Open Thanksgiving

Wow! Can you believe the Holidays are upon us? It is unfathomable for me that Thanksgiving is just a matter of hours away. Just think, with just a few turns of the hands on the clock, turkeys will be cooked and devoured; sweet potatoes will be mashed and inhaled; enough dressing will be baked to feed an army; and the spreads of cakes, cookies, and pies will be so plentiful that even the most modest of appetites will be tempted! Thanksgiving is indeed here!

From humble beginnings, Thanksgiving has become a mega-event for many families. I know personally, on a good year, Thanksgiving will be the only opportunity I will have to see cousins, aunts, and uncles clear on the other side of the state (sad, isn’t it?). It will be a day where others who are too separated by distance will spend time on the phone or perhaps even on a videoconference over the Internet—eat your hearts’ out Pilgrims! And then there is the family tradition I have only garnered a glimpse since marrying into my wife’s family: “The After-Thanksgiving Shopping Extravaganza!”

Thanksgiving has practically become synonymous with unbelievable bargains and shopping galore. I have been seeing signs the last several weeks advertising “Unbeatable Sales!” “Lowest Prices of the Year!” “We Won’t be Undersold,” and “Bargains Beyond Compare!” But perhaps my favorite sign of all came from a marquee not too far from my home that read, “Open Thanksgiving!”

I allowed my mind to dance a little after reading that sign. The more I played with the wording in my mind, the further I moved away from thinking about stores, shopping, and extraordinary shopping deals. It was not long before I moved from “Open Thanksgiving” to “Open Thanksgiving.”

If you’ll bear with me a minute, the difference might seem subtle, but I think it’s worth exploring. When we can look beyond even the greatest of deals and back into the meaning of the holiday, I think we do ourselves some justice. You see Thanksgiving is about exactly what it says, giving thanks. Though we do not need to set aside one day a year to be thankful, it makes for quite a special day when we do pause and show gratitude for our blessings and those we love. But when we can “Open Thanksgiving” in our hearts and minds, perhaps we find that we are more thankful than we ever thought possible.

When we open our hearts and minds—just like when we open windows and doors in our homes—all sorts of things can find their way in. Like a gentle breeze carrying the aroma of a fire from a neighbor’s fireplace, if we are open to the things that swirl around us outside of just what our eyes can see, then we will discover there is so much more to be thankful for than what is right in front of our noses. We live in a wonderful creation that nurtures and cares for us. We have people around us who we’ll never see that protect our wellbeing and that of our families. And we have a God who loves us so much He made the greatest sacrifice in Jesus to make us His own!

So I want to encourage you to have an “Open Thanksgiving” this year. Hug your loved ones. Express gratitude for the blessings from those who you might never see. And above all, from the Thanksgiving feast to the very end of the day, remember what life really means and, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1)

ReThinking The Storm

We have had a lot of rain lately, haven’t we? While all that rain can really take a toll on us, it’s also the perfect time to think about how we deal with the storms of life. First of all, we must acknowledge the fact that life can be stormy. When the storms come, we often want to hunker down and pray to GOD to either calm the storm or remove us from it so we can be safe and cozy. I have become convinced, however, that we need to change our prayer posture, so to speak. One way I deal with this is to shift my focus from the things that are going wrong to the One who can do something about it. In other words, instead of talking to GOD about my problem, I started talking to my problem about my GOD. For example, instead of focusing on my anger, fear, anxiety, etc., I focusing on how GOD is grace; GOD is mercy; GOD is peace; GOD is love; GOD is forgiving; GOD is present; GOD is peace, GOD is...

Matthew 14.22-34 is the account of how Jesus walked on water and invited Peter out to join Him. We typically equate that story with having the faith to get out of the boat, yet while I was going through my prayer on the qualities of GOD, this story came back into my consciousness. At first I interpreted it as I needed to have the faith to walk on water by getting out of the boat (and that's still part of it) but another truth came to me. In this story, the disciples are in a boat that is in the middle of a storm while Jesus is on a mountain in prayer. From His vantage point, Jesus could see His friends were in trouble and he came to their aid by walking on the water.

Jesus did not allow the storm to separate Him from those who needed to Him, so He literally overcame the physical limitations of this world to go to their aid. What really struck me is the time lapse, though; you see, I know from hearing this story many times in my life that Jesus calmed the storm. What hit me, though, is the fact that this doesn't happen until the very end of this story…don't miss the significance here, my friend! Jesus didn't wait for the storm to end before he came to His friends' aid. He also didn't spare the moment to calm the storm first ... He came to them in the middle of the storm. And the whole episode of Peter getting out of the boat to walk on the water occurs, again, in the middle of the storm!!!

When we wait or expect for GOD to calm life’s storms before we join Him in His work, we're missing a greater truth. Jesus comes to us and asks us to join Him in the midst of our storm. The chaos we experience is opening us up in faith to follow Him. While we're asking Jesus to calm the storm so we can act for Him, He's telling us to act for Him and let Him worry about the storm. This can be scary faith stuff, because it requires us to quit focusing on the storm and focus on Him. Then the storm-calming work Jesus does first and foremost, therefore, is to calm the storm within us.

I want to encourage you to acknowledge your storm, but quit focusing on it. Instead, focus on the person and character of GOD who is walking to you in the middle of your storm and asking you to join Him in the impossible. He might not calm the storm before you, but He wants to calm the storm within you so you can join Him in every aspect of life. When you can embrace this, it will definitely change you as you realize the storm doesn't have any power over you, but the One who is holding you in the storm certainly does.

