The last week has been a little hard. I had to have surgery on my foot for an issue that I had already had two surgeries for on the other foot. The surgery itself went well but the recovery has, well, been up and down. I feel like I am living on a rollercoaster. One day I feel ok and very optimistic, and then the next something will pull or hurt and I will feel like the whole process was a waste of time. Today would be one of the lower days. Frustration is winning. So I sat down at my desk to listen to a worship playlist and read my bible and pull myself out of the funk that I was in. I am doing a few different Bible readings. I have my Beth Moore study homework and then I follow Rachel Wojo (which if you don’t know who she is you really should. Her stuff is awesome and very encouraging http://rachelwojo.com). This month’s Bible reading challenge from her is on Thanksgiving. I opened my bible feeling selfishly not so thankful. My foot is in a cast. My house is, well, a little out of order because I can’t walk and wonderful husband is trying to do all that I do while still doing his job. Needless to say, a few things have slipped or just been done differently than I would have. (And if you are reading this Todd I love you and you have been doing a great job remember I did say I was feeling selfish.) Ok back to the point – THANKSGIVING. Uh, I wasn’t really in the mood to think about how thankful I should be, how blessed I am. I was more in the mood to be, well, negative and unhappy and very ungrateful. Thoughts of why I am going through this again. What if the surgery doesn’t work? And God I don’t want to be thankful right now. I want to mad and self-centred.
I pushed through and read Colossians 3:12-17. And it hit me, and God’s goodness overwhelmed me in that moment. I can’t be thankful because I haven’t put on love, and I certainly wasn’t letting Christ’s peace rule me at the moment. You see, according to this verse there is a list of things we must do and then be thankful. I was trying to start with thankful which isn’t where God wants us to start. The verse says you must have compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. I had none of that at the moment. It goes on to say bear with one another and if anyone has a complaint against someone, they are to forgive as the Lord has forgiven them. And above all of this, you are to put on love which binds everything together. The word bind there has a great meaning. More than just connecting things together it means “a close inner identity which produces harmony between members joined closely together.” Love allows kindness and compassion to follow. Love allows me to be humble and meek. Love propels me towards forgiveness, and love allows me access to God who will bring a peace that only He can to rule my heart. When I have all of that working in my life, then I can be thankful. I can be thankful that my identity isn’t in a messed up foot but in the love of God. My identity isn’t in me at all; it is in HIM and Him alone. Once I realized that I felt this wave of thankfulness. I am so thankful that in a moment God’s presence can change everything – my mind, my emotions, my perspective, and my identity.
So this week as we head into Thanksgiving, remember this – as you come to the table with your list of what you are thankful for, without time in God’s love first you will not experience true thankfulness.
So in the business of cooking turkeys for hours on low and making the perfect pumpkin pie, and making sure the table is beautiful, take a moment and let God remind you that you are beautiful to him. He loves you more than you can imagine. When you do this, you will be able to come to the table with a heart that overflows with thanksgiving.
