Continue The Conversation (Part 4)
Sorry I’m a day late. I was out of town this past Sunday and George Stull, our interim student pastor, continued our SYNC series at Cross Point Nashville with a message on joy. I have known George for almost four years and not only is he an incredible communicator, he’s a first class guy. You won’t find a better friend and a person who lives out what he teaches.
I was listening to his message from Sunday in the car and I thought his first point on joy was brilliant. You can listen to his entire message HERE. But point one was simply that JOY IS A GIFT. He went on to say, “We need eyes to see that all of life is a gift. Breath is a gift. Being able to love and be loved is a gift. Having the ability to be forgiven and forgive others is a gift.”
This is so true. I think most of us live with a disease. It’s the disease called “taking life for granted.” Every day the sun comes up and we’re like, “Big deal.” Babies are born, our kids learn to speak, rain falls, plants grow, and yet we seem more amazed with the latest T.V. show. Lives are transformed by the power of Christ, laughter happens, hugs are given, waves crash, spiritual gifts are used, and yet we miss it because we are focused on getting a raise at work.
We live with a sort of blindness to life. A blindness to the fact that life is good and more importantly God is good. I’m going to make an extra effort this week to choose joy. I’m going to try to view everything in my life as a gift and live with a thankfulness toward God for those gifts instead of taking them for granted.
What is one thing you are thankful for today that you might normally take for granted?
Join the conversation! (If you’ve been lurking around for a while and have never commented this is a great opportunity for you to jump in…go ahead you know you want to.)
51 Comments:
I didn’t hear the message, but to do what you’ve written about requires us to be aware and attentive, which requires us to slow down. Oh and not compare.
Today I am thankful for my husband and my children. I do take them for granted more than I ought to. I’ve been blessed with my family.
[Reply]
Jan
4:51 am
My pastor has been teaching about the fruits of the spirit, and joy ad peace were the two that impacted me the most.
Today, I’m grateful for the use of my limbs. I cannot imagine not being able to walk, or dress myself. I don’t ever want to take that for granted.
[Reply]
Kelli
4:55 am
My wife and I are moving in to a new house this week. The excitement and drama of selling our home and buying the new one has completely blinded me as to how much I love the house we’re in right now. It was our first home, bought a year into our marriage. Over time the guest room became a nursery. We’ve got nearly 5 years of great memories in this house. So this morning I realize that I spend so much time anticipating what is next, I sometimes miss out on what is now, and forget what was yesterday. But I’ve got 3 days left to be grateful for this home and all God did in our lives during this season.
[Reply]
Chris Nichols
5:04 am
One thing that I’m really thankful for is a healthy child. So many parents have kids with different forms of cancer and birth defects. I thank God that my son is healthy and able to run around and play and just be a kid. I try to let my son know that he should be thankful for that every day of his life. I am definitely thankful. I can’t imagine what heartbreak those parents have to endure.
[Reply]
Rachel
5:16 am
Today I am thankful for my health and that of my children. I love the shows TLC does about very obscure medical conditions, but the ones that were on this weekend featured children and it made me realize how much I take for granted. My children have never had a serious illness or accident – they can walk, run, climb, jump and play with no assistance and without pain. They are healthy and strong and I am very thankful.
[Reply]
juliepersinger
5:17 am
The only thing I can really be thankful for is that God thinks that I’m worth enough to put effort into my life and helping me change. I value most of all being sick because it is a challange every day. I can’t help but grow and take notice because of it, even if I don’t want to. Being forced to not be able to have a normal life, a life like every one else has made me look for my own. Thank you God for thinking I’m valuble enough to be taught.
[Reply]
Holly
5:42 am
Lord remind me DAILY for not taking YOU, for Granted! Everything else is mere insignificant, because without YOU.. there is nothing else.
[Reply]
Heidi
5:59 am
I am thankful for being alive. I love life, the good of it and the bad. I think it is what molds us.
It pains me to see people who are in a constant state of unhappiness or lack of joy.
Being alive allows us to see all the amazing things that exist. What an incredible gift.
As for this very moment, I am very thankful for my coffee and my chiropractor.
[Reply]
Joseph
6:15 am
It is impossible to be negative and joyful at the same time. But isn’t attitude completely up to us? Who would want to chose to be negative, but how often we do without thinking about it.
