Worship: The Heart of Thanksgiving


I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving~ Psalm 69:30

Yikes! The holidays are upon us once again.

Without a doubt the weirdest thing about living in the desert is the lack of seasonal change in the environment. Fall is just like summer: it’s hot; the leaves on the trees don’t change color, or fall from the trees; the plants all continue to flower, the critters are still skittering about and everybody in Tucson is wearing shorts well into November.

Because of the lack of seasonal change, I have remained completely oblivious of the upcoming holiday until recently. My first clue to the changing season came when turkeys and cranberries started showing up in the grocery stores.  It actually freaked me out; at first I couldn’t figure why the stores were suddenly being overrun with frozen turkeys and then I remembered that I needed to buy one!

It’s a little odd that I almost forgot about Thanksgiving this year because it’s one of my favorite times of year. I love that Thanksgiving is still all about gratitude, God and sharing a really great meal with family and friends. Mercifully, the American marketing machine has not figured out a way to turn Thanksgiving into a gift-giving occasion. I also find it delightfully ironic that many Americans who don’t even believe in God celebrate a day that was set-aside for the sole purpose of showing our thankfulness to the Almighty. God is God and He ends up getting glory one way or the other!

As I begin this week of Thanksgiving I’m looking to be intentional about showing my thankfulness and so I thought I would share with all of you some of the things I am most grateful for. I’m hoping that gratitude is infectious and that my list will spark a desire in you to create a list of your own.

First of all, I am grateful for change. I know that is an odd thing to be grateful for but I am. Change is by its very nature challenging but it is God’s way of keeping us aware and prayerful. Change creates opportunities for growth and development that would never come about if we simply stuck with the status quo.

I am grateful that God has provided for our family in such a way that I worry about eating too much as opposed to too little.  In a world where 925 million people are going hungry everyday I am thankful for a full belly and jeans that are just a little more snug than I would like.

I am incredibly grateful for the female friends and relatives that God has placed in my life. The older I get the more I appreciate the unique bond that women have with one another. I am especially grateful for the women who have supported me through this move to Arizona. I don’t know what I would have done without their love and encouragement.

I am grateful to live in a country where I am able to live out what I believe and where we are all still free to say what we want to say. There have been many moments this past election year when I have desperately wished that people would choose a kinder tone and a gentler approach when they said what they said but I am still grateful that we all have the right to voice our opinions.

And lastly, I am grateful for family, my biological family as well the collection of kids and friends that have become a part of our family through the years. All of the changes we have made this year make me even more appreciative of the stability and joy that family brings into life. My husband is truly my best friend and closest confidante and I am fortunate that my children have become the type of people I would choose to have as friends; the camaraderie they share with one another warms my heart; hearing the three of them laugh together is one of the greatest pleasures I have in life.

Thanksgiving is about thankfulness, not just feasting (although the feasting is fun!). Thankfulness is also at the heart of any true worship experience, because worship is our response to God’s character and activity in our lives (Thanks, Pastor Jerry!). My prayer for each one of us as we enter this holiday season is that thankfulness will fill our hearts and praise will be on our lips as we enjoy the blessings and grace that God has poured out on each one of us.

 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe~ Hebrews 12:28

Beauty from Ashes and Fruit from Sticker bushes

To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair~ Isaiah 61:3

When we moved to Arizona we bought a house that was almost in foreclosure, and like most houses that are in or near foreclosure it was in pretty rough shape. Our two primary concerns upon taking possession of it were getting the pool to the point we could swim in it and the house clean enough to sleep in it. I won’t dwell on the gory details, but suffice it to say even with all five of us working constantly it still took nearly two weeks to get to that point.

 Because the house was in such rough shape it took us three months to get to the backyard. Until recently the only thing we did back there (besides have the pool fixed and filled) was to water the “lawn” and then chop down the weeds that grew. We did take note of some things that needed our attention and the one thing that everybody agreed needed to be done was to deal with a particular tree that was growing near the swimming pool.

The tree itself is beautiful: it’s full and bushy, at least seven feet tall with shiny leaves of deep green and occasional tiny white blossoms. It’s the type of plant that you just want to reach out and touch every time you walk past it. And therein lies the problem: the bush also has wicked one-inch spikes on every square inch of the branches.

 We all agreed that the plant seemed to have an almost sentient awareness of the presence of humans and would reach out and grab us as we walked past. Every member of our family has been a bloody victim of the tree at one time or another. The plan was to kill the tree and replace it with a nice lime tree (I’m a big fan of limes). We had many pet names for the tree, including…

Creepy murder tree

Stabby tree

Spikey death tree

Evil green menace   

Stupid murder tree

Tree of hate

Last weekend my husband put on a thick long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and leatherwork gloves, gathered up the biggest, hedge-clippers he could find and announced, in his most manly voice, that he was going to prune the murder tree until it died. I gleefully blessed his efforts, instructed him to be careful and got started on an indoor project. About twenty minutes later he returned and dropped a branch on the kitchen counter top, at the end of the spike-covered branch was a beautiful, fragrant, perfectly ripe… You guessed it-lime. Of course the ridiculousness of the situation was not lost on either one of us; we had been walking past that stupid tree for three months and never noticed the limes. So much for our profound powers of observation.

