Displaying items by tag: pandemic

Thanksgiving 2020 feels like un-holiday. For many of us, extended family will not gather. Full tables with empty chairs make for a bleak celebration. Such an outlook can contribute to our despair instead of filling us with gratitude. We need to tilt this holiday on its side. This year will be different but not bad. Gratitude, the center of this holiday, focuses on what we celebrate the good opposed to focusing on what we’ve lost.

In the book Beautiful Resistance by Jon Tyson, he highlights the importance of celebrating God’s goodness. This reminds us that He provides the blessings in our life. It forces a pause to look for the good in the busyness of life that we often overlook. I don’t want to do that anymore; I want to embrace the good.

There are multiple Hebrew and Greek words used for the word good throughout Scripture. Its complexity becomes apparent when we search it out. Good, such a simple word, how could it be so complex? The difficulty rests in using words to describe our God. His perfect holiness transcends our own understanding and words fail. Good describes one’s nature as pleasant, agreeable, joyful and happy but it also means excellent, distinguished, upright and honorable. It describes the personality as possessing integrity, virtue, and purity. Further we see it described as precious and beautiful, full of kindness with an upright heart. Wrap that all up with gentleness, mildness, and meekness.

Read through those words again. Let the richness of each word envelop you with its strength and comfort.

Studying God’s goodness reminds me of a plentiful feast. After a season in which much was stripped away, we find a rich banquet set before us. We crave refreshment and sustenance as we sit down to God’s rich table. We take a bite, savoring the flavors as they stimulate our neglected taste buds. At the end of the meal we sit satisfied that God’s goodness met every need. When we nourish ourselves on the complexities of the word it revitalizes us, feeding the joy inside of us.

Psalm 23:6 reminds us that God’s goodness pursues us. God sends good, pleasant, agreeable, and beneficial circumstances into our lives for our welfare daily. Our job is to look for it. Even in times of suffering, good will surface. Caught up in what we don’t possess blinds us to the present blessings. We simply need to turn and let the goodness chasing us catch and surround us. No matter what God is good. That is worth celebrating.

Are we living upside down during this time of crisis? This reminds me of a song my kids sang in elementary school. Jumping around the room they whole heartedly sang about God’s upside down kingdom. Our Kid’s Church pulsated with the words reminding our children that the last would be first (Matthew 19:30). My heart warmed as I heard them sing this at home and in the car. Proud to know they learned a complex cornerstone of God’s word from a simple song, I believed they lived it. Putting others first, loving one another, a directive Jesus exemplified for each of us, now feels more complex. As I’ve aged, I realize life is not that black and white.

In our current situation, it may feel difficult to recognize which way is up. As a nation we sacrifice for the physical wellbeing of our neighbors. Do you see we are loving our neighbors in this way? Yet, this isolation still feels sideways. This extroverted woman needs her people. I’m thankful for my husband and daughter who are here with me and for the technology that is connecting me with many of you. It is not enough but it will have to do.

Stretched to the extreme limits, our healthcare workers, grocery store employees, and other essential workers put their life on the line each day. I sit in my living room and feel the imbalance of our situation, should I do more? Doing more may contribute to the problem. Lord, we need Your wisdom in this time.

We don’t know the future but we do know the One who holds it. I believe that this will impact our lives, changing the trajectory if we allow the Lord to lead. Mourning will come to those that experience loss of loved ones, physical difficulties, economic stress and the apparent loss of dreams, especially in the young. We need to be there to help pick up the pieces. I am reminded to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming season.

Now is the time to stand on the foundation of our faith. Recognizing Jesus as this foundation, fully surrendered to His leadership, we will see farther and understand our direction of service. Trust HIM, Jesus is holding you in ways our finite minds cannot comprehend. Remember our Lord’s departing words in John 14:27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” (NLT) The Holy Spirit comes to us as our advocate and teacher, when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. As new or seasoned believers, remember that Jesus will shepherd us as the Spirit advises and teaches us in each step we are to take. Simply ask to be willing, we follow the lead of our God.