Thanksgiving

It’s been an interesting Thanksgiving. I spent mine in some online evangelism, in some forum debating, and in doing laundry. Of course, being the constant gamer, there was some Final Fantasy XII involved. My family is far away and I just couldn’t get out there to see them. However, I thought I’d write about what I’m thankful for and maybe it’ll help you think of what you’re thankful for.

I’m thankful for my friends. Believe it or not, I think friends have a totally different place than family. I love my family of course, but family loves you often because you are family. It has been said that we love people that if we knew just on the street we would not love at all simply because they are family. That is something that makes family unique. I love mine, and I couldn’t always tell you why, but I love them dearly. Friends are different though.

I think of my friends as the people that love me because they choose to. (I mean love in the phileo sense of course.) I take my roommate as an example. I didn’t have any choice which home I would be born into and neither did he. Both of us though had a choice in who we would move in with and we made that choice. That’s unique.

I have a community of friends all around the world through the internet and other mediums. There are a number of people I can shoot an email to around the world and know that my message is going to a friend. That’s something quite pleasing. I could travel to a number of different areas and find someone happy to see me.

I’m also thankful for where I’m at. I have a great church family here and a school I look forward to attending. For the first time, I’m out there and with a friend and I’m making it. I am doing something that many people thought I would never be able to do. I am making it just fine and rather enjoying myself.

I am thankful for what I do also. I love reading and I love Christian apologetics and I love philosophy and theology. I can’t imagine doing anything else. There is a great joy in mining the depths of who God is and his revelation and then getting to pass that information on to other people. I love how God invites us to explore him. He doesn’t want us to hold back. He wants us to use all we are to know him as he is.

I am thankful for my family of course as I mentioned earlier. They let me go and are watching me live out my dream. They know it’s hard and most people know I’m one of the most self-critical people in the world, but I am doing what I can to make it work. I am pushing and fighting and I enjoy it.

I am thankful for what God has done though and for who he is. I give thanks that I am unnecessary to the plan, but he has chosen to use me. Service is not just our gift to God. It is his gift to us. It is his gift that we are invited to come to know him and to serve him in the cause of righteousness.

None of us needed to be, but God brought us into being by his grace. It is up to us how we will respond. Will we graciously acknowledge the one who gave us life and live our lives to please him, or will we forsake him and choose to walk our own way and tell God that we will be our own god?

I am thankful especially for the revelation in Christ. I find him amazing. I see no flaw in him and there certainly is none. I do not see how anyone could have dreamed up this man that billions throughout space and time since the cross would willingly give their lives for. I just don’t see that.

It is because of Christ that I am here today and doing what I do and ultimately saying that I have a lot to be thankful for. No matter where I am or who I’m with, that doesn’t change. I could be with my family and friends or as far away as possible, but who Christ is will not change. That is ultimately what I rely on when all is said and done.

As Paul would say, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”