Jump Start # 1732

Psalms 9:1 “I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders.”

PLEASE NOTE: Jump Starts is taking a couple of days off for the holidays. We plan to return to you again on Monday.

  I have found that thankful people tend to be kind, helpful, generous and insightful. They tend to be deep people who have learned to pause in life, take their foot off the accelerator of life and to see the goodness of others and God. Thankful people on the whole are not selfish. Thankful people make good parents and amazing leaders. They are quick to offer praise and include others in their victories and successes. They are humble and value others. David from the O.T. is like this. Paul in the N.T. is also, like this. Jesus, excelled in this. True thankfulness is not something that is switched on in November and then we forgot about it the rest of the year. The thankful person doesn’t need a Thursday set aside to be thankful. He already is. Thankfulness is a character trait, part of his spiritual DNA.

It’s rather sad to see how society puts Thankful Thursday next to Black Friday. On Thursday everyone is thankful for what they have. Come the wee hours of Black Friday and it’s get out of my way so I can get what I want. It just seems that the spirit of the Thankful Thursday didn’t last very long.

The list of what we ought to be thankful for should be very long. There is so many things. Personal things. Spiritual things. People. Blessings. I want to share my top three Thank You’s:

First, God. Our verse today is a great one. I will give thanks to God with all my heart. This sounds similar to the greatest commandment, to love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul. God—for who He is. For being so holy, kind and loving. He is unlike the fake gods of the Romans and Greeks that looked and acted like humans. They were mean, selfish and abusive. Our God is not like that. Our God is not like the Muslim god who appears to be angry and carnal. Our God is amazing. The more we learn about Him, the more we want to be like Him. We long to be with Him. He loves us, even when we are unlovable. He never gives up on us. He continues to bless us, even when we’ve turned our back to Him. He is the one constant in this mixed up world. He is our rock. He is our redeemer. Where would we be without God? The fast moving life style of many would love to remove God from the planet. They already have from their hearts. But they are not happy. They are not thankful. They are not content. They see no value in pain and no place after death. It’s all here and all now. Without God’s help and guidance, most of us would be in a real mess now. Grace, forgiveness, thankfulness, service, love have filled our hearts and shaped us to be God’s people.

A child’s prayer ended with, “And, God please take care of yourself. If something happens to you, we’re all sunk.” How true!

Second, for life. What a blessing life is. Life is full of opportunity, adventure and choices. Little babies remind us of the blessings of life. I have a bunch of little grandchildren now and they are so precious. Their eyes are full of excitement, wonder and joy. I love looking into the eyes of these little people and wonder what they are thinking about. They are so trusting and kind. Everyone ought to spend an afternoon with little ones. Taking a nap and having some cookies might do us all a lot of good.

Life can change. It changes sometimes when we don’t want it to. The end of a career, a life, a marriage—forces us to make hard adjustments. Things just aren’t the same any more. But then there are those changes that we enacted. We chose the change. We change our thinking. We change our attitudes. We change our way of looking at things. We change our behavior. Wrong people can become right. Ungodly people can become godly. Mean people can become nice. Selfish people can become generous. Faithless people can develop faith. Hopeless people can find hope. That’s the beauty of life. We are not poured in concrete. We are not stagnate, stuck nor predetermined to be a certain way. The homosexual and drunk Corinthians changed. They heard, believed and obeyed Christ. Life became better for them. That’s the blessings of life. You don’t know something, you can learn. You don’t know how, someone can teach and show you. The opportunities are endless.

Life is a gift.

  Third, for wonderful family and friends. Life is meant to be shared. I’ve gone a few times to watch a movie by myself. Usually, it’s a movie with a lot of bullets, bombs and car crashes. Not my wife’s cup of tea. Watching a movie by yourself isn’t as good as with a friend. After the movie, by yourself, there is no one to talk about what you just experienced. I watch some British cooking shows with my wife. I don’t understand half of what they are talking about, but it’s the company that makes it all worth the while. She likes it and I like being with her, so I watch it with her. Friends do things like that. We share. We do what the other likes to do.

Dear friends are something that takes time to develop. But once you have them, there is nothing like it. Our list of dear friends is long. Good people. Godly people. Friends that have been in our lives for decades. New friends. They have been there for us and we have been there for them. That’s what friends do. What a blessing, friends are. One of the highlights of walking into the church building, is seeing the faces of friends.

And then, family. We sometimes bump each other in our families. I mentioned Monday, in a funeral I conducted, that we don’t get to choose our parents or our brothers and sisters. Sometimes we are stuck with some bad ones. That’s hard. Sometimes we are given really good ones. What a blessing that is. The expression, “home for the holidays,” is often tense for some. Guilt and demands make the gathering very uncomfortable. Some need to apologize for harm they have done, but they won’t. Some need to see beyond themselves, but they can’t. You can set the tone and the atmosphere around your table this year. Turn the gossip off. Speak well and kindly of others. Take the lead and speak well of each other. Hug your parents, they won’t always be around. Lead your siblings into deeper discussions about the Lord. Get on the floor and play with the little ones. Family, you just got to love them! Don’t pick at everything nor everyone.

Thankful. Thankful for God, life and family and friends.

I hope each of you have an enjoyable holiday. I hope you make many memories. Remember those who are going through their first holiday without a loved one. It’s hard on them. Take a moment and count your blessings. Thank the Lord.

Roger