Later that evening as I was slicing fresh limes for tacos I thought about how that stupid tree is a lot like life. The things we hate the most and would most like to eradicate from our lives can often, given enough time and submission to God’s plan, bear the sweetest fruit in our lives.

The very things that we think are going to kill us at the time are the experiences that have the power to make us better people; the betrayal of a friend makes us more determined to demonstrate loyalty in all our relationships. The death of a loved one, although painful, is the very thing that gives us the tools we need to comfort a friend through a similar loss. The ugly end of a romantic relationship matures us and prepares us for “the one.” Ironically, some of the most wise and loving parents I know had far less than ideal childhoods.

Compassion and empathy for others is often born out of personal pain and tragedy. Pain, both physical and emotional, can make us stronger and kinder, more tuned in to the suffering of our fellow humans.

The lime tree made me think about all the times in my life I have tried to run from trouble or pain or actively fought God instead of choosing to seek God’s wisdom for ways to grow and mature through the process of healing.

Of course, not everyone who has a negative experience miraculously turns into a better person; it’s all about choice. Personal pain or difficulty can make us either beautiful or ugly. It’s all about our response. Will we respond to pain with our fist raised to God, angry that He did not give us what we felt we deserved? If we do, the result will be an ugly, bitter spirit that defiles not only us but also those closest to us (see Hebrews 12:15). The other option is to humbly approach God with an open heart asking Him to use our pain for a higher purpose. If we are willing to do that there is no end to the good that can come of out of our suffering.

 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed~ 1^st Peter 1:6-7 

All You Need to Remember...


The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 9:9

The other day I was talking to an old friend, who is really going through it, and all at once. The list of issues this friend is struggling with is legion; a broken marriage, a sick kid, and major financial adversity just to name a few of the more pressing problems. To be honest, I really didn’t know what to say to comfort my friend, the verse that came to mind was Romans 8:28~ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

 Romans 8:28 is probably the most oft quoted verse in the Bible.  Anywhere in the world where there is bad news of any kind there is somebody reminding somebody else that “all things work together for the good.” Romans 8:28 is a true statement: I know from experience that God works in situations and takes the most horrible tragedies and, over the course of time, brings good out of them.

 Notice that I did not say that all things are good or that bad situations cease to be bad given enough time. I am simply saying that for the believer (one who was called and has responded to the call in faith) God brings good out of even the most devastatingly bad circumstances. (More about that in my next post)

All that truth aside, when I am hurting the last thing I want to hear is that “someday, in some way, God will bring good out of this.” In fact, that is just the sort of statement that has the power to make me crazy; and it seems kind of mean to say something that I know would make me crazy to someone else who is suffering.

 As I sorted all this out in my mind my first inclination was to give you five things to remember in a crisis; I like lists of five. (In fact, that was my original title for this post.)  But as I mulled over this topic I realized that there are really only two truths we need to focus on as we respond to a crisis or to those who are in a crisis.  

First, IT:  whatever IT is will not last forever; IT may feel like it’s going to go on forever but it won’t. The Psalmist gives us this truth in the form of a prayer of thanksgiving …

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.

For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living~ Psalm 116-7-9

 God in His mercy only allows tragedy or grief to continue for a season. Pain subsides and life goes on, joy replaces sorrow as we move into new seasons of life. One of the most reassuring things anyone has ever said to me was when a dear friend PROMISED me while I was going through an intense period of grieving that I would not feel horrible forever, she was right and I have found that that promise is reassuring to anyone who is hurting.

The second truth we need to remember is that God sees our pain, hears our cry, and cares deeply about our situation.


For He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden His face from him (or her) but has listened to his cry for help~ Psalm 22:24


The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering”~ Exodus 3:7

Just as God took note of the suffering of the Israelites under the oppression of the Egyptian slave masters, He takes note of our suffering as well—not in a scholarly, clinical sort of way but as an interested party whose ultimate (not always immediate) plan is to bring about change and healing.  

Three times in the book of Genesis the Scripture says that God remembered someone (Noah, Genesis 8:1, Abraham, Genesis 19:29 and Rachel, Genesis 30:22). When God remembers someone it does not mean that He previously forgot or misplaced that person.

According to Strong’s, the word used for remember in the Hebrew is zakar and one of the connotations of the word is to take an intense, personal interest in a person or situation. It’s important to note that each of those people was in a serious crisis at the time God took an interest in their suffering: Noah was trapped on a floating zoo, Abraham was fleeing the judgment of Sodom with his mess of a nephew, and Rachel was experiencing the heartbreak of infertility while her sister and rival for her husbands affection kept having babies. God remembered them as He remembers all of us when we suffer.

If I had that conversation with my friend to do over again I would have said something like this: “God has not forgotten you. He loves you; He takes an intense interest in you and your situation.” I would also remind my friend of a passage in the book of Isaiah where the people of Jerusalem where convinced that God had forgotten them, He assured the people that a Mother would forget a child she was still nursing before He would forget them and then God gave them the promise that I believe still applies to believers today that He has written each of our names on His hand~ Isaiah 49:15-16