Today seems to be the biggest day of the year in America that we express our thanks for what we have. We tend to be thankful for health, wealth, materials, family, jobs, all the good things by our standards. But what does thanfullness really look like. Are we really thankful for what we say we are thankful for? I can not help but feel that sometimes we really are not thankful, but glad. Glad that we have all these good and great things. When things are not good or great thankfullness seems to fade. Do we expect to have the things we have? We are given so much beyond what we really deserve. We will gorge ourselves on big meals today and then complain about how much we overate. This Holiday season will go on and by New Years we will complain about the weight we have gained. Black Friday is coming and people will cuss and fight over the next great thing. We are not thankful as a people we really are not. We expect to gain what we want and we think we deserve more. Today and tomorrow, people all over this world will suffer with hunger, disease, and the fight to stay alive. While this is happening, we will be enjoying our comfy gorging ourselves on food and anticipating the coveted must have gift for Christmas. We will spend beyond our means on black friday just becasue we can. We will be totally ignorant of the fact that every dollar we spend wont go to help someone else in need and every bite we eat is a bite that another starving human wont enjoy.
What does thankfullness look like? It looks like a small child who is malnourished because of parasites and does not know when his mext meal will come. A child who has has a father that wants him dead because he is ill. A little boy who stands before you and when you say to him, I don't have what you need to make you well. Thankfullness is that smile he sends your way when all you can do is pray. He knows that his hope is only found in the Lord and not the temporary pleasures of this world. He is thankful because someone made a sacrifice so that they could come to his villiage and show him that someone actually cares. If you were this boy, could you still be thankful?
What am I thankful for? I am thankful for the thorns in my flesh, and the trials I face each and every day. It is the thorns and trials that keep my focus on the only true hope that I have. In my weakness and struggles He is made greater and I am made complete. It is through need, hurts and pains that He has made me who I am today.I am thankful that the Lord has given me a heart to serve, a heart to reach those who have nothing. I am thankful that He has allowed me to be His hands nad His feet. I am thankfull that His grace has fallen on me. I am thankful that I am saved.
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This is Jose Louis(left) and Victor (right). Jose is the the little boy
I was talking about. They fled to another part of Nicaragua because
Jose's father wanted to kill Jose, Victor and their mother. Jose has a
Disease that will end his life early if he does not recieve the invasive
medical treatment needed. These two boys were so thankful that I
simply took the time to pray. They returned numerous times throughout
the day to express their thanks with hugs, smiles and prayers. Victor who is
only 4 layed his hands on my head and prayed. He prayed in a way that was
way beyond his years. He gave thanks to the Lord for sending me and
asked God to annoint me with his spirit so that I could reach the world
with His mighty name. He asked God to bless me even more because
of my faithfullness to come and serve in his villiage.
These boys know what it means to be thankful.
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2 Corinthians 12:9-10 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
May my life be the proof and evidence of His love!
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