Which Will You Choose? A Thankful Tuesday Post.

I was confronted with a verse of Scripture this morning that I can't get out of my head. In fact, it seems everywhere I have turn ed today, there it is. Frankly, I would like to get away from it, but I can't.

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!" (Philippians 4:8). 

I have been trying to ignore that verse, but I can't do it. And when that one goes out of my mind, here come this closely related verse.

"In everything give thanks." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

A few words jump out at me from those verses. Always. In everything.

No matter how I might try to rationalize, the meaning of those words is quite clear. Always means always. Everything means every thing. Not sometimes. Not some things. Always. All the time. In every situation. In every circumstance.

So this morning I find myself facing reality. I don't ALWAYS give thanks in EVERYTHING.  I don't REJOICE ALWAYS. But isn't that what Scripture tells me I SHOULD be doing?

Maybe you face the same dilemma. You love the Lord. You want to obey His word. All of it.....not just the easy parts. And when we're tempted to ignore those parts we don't like, we're reminded of verses like these.

I don't know what kind of week you are having. But I do know how things are in my world. In these months since my stroke I have been told over and over again that there will be good days and there will be bad days. When I was in rehab and could see progress and improvement every day, it was easy to hold on to those verses.

"In everything give thanks."

But now that I am settled into a new normal, with no dramatic changes from day to day, I'm in a routine of good days and bad days. Thankfully, there are more good ones than bad. On those days, it's easy to "give thanks in all things." But then, without warning, there are the bad days. The days when I can't remember things. When I lose things. When I can't read or write. When my balance is off. When I'm feeling lonely. Missing getting in a car and driving myself places. Missing going to lunch with the girls. Missing all the things that used to be a part of my life. Missing feeling normal.

Those are days when it is really hard to "give thanks." On those days, I feel anything but thankful. On those days, I struggle.

You may not have had a stroke. But I suspect that, no matter what the circumstances of your life, you have your own list of less-than-I-would-like-it-to-be situations. We all do. We all face circumstances in life that make rejoicing ALWAYS a bit of a challenge. We all have situations when we don't feel like smiling.

But these verses don't tell us to smile always. They don't tell us to always feel thankful. They tell us to give thanks in all things. 

Giving thanks in all thinks is not about feelings. It is an act of the will.

How do we do that? How do we deal with the bad days? How do we give thanks in all things, even when we don't feel like it?

For me, the answer is simple. Not easy, but simple. I pray. Even on the days when I can't form a coherent thought, I pray.

Lord, I'm struggling today. Things are not going well today. I want to give thanks, but I just don't feel like it. I'm so thankful for all you have done for me and for all you have brought me through, but I confess that today I'm really having a hard time. I need your help. Thank you.

That may not make me read any better or remember any better. But it will get me through the hard days. It will help me to focus on giving thanks, rather than focusing on circumstances.

And that brings to mind another passage of scripture, this one from Hebrews. Don't you love how it all fits together?

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, FIXING OUR EYES ON JESUS."  (Hebrews 12:1-2a NASB, emphasis mine).

Eyes on Jesus, not on circumstances. With that focus, rejoicing and giving thanks really becomes much easier.


Which will you choose?

Child of the River. A Book Review.

Sometimes I choose to read a book because of the subject matter. Sometimes I read books that have been recommended to me. And sometimes I choose a book just because it was written by a favorite author. There are all sorts of reasons why I read. In this case, I selected Child of the River by Irma Joubert because of its setting in South Africa.




This is a coming-of-age story of Persomi, who is young, white, and poor, born the middle child of illiterate sharecroppers on the prosperous Fourie farm in the South African Bushveld. Persomi’s world is extraordinarily small. This passage struck me right away: To the right of a rocky outcrop she could see the winding road in the distance, where the sun came up and the earth stopped, the road drowned itself in a big dam. Far beyond the shimmering expanse of water lay the town. Persomi had never been there.

Persomi spends her days absorbed in the rhythms of the natural world around her, escaping the brutality and squalor of her family home through the newspapers and books passed down to her from the main house and through her walks in the nearby mountains.


Persomi’s closest relationship is with her older brother Gerbrand, who leaves the farm to fight on the side of the Anglos in WWII. But as her very small world falls apart, and as Persomi navigates the changing world around her—war and the devastating racial strife of her homeland—she discovers who she truly is, where she belongs, and why her life matters.




This history and culture drew me to this book, and I loved how beautifully it was written. Even so, I confess I struggled a bit with this one. Perhaps that's because there were so many idioms that were unfamiliar to me, or perhaps it's just the fact that reading in my "post-stroke" world is just hard! In spite of my personal struggles, this is a book worth reading. You should give it a try!




I received a free copy of Child of the River from Thomas Nelson Publishing in exchange for my honest opinion.

Refreshed

It has been said that all good things must come to an end. That is certainly true of vacations. Today is back to reality. But even as I am experiencing the "reentry" that comes after a vacation, I am feeling renewed and refreshed.


For the last few years, vacation has meant sitting in a beach chair with my toes in the sand, listening to the sounds of ocean waves crashing onto the beach.



This year we decided to do something different, and we headed for the mountains.

When we were at the beach last year, we enjoyed the exploits of Pete the Pelican.

This year we followed the adventures of Dudley Duck.

What a relaxing week it was. No particular agenda. No appointments or doctor visits that had to be kept. No chores to be done.





Just relaxing. Laughing. Talking. Making memories together. A week of giggles and snorts and belly laughs. The sounds of love. The sounds of family.



Now it's back to "real" life! Yet even as I'm faced with unpacking and sorting laundry and putting things away, there's a smile on my face. 



Relaxed.  Refreshed.  Renewed.




It wasn't just about the location. It was about the people.


It was smiles and giggles and laughter. It was conversation. It was together. It was family.



Family. One of life's greatest blessings.



The vacation is over. But the memories will last a lifetime.



More happy than my heart can hold.



"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name."  (Psalm 103:1 ESV)