don't get too many bruises the next time. 


Thankfulness is our everly so important anchor. Keeping the boat where it needs to and preventing it from dumping us out in very nasty storms. It keeps us from floating to some unknown place that we don't need to be. It allows us to rest and replenish. It is NEEDED. When storms are raging and we have no strength to row through life's difficulties anymore, dropping the thankfulness anchor is the best thing we can do. Sometimes we just have to ride out the storm and trust that for as much as your little boat of faith is getting jerked around in the waves and the currents, when the storm ends, your little boat did not move. 


2) "It is impossible to be negative while giving thanks." 


If someone were to ask me what my biggest pet peeve was I think I would answer "Complaining." Complaining for the sake of complaining. I hate the word 'suck.' Like when people have some complaint and then say "doesn't that suck?" Why yes! Yes it does. It sucks my joy right out of me. Someone once said, "Wise men count their blessings; Fools count their problems."


Phil. 2: 14-15
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 


3) Being thankful prevents burnout. 
I recently heard a story about a man in his 80s that was so passionate about Jesus that, as a young man,  he shared his faith wherever he went. It was not always easy, and he took a lot of flack for it. But still to this day he shares his faith. He was once asked, "What was it that kept you from burning out all those years?" "Thankfulness," was his reply. And thanks to this man who stayed thankful and did not burn out, there is one person a week coming to know Jesus. 


"Seeds of discouragement will not grow in a thankful heart.