Gratitude

Two weeks ago my wife and I bought a house.[1] I can hardly describe the feeling of having a space of our own – awe, humility, delight, disbelief, thanksgiving. For our growing family, for the many guests we welcome into our home each month, for years of forming memories with friends and loved ones, this house is a real gift.

The gift of a home makes me mindful of so many other things for which I’m grateful – for an incredible wife with whom I can share life, for healthy children filled with innocence and wonder, for work that allows me to drop my nets and follow Jesus with everything I’ve got, for the many friends and generous benefactors that support this ministry of bridge-building and Christian mission for the sake of kids. Let me say THANK YOU for your encouragement, your prayers and your partnership in the gospel.

A few years ago, a friend introduced me to an artist who’s life changed in a little coastal town in northern California. Louie Schwartzberg recalled, “I didn’t have much money, but I had time and a sense of wonder.” So he started shooting time-lapsed photography of flowers, an art that so gripped his soul that he has been doing it non-stop, 24 hours a day, for the past 30 years. The images are stunningly brilliant, filled with all the playfulness, creativity and freedom of the God who created them. “To see them move is a dance I’ll never get tired of,” he noted.

In this month of Thanksgiving, I want to share with you a project Schwartzberg put together called “Happiness Revealed,” something that has always put my life in proper perspective before God. Take 10 minutes and lean into the glorious mystery of life that God has given us. I pray that it will fill your heart, as it has done mine, with a profound sense of gratitude.

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[1] Thus the two-week hiatus in writing. I can honestly say I’ve never ripped out more carpet, pulled more staples, painted more walls, raked more leaves and spent more sleepless nights than I have over the last 14 days. And my body’s letting me know! 

The Gift and the Giver

I am historically distracted by holidays - Advent, Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, 4^th of July and Columbus Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day (which I inevitably get mixed up), Lent and Easter. I know what each celebration is supposed to be about but it is so easy to get caught up in. . . well . . . everything else! This Thanksgiving proved no different. We ate turkey and drank wine (both delicious). We watched football and played football (still sore).  We shopped and we cursed shopping (with the exception of Bass Pro Shop which was a hit all around). Yet I enter back into another week wondering if all the festivities left me, in a word, thankful? Do I find myself closer to my family, to my friends, to God?

This point was beautifully made by a 10^th century mystic who was asked by one of his disciples, “If you could choose one thing from God, either great joy or great suffering, which would you choose?”  After deliberating for some time, the wise sage responded, “I would choose great suffering.”  Utterly perplexed the disciple inquired, “Why?” The humble master offered up a tender smile and said, “Because then I could be sure that my choosing was not for the gift but for the Giver.” 

Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that everything boils down to one essential gift.  “The gift of God is God himself.  The ‘good things’ he gives us are himself.”[1]  With all of the accoutrements and good tidings of the holiday season, it is so easy to lose sight of the one essential thing (Lk 10:42).  I pray (and ask for your prayers) that we might remember that Jesus Christ is the great treasure and the pearl of great price. Our greatest gift informs our greatest privilege. Our greatest gift is the same as the one expressed by the Bishop of Rome, “to help foster the growth of a living relationship with him.”[2]

By the way, it is National Bavarian Cream Pie Day.

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[1]             Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. I, NY: Doublday, 2007, 136-137.

[2]             Ibid, xxiv.