This week, when someone asks you how you are doing, simply reply “I’m Blessed, how are you?” I promise that it will get a different response than “I’m great, how are you?”
[Reply]
Lauren
6:26 am
For this one brief moment I want to say that I am grateful for this venue to spread His word. And on a personal note, that my dad got great news about his cancer (still working on it, but alot smaller). We were ecstatic when we heard…we still are. Life is good for another day! With that news, I continue to say my short prayer that you made me think through – God, please help me, guide me and teach me.
Like I said, life is good for another day.
[Reply]
Michael
6:29 am
this is an awesome question for me today… this morning in my prayer time it struck me odd that i was thanking God for my daughter being able to scream…
she has discovered the highest pitch known to the human ear and she has some serious LUNGS!!!
but i was taken back because some children can’t talk let alone scream… some people would do anything to have a child, let alone one who screams…
i’m truly blessed and thankful for her screaming ability today!
[Reply]
jon mckanna
6:32 am
Pete, just stopped by your post this morning before work and this is a very timely message for me. I think you are right – the ONLY way we make good with our lives and our perspectives is through a sober joy, or gratitude, for what we have, who we are, and who God is. Thank you for the reminder. (I truly needed it to get me out of the piss and vinegar I wallowed in yesterday!! )
[Reply]
Angela Hart
6:36 am
This post is awesome-and so true. I am thankful that everyone in my family is saved and that we will spend eternity together…I can’t think of anything to be more grateful for than that.
[Reply]
bethany2160
6:42 am
I am thankful that God is with me even when I don’t feel that he is. When we get not great news from the Dr’s (like today) that God still has us in his hands. That I can either choose to be in a crap mood.. or I can choose to keep my trust in Christ. Holding on to his promises. Knowing that his plan for our life is the perfect plan even in times we feel so overwhelmed.
What a great message for me to hear today.
[Reply]
Adam O
6:47 am
Today I am thankful for more than I can imagine at a glimpse. Mostly right now for my incredible wife and our first child and the overwhelming family and friends that God has surrounded us with.
[Reply]
Matthew Singleton
6:57 am
Today I am thankful for the health of my husband, kids, and myself. I know so many people who are suffering so many things right now — it’s mind-boggling. Life is fragile and precious and I want to live in gratitude for every moment.
[Reply]
LeAnn
7:01 am
This might sound odd.. but being thankful. And Pete, how incredibly thankful I am to hear of a pastor letting an interim student pastor continue on with a series in his absence. Thank you for knowing you’re not The One who does the saving at Cross Point Nashville. May any reading that take it in the spirit in which it was intended. May God alone be praised.
[Reply]
Camey
7:03 am
BTW Pete… Last week I was looking through a new Lifeway catalog. Much to my surprise – you were in it! I laughed so hard others thought I had fallen out of my chair. Just call me weird like that.
[Reply]
Camey
7:10 am
My favorite George line from his sermon: “Oh, and don’t eat the candles”. Awesome.
[Reply]
Sally
7:11 am
@ Michael, I’m so glad to hear about your dad. I will keep him in my prayers!!
[Reply]
Pete Wilson
7:22 am
I’m speaking for about my 160th week of camp (what is such a young guy doing in such an old body). Though I’m thankful always I’m in the family, I get to brag on Jesus and get paid for it (sort of, I get to raise support), and the Lord allows me to continue to connect with teens…
But, to answer your query, I’m thankful this day that the Lord made the world color and not black-and-white
[Reply]
Jack Hager
7:26 am
SO much to be thankful for…. today, I am thankful that I have not been diagnosed with a terminal illness. I have lost many friends from cancer and have many more who have been diagnosed with “something” and they have to live, at least, 50% of their lives in a hospital, doctors office, bedridden…. I pray for them daily! I cannot imagine having to live like that…and I hope when my time comes (and it will) that God would go on and take me home….I’m SO ready!
[Reply]
OCD-ism/Obsessive Christian Disorder
7:28 am
My kids giggled until food fell out of their mouths while dancing to music on the kitchen floor.
Instead of focusing on the mess that is still sitting there for me to clean, I think I’ll dance and giggle with them. 
