All Things Goofy

In today’s financial crunch it can be easy to forget that we have plenty to be thankful for.  The aforementioned crunch has been particularly hard on us.  The job I got at the beginning of the year didn’t last long.  I had to step down from my position as youth pastor at church.  We had to find a new church and leave behind people we cared about deeply.  We had to move out of the house we have rented since moving to Nashville 3.5 years ago and leave behind the best landlord on the face of this earth.  The job market has dried up significantly here.  Needless to say, it can be difficult to find things to be thankful for.

However, the truth is that there is plenty to be thankful for:

• I am alive and well
• I have the most beautiful, smart, loving, incredible wife on the planet!
• I have a motivated, entrepreneurial hyper-intelligent son that I am incredibly proud of!
• I have the most beautiful, entertaining, smart 7 year old in the universe!
• I have the most amazing, advanced, smart 2 year old around!
• I have a beautiful home to stay in while we look for a new place.
• I have the BEST in-laws.  Since the invention of marriage, there have been five in-laws that were rated the most loving, the most pure. These leave them all behind.
• I have a great new church where I am surrounded my solid, mature believers and real, authentic leaders.
• I have the best best friend a guy could ask for.
• I have awesome parents who love me dearly!
• I have an incredible brother who I love talking to!
• I have loving sisters—even if they like to pretend that they aren’t (well, one of them)
• I have some of the best aunts & uncles that a kid could ask for.
• I have incredible friends back up north who I miss incredibly
• I have unbelievably loyal, loving, REAL friends whom I have met over the interwebs
• I’ve had the opportunity this last year to speak into the lives of some awesome teens
• I’m sure there are TONS of things/people who I am missing and I apologize to them, but it is 3am and my memory isn’t what it used to be!

I had an assignment in one of my classes at Liberty recently where I had to write a parallel situation to Phil 4:13, “I can do all things though Him who gives me strength.”  The lesson talked about how often this verse is taken out of context and that Paul’s primary point is that no matter how tough things get, Christ will see us through.  There is no situation we can find ourselves in that Christ can’t handle.  Things may not go our way, but they will go His way.  Paul’s trying to tell us that with Christ by our side we can be content through our trials.  I can say by first hand experience that this is entirely true.And that leads to me the things I am most thankful for….

• I am thankful for God’s Word
• I am thankful that my sins are forgiven
• I am thankful for a God that loves me unconditionally
• I am thankful for a Savior who died so I don’t have to

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; His love endures forever.” – 1 Chron 16:34