Give Thanks!

Do you know anyone who has not dealt with suffering and sadness and loss this year? I don't. Although we can't help mourning all that we've lost, I hope we will also notice the abundance of good that remains and thank God for it. 

For example, my spirits lifted (despite experiencing ongoing heartaches and worries and physical challenges) as I spent a few minutes in my yard a couple of days ago. I thanked God that I was physically able to walk around my yard for the first time since my surgery a couple of months ago. As I limped along (using my cane), I smiled as I saw a few signs of spring--in mid-November! I thanked God not only for the beauty (and the promise of more) but also for the ability to see the pink blooms on an azalea bush and the green paperwhite shoots that had struggled to push through the soil and were standing tall. I enjoyed listening to the birds and thanked God for them--and for the ability to hear them. 

Those experiences in the yard didn't change any of the heartbreaking situations or recover any of the great losses, but giving thanks changed me! 

May we realize daily this truth expressed by the psalmist centuries ago: "It is good to give thanks to the LORD..." (Psalm 92:1, NKJV).

When Storms Rage

I took the above photo from my room on the third floor of a hotel in western North Carolina just before a real doozy of a storm hit the area. Thunder boomed. Lightning flashed like strobe lights. I propped up in bed and looked out the wall-to-wall window that provided an unobstructed view of the awesome storm. As I watched, I marveled at the power of God--and sincerely thanked Him for safe shelter from the storm.

But if I had been outside, I'd have been fervently crying out to God to keep me safe...to either stop the storm or help me survive it! 

Thankfully, Dear Reader, you and I can also cry out to God when the storms of life rage around us and we feel as if we have no safe hiding place. During those storms, a doctor's words can sound more ominous than loudest thunder, words that shake us to the core. And/Or unexpected calamity strikes as suddenly as a bolt of lightning--sometimes one heartbreak after another, like frequent flashes of lightning during the height of a storm.

During such times, we instinctively cry out to God for help, asking Him to provide specific solutions. Sometimes we're suffering so much in the midst of the storm that's raging around us that we can't figure out what's best to ask God for. At such times, it's always wise to ask Him to do for us these overarching requests Mosie Lister makes in his beautiful song, Till the Storm Passes By:

• Hear my cry for help! [Even if I have no words, only the the desperate, unutterable cry of my heart!]
• Keep me safe till the storm passes by. [Help me weather the storm! Without You, I can't make it.]
• Hold me fast. [For I am not afraid when I sense Your nearness and Your love.]
• Let me stand in the hollow of Your hand [a place of great safety where You can easily watch over me]

Even if God doesn't immediately still the storms of life, He will calm us! What a blessing that is!

:

O LORD, You are my God;

I will exalt You;

I will praise Your name,

for You have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

For You have been a stronghold to the poor,

a stronghold to the needy in his distress, 

a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat...

Isaiah 25:1, 4