Holidays are fun aren’t they? But their shelf life is incredibly short. Ever notice that? I mean, I’ve got a carton of two week old raspberries that will still last longer than the spirit of Christmas after 5:00 pm Christmas day.
And then there’s Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving probably has the shortest shelf life of all the major holidays. Seriously, it’s over before it even begins! And it officially expires before the day is out and the dinner digested as people begin breaking out the Christmas decorations and blasting tunes about Ole Saint Nick and the red nosed reindeer. Honestly, it doesn’t even take that long! This year I was hearing Christmas tunes on the local Christian radio station in October!! I don’t mean to be cruel about this, but I think at least a good tar and feathering in uptown Charlotte would be in order for this—don’t you?
Two weeks ago I taught a message about being thankful all year round called, “Blessed to be a Blessing.” If you want to learn more about how this is possible you can get the podcast here. Anyway, we learned that every single reason God blesses us has to do with making us a conduit for blessing others. Nothing is meant to simple make our lives comfortable and trial free. For example:
1. 2 Corinthians 1 teaches us that God comforts us so that we might comfort others when they go through difficult times
2. Matthew 18 teaches us that God shows us mercy so that we will learn to be merciful to others.
3. Ephesians 4:32 clearly indicates that we are to forgive others just as God forgives us.
4. And a whole host of verses (including the most famous verse in the Bible – John 3:16) teach us that if we are never more like Jesus than when we are generous.
So, what are you going to do with the spirit of Thanksgiving this year?
· Pack it away with the rest of the Fall decorations?
· Determine to be even more “thankful” on Thanksgiving day ‘next year.’
· Make sure you say please and thank you like your mom taught you when you were 5 years old?
How about determining that being thankful will be a permanent part of your DNA from this day forward? And how about developing the type of thankful heart that never expires?
You’ll be glad you did.
Just saying.
BTW—Thanks for taking the time to read this! And can I start us all off? Thanks, Impact worship team–for leading us in an unbelievably powerful Night of Worship this past Sunday! And thank you to the Impact family for showing up in force! I heard nothing but excitement from all those who were able to make it! And that was more than twice the amount of people we were hoping for! God is surely moving powerfully among the people of Impact! And guess what?
The best is yet to come!!