Click here to see a YouTube video for the Casting Crown’s song,
Praise You In This Storm

How Deep Is Your Trust?

How deep is your trust? Trust is an interesting thing. When I flip a light switch, I trust that light will fill the room. When I put my key in the car ignition, I trust my car will crank. When I set my alarm at night, I trust that it will wake me up at the appropriate time the next day. As human beings, we know what it means to trust in things. But how deep is our trust?

Of those three simple things I mentioned above, our trust was formed by experience. We learn through experience that when we flip a light switch, crank a car, or set an alarm, the desired outcome will almost always occur. But what about those moments that we all have when there is no power in the house, or the car battery is dead, or we accidentally set our alarm clocks for 6pm instead of 6am? These instances tend to change our behavior at some level. We might look around to see if there is any evidence of electricity running through the house. We might look to make sure that we turn lights off in our car to ensure the battery doesn’t conk out on us. Or we might double-check the right time on the clock. The experience of things failing us changes our behaviors, at least for a little while. When that’s the case, our sense of trust shifts; if shifts from trust in the device to trust in ourselves to ensure that we manipulate the device properly. This shift might be subtle, but the effects are dramatic.

We need to consider this aspect of human nature in terms of our trust in God. We believe that all we have to do is ask God and He will provide for our needs according to the plan and purpose He has for our lives. The only problem is we believe we know what’s best. We treat God more like a consultant than the Creator and hope that His will lines up with our own. We often approach trust in God like there’s something we can do to manipulate Him. This, unfortunately, never works, and when it doesn’t, our faith and trust in Him is compromised.

I will admit that there are at least two areas in my life where I have a trust problem. All the lip service in the world cannot change the fact that in these areas of my life, I look at God and wonder when He’s going to sign on to MY plan as opposed to me signing on to His. So this morning as I was spending time in prayer and meditation, both of these issues boiled to the top. As I reflected over them and my trust in Him, I was reminded of how even yesterday, I tried at least one thing to push my agenda upon the circumstances in both cases as opposed to carrying them to the Almighty. This begs the question: how deep is my trust?

As I was praying about the depth of my trust, a scripture passage was given to me that comes from Ephesians. Check this out, “I (Paul) pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3.16-19, NIV, emphasis mine)

When I don’t see things working out the way I want them to, I have the tendency to try doing things on my own. I am not alone … we all do it! But what does this say about the depth of our trust? I’m afraid it says it’s pretty shallow. The scripture says that the power of God’s love is immeasurable. That’s a sizable difference. That’s an eternal difference. It would do us some good to trust God – who we believe only wants the eternal best for us, which is a far cry from what we think we need – more than we trust our own ability to manipulate a circumstance or our God.

So let me ask you again, how deep is your trust?

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O Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things.
(St. Ignatius of Loyola, 1491-1556)

Turning An "Alexander Day" Upside Down

When I was a kid, one of my favorite stories was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. This book was such a staple in my house growing up that whenever someone had a bad day, we termed it an "Alexander Day." It still somewhat sticks when I have a conversation with my mom, brother, or sister, but it isn't as prevalent in my everyday vernacular anymore. That is until a couple weeks ago.

I had "An Alexander Day." It seemed that no matter what I did, it turned out poorly. If King Midas had the golden touch... well, I'm not even going to allude to the kind of touch I had. Let's suffice it to say, I wasn't happy.

I was driving to an appointment and I was in a royally bad mood (remember King Midas' antithesis?). I knew I couldn't go into my meeting as a sour puss at best, so I started praying. The only problem was my prayer wasn't all that sincere. I was skirting around the fact that I wasn't happy. One thing about having an omniscient God is He knows when we're not being open and honest with Him. There should be no mystery that my prayers didn't feel like they were going any farther than my steering wheel. I just felt shallow, or maybe even more appropriately, hollow.

I knew I needed to change my prayer if I was going to be worth anything when I arrived, so I focused on God. Novel thought, eh? Instead of focusing on the stuff I was dealing with, I focused on the positive attributes of God that ran directly opposite to what I was feeling. Instead of spewing my negative thoughts as to how my "Alexander Day" was progressing, I began focusing on positive thoughts of God. My prayer then became a series of words that described the personality and character of God. Words like:

Present

Peaceful

Loving

Truthful

Graceful

Merciful

Forgiving

Eternal

Provider

I went on making my mental list as I drove to my next destination. Within just a few moments, I began feeling much better. It was as though the heaviness of my "Alexander Day" was lifting, and so were my spirits. I had been turned upside down in literally just a matter of seconds when earlier I felt as though my whole house of cards was collapsing.

I have been doing this kind of praying a lot more lately. I'm finding that focusing on the person of God is so much more beneficial than focusing on the person of Mark; after all, I get the majority of my attention anyway. When focusing on God, my attention shifts from glorifying myself to glorifying God. Perhaps this is what Paul meant when he wrote, "Set your mind on things above and not on earthly things." (Colossians 3.2)

Changing the latitude of my prayers helped turn an "Alexander Day" upside down. I would like to suggest you give this a shot; you never know how it might change the way you feel and look at the world! Start making your list -- mental or otherwise -- about the character, attributes, and person of God. If you need any assistance, let me know; I'd love to help.