The following post is from November of 2012. I repeat it fairly often because I want... often... to share my feelings of thanksgiving to God for His mercies shown and blessings given.
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Thankful For Weaknesses
Thanksgiving is far and away my favorite day of the year. There's no gift
exchanges, blessings though such things are, to divert attention from the day,
and no pagan bush to drag into the house to be decorated. There are no myths
involved, in fact the historical testimony is so strong that even the
revisionists have a hard time trying to distort it. As I write this, today's
Wall Street Journal is beside me. Every year since 1961 on this day before
Thanksgiving their top editorial has been a reprint of the beginning of a
first-hand chronicle of the Plymouth Colony's voyage and arrival in their new
land. This is part of the heritage that elements of our society are
systematically trying to erase. One particular day has since been set apart for
Americans to corporately and individually give thanks to God for blessings
bestowed.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, here are some of
the things that I am thankful for: I'm thankful that God took a twelve year old
boy from a broken home and planted him in an apartment on a modest street amidst
fine and decent fellows who would become new friends. I'm thankful that he
permitted me to attend a very good high school, rich in tradition and academics,
where I would at least experience, although hardly partake in,
a scholarly atmosphere, and also how He somehow provided tuition. I'm thankful
that in my immaturity He gave me the wisdom to join the army and had mercy on me
even as I abused the needed maturing process. I'm thankful for a college degree
even though my interests were far more social than academic, and that while
working at the university I would meet my future wife. I'm thankful for her
patience, love and being my best friend.
I'm thankful for thirty-three years of
employment from one company and the friends and coworkers there. I'm thankful that God instilled in me, somewhat later in life, an insatiable
desire to read, to study and to analyze. I'm thankful that in 1982 He had mercy
on the lowest of the low, loved the most unlovable and redeemed the least worthy
of it. I'm thankful for the gift of a son who I have watched grow far beyond my
own intellectual capabilities and do so without the path of rebellion that I
chose. I'm thankful for the perfect match of a wonderful young Christian woman
to be his wife.
I'm thankful for failures.... for they make it impossible for me
to think that I am something that I am not. I'm thankful that after I fall down,
He gives me strength to get up. I'm thankful for heroes, particularly of the
Christian faith but also of our nation, for their lives are blueprints that can
be deciphered for at least an attempt to emulate. I'm thankful for faithful
pastors and the sweet fellowship of other beneficiaries of God's redemption. I'm
thankful for a house and a home for our son as he grew up, with loving family
all around. I'm thankful for automobiles and money in the bank to keep them
running.
I'm thankful for vision to see this beautiful world, for
taste to enjoy tomorrow's meal (Lord willing,) for the hearing of the preached
Word and of music and voices, for feeling....both physical and emotional, and
for discerning aromas of both warnings and pleasure. I'm thankful that there is
no sixth sense, that our knowledge of the future comes not from ESP but from
such as the ESV (English Standard Version of God's written word to us.) I'm
thankful for being born an American, for freedom and liberty, but even more so
for the opportunity to show gratitude for the efforts of those who sacrificed
for those freedoms and liberties and, although in an insignificant way, to pick
up the banner they once held aloft.
I'm thankful for my weaknesses
for they give opportunity for God to show His strength. I am thankful most of
all that God reached into humanity to adopt a multitude as His family and that
He opened my own eyes to see... first myself, and then the cross of Calvary, the
empty tomb and the clouds in which Jesus both ascended and will return. I'm
thankful for angels all around us. I'm thankful that even though we play no part
whatsoever in the salvation of another that we are painted into the picture to
the glory of God alone. I'm thankful that, in the same vein, we can pray for the
salvation of others and rejoice with them. I'm thankful for many books but
especially one, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the last stanza of a
song within which reads:
Hobgoblin, nor fowl fiend,
Can
daunt his spirit;
He knows, he at the end
Shall life
inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
He'll fear not what men
say,
He'll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.
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Political Thought and the Christian
