Prelude to a large list of thankfulness
How much are you thankful?
I’m not talking about quality – as in “I’m really thankful for my family” vs. “I’m a little thankful for my family.” I’m talking about quantity.
Perhaps this is a clearer way of putting it:
How many things are you thankful for?
It doesn’t matter how big or small, significant or trivial they seem for this question. You could almost say numbers are all that matter for this question.
Do you have any idea what that number is? Do you want to hazard a guess?
I’m not going to guess (yet). I’m going to make a list.
Have you heard the cliché, “Count your blessings”? (If not, you have now.)
Have you ever done it?
I’ve made lists like this, but so far they’ve only been about 20 items long. These previous lists highlighted the big issues. For example, I’m thankful for my family, for my friends, and that Jesus died on the cross for my sins.
Great, but we think of these every Thanksgiving, along with the mashed potatoes and gravy.
This Thanksgiving, let’s refresh by focusing on the items we usually skip. I’d like to bridge to the long-tail of blessings, the blessings that might not seem important but that add up to massive amounts of blessings when we look at all of them together.
So here’s another challenge of sorts. Don’t worry; unlike the Memorization Challenge, this one is only going to last one week.
The Large List of Thankfulness
Starting today, I’m going to collect my thoughts on thankfulness. Next week on Thanksgiving Day, I’m going to post the list here at bondChristian.
Warnings:
1) The list will be massive (it is cornucopia season after all). You might even want to read it in a few different sittings or just scan it instead of reading it all at once.
2) Most of the items will likely sounds a little trivial. That is the reason I’m doing this – to try to highlight the blessings that I don’t recognize as blessings, the ones that seem minuscule.
As with the Memorization Challenge (how’s that going by the way?), you’re more than welcome to join the fun.
How to participate
Note: This is a break in bondChristian tradition (whatever that is), but I put the serving suggestions within the article this time because they point to what you can do to participate in this challenge.
Serving Suggestions:
(1) Make your own list. Include anything (that means everything) that you can possibly be thankful for. That means including ceiling fans and particleboard desks and packaged ketchup and plastic wrap and fun dreams and, well, everything else God has given you. Make it massive.
(2) Share your list with someone else. Tell how thankful you are for your Savior and all He’s given you. Encourage others to make a list as well and share them. Make sure you come back on Thanksgiving when I post my list because I want to ask you to do something else with you list also.
That’s it for my suggestions. What do you suggest?
To sum this all up, I’m hoping this list will…
1) Draw my attention to the multitude of everyday-blessings I receive and as a result draw me closer to Christ.
How?
a. By making me think about the blessings.
b. By helping me realize who gave me these blessings.
2) Ditto for you – draw your attention to the everyday-blessings you receive and draw you closer to Christ.
How?
a. By hopefully giving you some ideas from my list that also apply to you.
b. By inspiring you to create your own list (right?).
c. By helping you consider your own blessings and the One who gives them to you.
As a bonus, I’ll even get this started right now.
“I’m thankful for the books under my monitor that make it more comfortable to see the screen.”
Now that I’ve had my head start…
…on your mark…
…get set…
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” – Psalm 100:4
…go!