Being Thankful

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians 4:8-9)

"Since, then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)

Sometimes when we're in a funk we like to host a little pity party for ourselves. I know I'm guilty of this. We compare our lives to our friends' lives or worse, to some imaginary, impossible ideal. We focus on everything wrong in our lives, but we're blind to the good. We forget:

That we even have family and friends.
That we don't have to live in fear for our lives every moment of every day.
That there are millions of people in third world countries around the globe who would kill for our enormous leftover portions from the Olive Garden.
That we don't have to constantly worry about contracting deadly diseases from the water we drink, the food we eat, and the things we do daily.
That we even have opportunities to pursue and obtain safe and legal forms of work and that we're not forced to turn to drug trafficking or prostitution to make a living and support our families.

And those are just some of the basics. How spoiled and selfish we can be! We complain and feel sorry for ourselves while we dwell in luxury! We have so much to be thankful for; if only we could focus on those things! So today I am going to remind myself of all of the things I have to be thankful for and I encourage everyone else to do the same!

Today I'm Thankful For:

• My life, that God has given me another day and more opportunities to bring him glory!
• My family who loves me, supports me, teaches me, and encourages me!
• All of my friends! They are such blessings! For so long I have prayed for some more friends who live near me; God answered my prayers!
• My new small group which I love! Another answered prayer!
• Jesus Christ: His goodness, sacrifice, love, provision, and mercy and the fact that He chose me to be a child of God!
• Some recent opportunities that I've been given to serve! Yet another answered prayer!
• The good food and clean water that I have been blessed with!
• The home that I have!
• The car that I will be buying soon for law school, which my family is helping me get!
• My freedom, both as a person and as a woman!
• My good health!
• The education that I was lucky enough to receive!
• The opportunity to even pursue law school and a career in law!
• That no matter where I go and no matter what happens to me in life, God has promised that He's always with me...and God never breaks His promises!

Wow! I am reminded of how good God has been to me, how little I deserve such goodness, and how much there is to be thankful and joyful about!

Jesus and Starbucks

This is a rather old video (from 2008) that I stumbled upon recently. It's quite humorous, enjoyable, and very interesting! Although it's intended for churches, I think there is a lot that anyone can learn from it. Check it out!

I found it both laugh-out-loud hilarious and terrifyingly convicting at the same time. As a coffee junkie and former Starbucks barista, I couldn't help comparing the real environment of Starbucks to the environment of this "churchy" Starbucks in the video. This Starbucks was little proud (though probably unintentionally so), very cliquey, uncomfortable, and unwelcoming (the employees were so "in your face" and desperate that it was a little scary and turned me off). A real Starbucks, however, is relaxing, welcoming, helpful, and very relational; Starbucks baristas are actually encouraged to make relationships with customers, instead of simply advertising.

Maybe we as Christians can learn something from Starbucks. After all, our faith at its core is very relational. Take a look at the Gospels and the books of Acts. In addition to teaching the public about Jesus, the disciples and others also boarded with them, ate with them, and made friendships with them. For the longest time, Starbucks didn't advertise at all. (Even now their advertisements are rare occurrences.) They rely largely on the word of mouth. Maybe instead of luring and tricking our friends into coming to church with us to just "try Jesus" like a bunch sleazy used car salesmen, we should make an effort to attempt the much more effective (but also much more difficult) route: actually showing our friends the love of Christ every day through our actions and words.