gratitude...

i want to start up my blog again mainly so i can write out my thoughts and perhaps have some interaction and accountability regarding them as well. D.O thinks i hate blogs, this is not true...i may have thought you were gay when i met you back in high school, and you were right to assume that i thought that way, but i dont hate blogs and now i dont think you are gay either! whoop. i digress...

thinking a lot about gratitude lately. i think im beginning to see how far i have really fallen because of sin; and it makes me a fairly angry with satan. he's such a chump. he's great at what he does, ill give him that. perhaps your thinking, "what does that have to do with gratitude?" when i am reminded of the overwhelming grace and mercy of Christ's sacrifice, i begin to wonder, "why can't i live in this mindset?" and i begin to ask myself why i am so ungrateful when i have so much to be grateful for. then, i begin to think about the people (both christians and non-christians alike) im surrounded by on a daily basis and ask myself if i can see gratitude in their lives?

honestly, most of the time i think we aren't grateful. i mean i may be grateful in my time with the Lord in the mornings and maybe im really pumped about the blessing of life for an hour or two randomly throughout the day, but when a small setback grabs my attention...gratitude becomes selfishness and selfishness breeds all kinds of other struggles. perhaps 2 cor. 10.5's encouragement for us to "take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ" requires more than a passing glance, but rather deep contemplation and focused prayer about what it means to really "take every thought captive". chuck colson hints at the necessity of our "captive thoughts" when he says, "that every decision we ever make has the potential to affect either heaven or hell"...whats it gonna be? EVERY decision? really? that means whether i choose to wear my black asics socks or my regular white footies can affect heaven or hell? surely not? well, im guessing chuck means, in this case, that its more our attitude in our actions or decisions that does the affecting. therefore, i can choose my black asics in a "heaven affecting way"...how? well, i suppose in this case i can say, when i see my sock drawer, "Lord, thanks for even letting me have the option to choose which socks i want to wear, because a lot of people don't have that option, etc..."...that thought would most likely lead me to other things i might be wearing that i am thankful for and perhaps then people i am thankful for! what does all that mean...well i've heard it said that "discipline comes before delight". its true! im convinced that when we become consumed with gratitude, we might be able to live just a sliver of paul's "contentment in any situation, whether in abundance or in need." here we see that its not the action of taking our thoughts captive that creates gratitude, but rather its this disciplined, "keeping in step with the Spirit (gal 5.25)" that might help us become thankful people. i guess before we are content we must be thankful, and before we can be thankful, we must understand what we have to be thankful for. i think paul defines it in philippians 4.3, "our names are in the book of life". our salvation is imperishable and unfading...we have a LIVING HOPE. although, we are wasting away everyday, and life is no fun sometimes, and good people get sick or die and we don't understand why, and we are hard pressed on every side and we feel like we can't win for losing sometimes...somehow, in the midst of all of that, there's this reassurance that this place is not our home! not only that, while we are here, because of Jesus, we are new creations and don't have to live in sin! we can be victorious. our identity in Christ gives us reason to be thankful...its the embrace of this reality that might bring about true gratitude and with it an entirely heaven-centered worldview! i want it! if you are reading this please take a minute to lift up my bro david mcleod and his family. he has non-hodgkins lymphoma and needs our prayers! thanks yall.