I’m sure we are all full from our festivities of Thankfulness. Turkey naps have been taken, shopping is all done, and the Christmas tree has been cut down (or taken out of the box).

But do you feel thankful? Really thankful?

Paul tells us in Romans 1 that our thankfulness matters. It is the key to Obedience. It is the key to Joy. It is the key to Eternity.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things – Romans 1:21–23

A heart filled with self, is a recipe for a dark and foolish heart. This has led to the greatest tragedies in history and the saddest personal days in all of our lives. We weren’t created to be focused on anything other than our creator and being stewards of all that he created.

C.S. Lewis wrote often about this heart issue. The last paragraph of Mere Christianity summarizes the biblical truth of giving up our lives for the truth of Jesus.

The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and the death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find him, and with him everything else thrown in.

It is not in our self-interest to be selfish. Rather, self-denial is in our self-interest.

In Lewis’s classic sermon The Weight of Glory, he poses this same dilemma of wicked and sad selfishness. In that context, he gives what has become my favorite Lewis quote:

Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink, sex, and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Are you Thankful that your savior loves you?
Are you Thankful that you have breath?
Are you Thankful that you have been created for a purpose?
Are you Thankful to the point of living life with open hands and paper thin agendas?

Thanksgiving matters not just once a year, but each day. Our Thankfulness is the key to really living and the source of all our Joy.

Happy Thanksgiving Today and I Pray EVERY Day

As the summer construction season bled into the school year beginning, traffic in Laramie became chaos, even if a very first world problem. I was driving to help a friend, when I made the faulty decision to travel on Reynolds Avenue during school drop off time:)

Quickly I was ensnarled in the crawl of cars heading in the same direction, with no way to find a “short cut.”  I wasn’t in much of a hurry, so I just sat and enjoyed listening to Dr. Mohler’s “The Briefing” Chrisitan worldview podcast.  I cannot say the same calm was present in those who sat idling in front of me.  

At the insection, students were crossing to get to the middle school, people were trying to advance to drop off their kids, and people were just passing through on their way to work.  Also in that intersection, a lone police officer, donned in a high visiblity vest, was trying to make direction sense of this free for all.  He had the only view of the four directions cars entered from, and was able to see kids walking, running, and biking towards the same spot.  He had the total 360 degree picture of information and the authority to make everything work out safely.  

Again, I cannot say that some of those in front of me had the same perspective of this officer’s role and perspective.  One parent directly in front of me was yelling out the window at the officer to “hurry up” while also pounding her fist on the steering wheel.

Another person across the intersection was inching his truck up ever so slightly, in what appeared to be an attempt to “sneek” through, and was motioned multiple times to stop by the officer.    Eventually I got through the intersection and was on my way, but I was struck by humanity’s hatred of authority or at least a hatred of not being in charge ourselves.  Even when it’s for our good, we can’t stand being told what to do.  

How many prophets in the Old Testament were sent to warn the Hebrew nation to turn away from idols and follow the God who rescued them?  How many times did Jesus engage with the religious leaders and called them out in their rejection of God’s word.  How many times did Jesus correct his disciples for making the Gospel about them, instead of making it about reacing the world.  

Too often we buy into the myth that life is about our own little existence.  We feel slighted when someone proves we are wrong. We can’t stand it when our agenda is highjacked and we don’t get our way.  We reel from the truth that God is soverign over ever part of our lives.  We rail against the creator, demanding his capitulation to our will.  

And in ever instance, we are fools.  How can we illogically believe that a soverign God must answer to us.  Where in our minds do we land at the point of believing that the one who spoke our life into existence should be beholden to what he created.  

Paul writes about the total authority of Jesus in Colossians.  

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”  — Colossians 1:15-20

Christ holds us together.  He has the 360 degree view of all that happens in the universe.  He can see all that is coming and knows exactly how to direct it.  He knows what is best for us, even when we pound our fist on the steering wheel.  He commands our lives and gives every breath purpose.  He has total authority over us.  

Why are we in such a hurry?  Why do we rush around trying to achieve rather than live?  Why do we get upset over a delay fo time in traffic?  Why do we take it so personal when we are told what to do by someone in authority?  

It’s because we want to be in control, but we aren’t made to be in control.  We fight against the very nature of our creation when we try to be the authority.  

Life is best lived with the proper perspective on our purpose.  We were born because God created us through Christ.  We live a life of purpose with Him as our authority, and with His Word as the litmous test of everything in our lives.  Our greatest joy is found following His authoritative lead.  

“‘If I knew I were one of God’s elect, I would come to Christ; but I fear I am not.’ To you I answer: nobody ever came to Christ because he knew himself to be one of the elect. It is quite true that God has of His mere good pleasure elected some to everlasting life, but they never knew it until they believed in Christ. Christ nowhere commands the elect to come to him. He commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. The question for you is not, 'Am I one of the elect?’ but 'Am I a sinner?’ Christ came to save sinners.”

—Robert Murray M'Cheyne