Undercover Pastor » Thankfulness

Christmas Consumerism Overload

Steve — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:06:06 +0000

We try hard not to give our kids a lot of stuff at Christmastime. We let them get stuff they need like shoes, backpacks, and jackets. They also get a few fun things. It’s not extravagent, but somehow there’s always enough to blow the kids’ circuit breakers. And I guess my circuit breaker blew this year too.

I was just at Target picking up 7-Up and saltines for a sick kid, and I saw the $5 DVD displays. In the past, I’ve looked them over to see if there’s anytrhing good there, but tonight it made me sick to my stomach. If there had been a good movie there, I think I would have paid the same amount to rent it and avoid having it stay in my home.

I simply love what we do in the church at Christmas. We remember Jesus’ birth and welcome him into our lives again. Children and adults alike share their gifts. People who are very different serve side by side to make sure that thigns go smootghly and everyone receives a warm welcome. And my family had a great Christmas breakfast together and a wonderful dinner with my parents and my sister’s family. I even received some stuff I can really use! But the gift exchange felt out of place to me. And I’d be happy not to buy anything for a long time.

I am thankful for my family and my life. I’m grateful that God loves me enough to come into the world for me! I need to pay the bills, and make sure my kids have what they really need, but it’s a lot less than I sometimes believe. I’m going to pray to hang onto this perspective.

What has your experience of Christmas been like? Do you feel the overload? Or are you looking at it from a completely different perspective?

Busy-ness vs. Thankfulness

Steve — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:57:08 +0000

I’ve been busy lately. There are a lot of big things happening at our church plus we have three kids, two of whom are starting new schools this year (one at preschool and one at kindergarten) plus one eight-month-old! I’ve been working really hard and feeling tired. Sometimes exhaustion can rob you of your joy.But when I take even the smallest amount of time to reflect, I am so grateful. I was exhausted on Sunday because I had to preach twice, write a grant application to allow our church to have a half-time Pastor of Latino Ministries, because we have to work hard to find teachers for all the kids who are now part of our church family, and because a bunch of church people went to Ancil Hoffman Park to play after church on Sunday. If you had told me that I would have these “problems” a few years ago, I would have said you were dreaming. They’re all blessings!

Sometimes my kids are exhausting too. They have places they need to be. They want to run and play. They make messes. The baby is clingy. That’s all tiring. But it’s great too!

My wife needs help, and the house needs work. But it’s amazing that I am married to Eleanor. She’s incredible. And we now have a house that’s big enough for our kids. I’m grateful for that too.

Some things in life aren’t the result of blessings. I won’t list those, but we all have them. There are things in life that we have to deal with and we may never know why. Still, even when I’m dealing with those things, it helps to focus on the blessings God has given me in my life. I, my family, and our church have truly been blessed, and I am grateful. Tired and grateful.

As we sang on Sunday morning, “Come, thou fount of every blessing! Tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.”

Flu and Thankfulness

Steve — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:43:35 +0000

I’ve got the stomach flu, and it has completely ruined my plans. Sure, I should have been prepared when my son Johnny got it a few days ago, but I lived in denial. I’ll spare you the unplesant details, but the part of this that’s interesting is that on Wednesday, someone in our Revelation Bible Study asked us all to pray for gratitude. That’s an unusual prayer request. We get plenty of heath, home, and financial requests, along with the occasional relationship issue or strugling church project, but someone said that we need to be more thankful.

Here’s the connection. Thinking about my poor soon who couldn’t keep liquids down for a full 24 hours, I prayed that we would have the kind of thankfulness that you have when you’ve been coughing for weeks and can finally breathe freely or the kind of thankfulness that you experience afetr getting over the stomach flu and can finally eat and drink again. We get a glimpse of it and then promptly go back to beign dissatisfied with whatever we’re prone to be dissatisfied with.

I am on the road to fresh thankfulness for being able to eat, drink, and think clearly once again! I pray that it will last a bit longer before I get back to financial, child rearing, and church future concerns again. Hey, may I won’t go back at all!

Thankfulness: Not So Obvious

Steve — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:25:21 +0000

Yesterday afternoon, my kids were starting to get a little bit of cabin fever. It was hot, and the air had been smoky for most of the day, but by late afternoon, the air had cleared a bit and a cool breeze was blowing. “Why don’t you go outside and play, Johnny?” I suggested.

“There’s nothing to do!”

“You could ride your scooter or kick the soccer ball or pull weeds or throw your rocket football or play hide-and-seek with your brother or ride your bike or play with the hula hoop or look for bugs.”

“That’s boring.”

We have a great yard right now and a nice patio, and plenty of toys for the kids to play with. But they stop seeing that and see anything familiar as “boring.”

As I was thinking about how sad that was, I realized that I do the same thing! I focus on whatever is missing in my life at this moment and forget or discount the blessings that God has provided in my life. Just like Johnny!

This morning, I asked the congregation to think about their blessings and then asked how many had thought of something that hadn’t recognized as a blessing before. In one service, a bunch of people raised their hands. In the other, almost none.

We have a choice. We can be thankful for the blessings we have or we can decide that they’re

“boring” and concentrate on what’s not right. It’s a matter

of an “attitude of gratitude,” and life’s a lot more pleasant and satisfying that way.