Tag Archives: Be thankful

Taking out the garbage

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Are you thankful for trash haulers? I am. Around here, Friday is garbage day. Early every Friday morning some men come around with a large truck to haul away everything I’ve put in the trash cans. I take out the garbage on Thursday night to be sure I don’t miss the truck. In fact, I take out the garbage throughout the week. Probably you do too, because we don’t want it stinking up our house!

 

Maybe you’ve known or heard of someone who hoards things. What we would consider trash just keeps piling up in their home. We might ask, “How in the world could someone live like that?!”

 

I wonder if we took a look in our “spiritual home” what we might find cluttering up the place. Our spiritual home the core of our being. You might think you have your spiritual home all cleaned up. But have you checked it for the trash that crowds out a thankful spirit? Things like bitterness, envy, resentment, gossip, anger, worry, unforgiveness, and discontent are easily hoarded. Of course, we have rationale for why we keep them around. “If you only knew what Sally did,” we say, trying to explain away our unthankful ways. “If you knew the troubles I’ve faced, you’d understand being bitter.” I get it. We all have our sorrows that beset us and threaten our gracious hearts. But when you realize that NONE of these hoarded attitudes do you any good, you may be moved to take them to curb like the unwelcome guests they are.

 

Our spiritual home is where we talk to God and also where we grumble. It is where we give thanks for so many blessings. At the same time it is where we harbor resentment toward others. Our negative and impure thoughts clutter up our spiritual home. Our self-seeking and lazy habits add to the piles of trash that make our home anything but ‘home sweet home.’ Like a hoarder, we may not see the piles amassing. We may not observe how they are crowding and overtaking our spirit. It’s easy to become accustomed to the stuff around us and not be bothered by it. But after a while it starts to smell. And not like a sweet fragrance our life is intended to be.

 

Just as people find it satisfying to ‘simplify’ their homes by removing the clutter, so keeping our spiritual home clean brings satisfaction and renewal. Let’s sweep out the stuff that hinders our ability to live thankful lives.

 

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts . . .And be thankful. Colossians 3:15

 

 

Forgiveness is enough

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Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Psalm 32:1

 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

 

Our recent devotional scripture was on forgiveness. After the reading, Marcia said, “If we received nothing else in this life, only forgiveness, that would be enough wouldn’t it?”  I agreed. Do you? If you never got the job or house of your dreams, if your relationships never completely resolved to your satisfaction, if your health failed and your investments went south, when all the game playing is done… would God be enough? It is said that the richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least. What do you need to be happy?

 

I wonder if we had only our health, wealth, and prosperous lives, but missed enjoying daily fellowship with God, would we be among the most wretched souls on earth.  C. S. Lewis once observed that the one who has God and everything else has no more than the one who has God only. And yet we long for more and more. Or maybe we long for so much that is actually less … less than what ALL of God’s best for us.

 

As you allow your mind to scan across the entirety of your life to its end, if you found yourself with God’s forgiveness and grace, would that be enough?

 

If you need forgiveness, ask God to forgive you.  He is waiting for you.

 

If you are forgiven, be thankful in all you have already been given!

Let your heart say, “It is enough.”