[Reply]
Rachel Rowell
7:31 am
I have been gently reminded that this time last year our family was in a really tough/challenging place. My husband was in a fight for his life against depression, June-Sept were a blur of hospital stays, many doctors, missed dx’s and many tears. It was a dark place for our family. YET God was so good. We had amazing prayer support and family surrounding us, my business was newly opened and it sustained that time and grew! My 8-5 job was understanding and I even got a good review/raise. I look back now and THANK GOD for his faithfulness. My husband still battles depression and the voices and at times it exhausting, but God is with us, taking care of us. I chose JoY and to be thankful. I am thankful for the little small details that shape my life and also the huge deep valley’s that we have made it thru.
[Reply]
Kristi O
7:56 am
Mine is pretty obvious right now – my baby boy’s recent miracle – http://tinyurl.com/5lk92j
[Reply]
CJ Mills
9:21 am
That I have a car that starts right up every morning and gets me where I’m going without any troubles.
[Reply]
HisLifeformine
9:48 am
I’m thankful that I can walk … even if it may hurt to do so
[Reply]
heather
10:25 am
Today especially I am so super thankful for communication. So much of what we do here is “lost in translation” but today I had an amazing training session and the ladies who were in the meeting totally got it and it rocked and God was there and we prayed and Yay.
[Reply]
kristiapplesauce
10:34 am
He he he…I am an angry person. I don’t go around raging at people, but I become angry easily and I have a hard time letting go. I’m working on it. So this morning my oldest daughter was in a mood…she couldn’t find anyone to play with and she refused to stop whining and I got burnt out. I dcided to take her and her little sister to se a movie…told them to go get in the van and get buckled while I changed. But they fought outside instead and the oldest hit the youngest, at that point I hit the window, harder than the tap I had intended to get her attention because I was angry (in my defense, we thought this window was plexi-glass, can you imagine my surprise when it shattered?), and it busted and it cut me. Now I have five bandages on my hand and a broken window in my livingroom.
So what am I grateful for… All but one of the windows in our house are painted shut… now I have a breeze coming into my livingroom for the first time since we bought this house. And the air smells fresh and clean.
[Reply]
pr1ncessara
10:49 am
Oh yeah, I’m grateful for fresh picked strawberries too, nothing compares to old fashioned, homemade, strawberry shortcake!!!
[Reply]
pr1ncessara
10:58 am
I’m thankful for being able to still talk to my sister….she and I have had a rocky relationship in the past, so it’s extra nice to be able to talk with her.
[Reply]
nigel
10:59 am
ah….I am indeed a lurker
There are too many things to enumerate here, but I certainly try to express my gratitude for them as I consider what they are…
Some of the simplest things I am routinely grateful for are the Lord’s tender mercies. Small acts or things that remind me each and every day that the Lord knows my needs and desires, and has a plan for me. He knows the joy I feel when I open my living room blinds each morning to see the sun rising over these beautiful Rockies, and continues to provide me with that opportunity to feel that joy and in sucession remember to thank Him for such a simple gesture and all that He does for me. There are so many simple reminders I come across on a regular basis, that touch me in such way as to humble and edify me.
Gosh, I love this life. I truly do.
[Reply]
KJ
11:00 am
Not to rehash what others have said, but I live such a blessed life. Healthy kids who are happy and love life, a great marriage with a wonderful guy…
I liked with Chris Nichols said, sometimes I spend so much time anxious about what is going to happen that I miss all the wonders of what is presently happening!
[Reply]
brandiandboys
11:02 am
Pete, this is an awesome question. By the way I put a link to your site from mine…hope you don’t mind!
Today during our prayer time, my husband and I used it just to be thankful. We are so blessed it is beyond measure – truly! I am beginning to share our testimony (my journey to come to Him) on my blog and it has reminded me how many times God has graced me with His love and mercy. How quickly we forget every detail of what He has done for us. We don’t have to work for it like a poster said – God will do the work. All we have to do is believe, receive and invite Him in daily, moment by moment and the joy you discussed is not only there but ALIVE! We can live a life of joy even in the worst of circumstances if we will count it all as joy! God allows these things for our good, His glory and to shine His hope to a lost and dying world. The more thankful we are the more others will desire to know our peace, joy and hope – in Him! I love sharing our adoption story with others because as Romans 8 explains we are all adopted into His Kingdom – isn’t that a big enough wow to blow your socks off every day to be thankful for? WOW! God loves us! Holy Cow the God of the Universe, the Creator of all life wants to know us intimately! Ok I could go on and on – and I am on my blog so come…
Blessings to you and your family today!
