This Thanksgiving, I don’t feel particularly thankful.
My family’s going through a rough time. My wife and daughter have had long-term medical issues; my hip has been hurting for the last 2 ½ years, and I found out two weeks ago that I need a total hip replacement. We’ve been financially stressed since I left my teaching career 5 ½ years ago, and just as we were finally getting some financial stability, I lost my job last week. With the job loss goes the semi-affordable insurance I need to pay for my hip surgery. Sometimes, life just stinks.
The economy stinks, so it may be a while before I can get another job where I can make enough money to pay the bills. The prospect of going broke and losing everything I’ve worked for has left me depressed, and I’m tired of the constant physical pain in my hip. And, yes, while I realize I still have more than most people in the world, it’s not a whole lot of consolation. And yes, of course, I still have my family. But, from the perspective of a middle-aged American who sees his health and the American Dream slipping through his fingers, there’s not an abundance to be thankful for this year.
Fortunately, as a follower of Jesus Christ, there is much more to life than economic security and physical health. God has promised many things those of us who have chosen to follow Him.
In Matthew 6:33, Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” What things is He talking about? In verse 25, Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” He continues in verses 31-32: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” So, when He says in verse 33, “these things shall be added to you,” He is talking about our material needs. God promises to meet the material needs of those who “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Note that this does not say He will meet our desires, only our needs. There is no “prosperity gospel” in the Bible; there is only the promise that God will provide for the basic needs of those who are truly seeking Him.
But far beyond meeting my physical needs, God has promised to be with me through the trials of life. This is not just some pie-in-the-sky future reward after death, but a promise to walk with me, guide me, and comfort me through the trials of today. One of my favorite passages in all the Bible comes from Romans 8:31-39:
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
First, notice that this is written for the present, not just the future: God is for us; Christ makes intercession for us; we are more than conquerors; the love of God is in Christ Jesus out Lord.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, the most important thing in all of life is my relationship with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. My sin separated me from God; the blood of Jesus has provided reconciliation. Because I have confessed my guilt before holy God, believed and received forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and repented of my sin, I am reconciled with God and have become an adopted child in His family. And nothing can change this. God never promises that His children won’t ever face “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.” But, He does promise that by and through His grace, mercy, and love, I am able to conquer all these things. God loves me so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sin (John 3:16). And, He promises that I can never be separated from His love.
This Thanksgiving, I’m not thankful for my health issues, or my unemployment, or the depression that accompanies these things. But, despite the fact that I don’t feel especially thankful, I am thankful for a wife and family that stands by me despite my shortcomings, and I’m especially thankful for the love and grace of God through Jesus Christ, and His promise to see me through the trials of this life.
Filed under: About Me, Personal Logs | Tagged: Bible, depression, God, Jesus Christ, promises, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
According to the oldest known Roman cookbook, written circa A.D. 228, sausage was a favorite dish at the annual pagan fertility festival Lupercalia, held February 15 in honor of the pastoral god Lupercus. The early Catholic Church outlawed the Lupercalia Festival , and declared the eating of sausage to be a sin. Therefore, the Roman emperor Constantine banned the eating of sausages.
The Jules Undersea Lodge is an underwater hotel in Key Largo, Florida and is the only such hotel in the United States. It is 30 feet (9 m) deep in a lagoon lagoon, and guests must scuba dive to get to their rooms. And, I’ve seen it while snorkeling (but didn’t get to go inside).
Dogs can smell about 1,000 times better than humans. While humans have 5 million smell-detecting cells, dogs have more than 220 million. The part of the brain that interprets smell is also four times larger in dogs than in humans.
In 1881, an anarchist and lawyer named Charles Guiteau shot President James Garfield in the back with a five-barrel, .44-caliber pistol called a British Bulldog. He said he chose the gun because it would look good on display in a museum someday. No one currently knows where the gun is. Garfield didn’t die from the gunshot wounds, but from blood poisoning after doctors tried to remove the bullet from his back with dirty instruments. Guiteau claimed during his trial that he didn’t kill the President, the doctors had. He was convicted anyway.
A can of Progresso™ Chicken Corn Chowder soup has 400 calories, 18g of fat, and 1780mg of sodium. I thought Progresso™ was supposed to be healthy. At least there’s no trans fats.
The Roman Emperor Elagabulus was known to employ a prototype of the Whoopee Cushion at dinner parties. This may be the origin of the term “party pooper.”
In 1818, John Cleves Symmes, Jr. suggested that the Earth contained a hollow shell about 1,300 km (810 mi) thick, with openings about 2,300 km (1,400 mi) across at both poles with 4 inner shells each open at the poles. Symmes petitioned Congress to send an expedition to the top of the earth to test his theory and find the hole. 25 members of Congress voted in favor of the expedition. President John Quincy Adams indicated he would approve of this, but he left office before this could occur.
The common guinea pig was first domesticated as a food source in about 2000 BC by the people living in the Andes Mountains. They are still a major part of the diet in Peru and Bolivia to this day. Peruvians consume an estimated 65 million guinea pigs each year. One famous painting of the Last Supper in the largest cathedral in Cusco, Peru shows Christ and the twelve disciples eating a guinea pig.
