When you think, you thank!

Most of my baptist and pentecostal friends can finish this sentence.  "When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he's done for me..."  The end of this sentence is "my soul cries out HALLELLUJAH!  Thank God for saving me.  I know that we have passed Thanksgiving, but just yesterday and today, I was reminded that every day is a day of thanksgiving.  "When you think, you thank."  That is one of the many sermons preached by the Right Reverend Vashti Murphy MacKenzie of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  Undoubtedly, she is one of my sheroes in the gospel.  As 2012 rests on its final hinges, when you think of the goodness of God and how he's carried you through moments this year, this month or this week alone, instictively, you ought to thank him.

Last night I had dinner with a very good friend of mine.  At the end of dinner he said "My, how times have changed."  He reminded me of when I was a young teacher and we would just sit and talk in the basement studio apartment that I rented at that time.  We laughed and chuckled at ourselves in those moments of our lives.  Just today, while running errands on that side of town, I had a flashback and a stroll through memory lane, of myself at that point.  It took everything in me to blink back the wells of water forming in my eyes that were on the cusp of falling.  In that moment, I realized that God has been GOOD to me.  As I was in the grocery strore, in my old neighborhood which I often frequented, I was reminded that although there were happy moments at that point in my life, I was also in a deep depression and in a very dark place.  I had my series of Job moments when I thought that everything had been taken away from me, I grappled and wrestled with my faith and even questioned God, Why me?

During this time, God used my mother to minister to me in a powerful way in which she had not done for me as an adult.  Even though I walked that lonesome path clouded by fear, that valley eclipsed by death and fueled by the desire to give up on God and myself, God made a way.  I am thankful for those dark moments, because they have formed me into who I am at present.  Life is tough.  None of us were born with a guarantee that it would always be rosy, or fair.  It is in those moments, when we wrestle with God, we recognize that he is with us.   Like the old folks say, "My soul looks back and wonder how I got over!"  As we await the pending fiscal cliff, take time to go back to that place in your life where you really had to rely on God.  If you have to go to an old neighborhood, go.  When we return to that place where God met us at our need, we will gladly thank him.  When you think, you thank. 

Peace,
Karsten