[Reply]
Jill
11:21 am
I’m thankful for my life after college and just how specifically God has provided for me these two years. I know i have a lot to learn about life, but my first 24 years have been good ones with great people and exciting places.
[Reply]
Sarah
11:29 am
Pete, Please let George know he did a great job with the message on Joy. His use of one illustration in particular really struck me – that at the banquet God had laid out in Eden he was loving not restrictive in his warning about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When George said, it’s like God was saying, hey, while you’re at this fabulous banquet – just one thing – don’t eat the candles – they’re wax and they’re not good for you. Wow. I will use that one over and over – because so many times that issue comes up – “why all the boundaries?” and “why is God such a restrictive killjoy?” Nice job George!
[Reply]
Mile in Milwaukee
11:30 am
@ KJ, I’m so glad you moved from lurker to participator!
Doesn’t it just feel so good.
[Reply]
Pete Wilson
11:31 am
Today I am thankful for a marriage that brings me so much joy. I know in every marriage we have seasons of that are up, and happy, and fun. We also have seasons that require some work. Right now my husband and I are in an up season. I hadn’t thought about it until the other day my husband asked me, “Why do you think we have been doing so well lately?” I am not sure the answer to his question, but it cerainly made me think about this moment in our lives where we really are enjoying each other!
[Reply]
cortnic
11:31 am
Today I’m going to be thankful for NOISE. That sounds weird, but in a house with four kids, sometimes NOISE begins to grate on my nerves. I’m choosing to be thankful for that noise because it’s good noise that’s coming from the four awesome kids that God has chosen to bless me and my husband with. Plus, I have this sneaking suspicion that I’d miss the noise A LOT if it weren’t here.
[Reply]
Jenny in Nebraska
12:06 pm
I’m typically not thankful for my job because I just expect to have it and go everyday which gets old. But I’m opening my eyes to the fact that I could wake up anyday and not have one, especially with the economy in the shape its in. Thank the Lord I don’t have to worry about that now.
Also I’m thankful for GEORGE. So good to hear him speak on Sunday. I’ve missed it! (even though I REALLY enjoy my new pastor Pete
) I’m thankful for you both!
[Reply]
Megan
12:25 pm
Lately I’ve had a growing awareness that I tend to measure my success or blessing by how others are being blessed. Today I am thankful that God’s work and blessing in my life is unique.
[Reply]
Joshua Scott
12:33 pm
Daily lurker here…
Today, one of the many things that I am thankful for that one year after my mother left this world to live eternally with God, my father is finally coming to church, on his own. Thank you God for this answered prayer!
[Reply]
Paula
1:01 pm
“What is one thing you are thankful for today that you might normally take for granted?”
that i am a witness for Christ. and i’m not always the best one either (like on 5th streets blog today
)
but what a great gift and honor to be able to show His love to others. to be a part of His plan in growing the kingdom. to take our testimony and use it for His Glory. i don’t do that enough. i’ve taken that gift and opportunity for granted far too often.
[Reply]
tam
2:41 pm
im thankful for the love of my friends and family. they could just up and start hating me one of these days.
[Reply]
krista
3:25 pm
A FULL HEAD OF HAIR
[Reply]
Jody
4:58 pm
My family
Materially: A roof over my head
[Reply]
ncarnes
6:04 pm
i like your title “without wax.” nice. peace to you.
[Reply]
traviskeller
6:33 pm
I am thankful that I had a dad that loved me, a sister that will love me a little longer and a husband that loves me regardless. And I am thankful for my blogging friends that have shown me what life REALLY is all about. Thank you.
[Reply]
pollyh
6:53 pm
Hi Pete, I’ve just come across your site and it’s really great
I am thankful for God revealing Himself to me and for changing my life, I am thankful for relationships and for my work. Thanks for this post. I love the idea of choosing thankfulness and joy each day.
[Reply]
Birgit
10:18 pm
@pollyh, And I’m thankful that God has put you in our lives. Trust me, it’s no accident!
[Reply]
Pete Wilson
4:00 am
Hi Pete, Great site. Oh gosh, I have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful for my building relationship with God, and my Crosspoint Family. I am very thankful that I have been given an opportunity to stretch outside of my comfort box and continue to grow as a person.
[Reply]
Courtney
6:43 am
2 Trackbacks