Slow the Flow

 

“So, Elaine, are you ready for Thanksgiving?” my coworker asked as we scanned and bagged a grocery order.

 

“Thanksgiving? It's mid-October! Listen, buddy, I'm old! Each day is a treasure! I can't be throwing them carelessly away!”

 

My friend looked a little startled at my vehement protestation. And I understand where he's coming from. He's young, less than half my age, and eagerly counting the days till his upcoming vacation and birthday celebration Thanksgiving week in the mountains of Tennessee. Who could blame him for mentally tossing away calendar pages as fast as he turns them over?

 

It's a matter of perspective, one gained over time. His lifetime hourglass is still very full; the hours seem to stream endlessly before him with no end in sight. I, on the other hand, am keenly aware that there are more grains of sand in the bottom half of mine than are waiting to drop from the top, so I am increasingly careful with what I do with each one. I don't have any to waste!

 

And really, why would we want to, no matter what stage of life we are currently in? Each day is a gift, a one-time-use twenty-four-hour offer of joy from God, available for pickup each morning and expiring come nightfall, never to return in exactly the same way ever again. Why would we pass that up?

 

Yet some of us do. We stumble through our daily routines just trying to make it through each one till we can fall exhausted in our beds at night for a few hours of rest before rising to do it all again. We count on holidays and weekends away to be bright spots of joy in increasingly pressure-packed schedules that vary little from season to season in intensity, but only in the activities we pursue. Meanwhile, the days of our lives are slipping through our fingers and there seems to be no way to slow the flow.

But that's not so.

Favorite author Ann Voskamp suggests that we can actually do so with gratitude. We hold a moment captive when we see the wonder it contains, fully experience its joy and express our thanks for the same before letting it pass away. Gratitude simply adds length to our days... and perhaps days to the length of our lives. Count me in!

And so I approach my days a little differently now. I rise in the morning to meet up with God, Who hands me the gift of the day before me, and then eagerly watches as I go through the hours that follow, gently unwrapping the tissue-packed minutes that are meant to surprise and delight me. His smile grows at my joy over each new discovery of His goodness, every token of His care, and every new revelation of His love for me. His ears rejoice as I voice my thanks. And at the end of the day I slip the wrappings away in a bedtime thank-you conversation with Him about the hours just past, a gift in return. Sleep then comes peacefully sweet till I rise to do it all over again the next day. Who would want to give any such days away?

So am I ready for thanks-giving? You bet! And I hope you are, too.

“This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

(Psalm 118:24 NKJV)

When a Sketch is a Stretch

I'll admit it; I'm a Halloween party-pooper.

Dressing up in a costume to me is more torture than fun; best leave that to those who are young...in heart, if not in age. Because I spend the majority of the year trying to eliminate fear, I don't go looking for goblins and ghouls in haunted houses, nor watch movies that are sure to haunt my dreams and mess up a good night's sleep. I'm even too lazy to carve a face on a pumpkin. The only part of the holiday I really participate in is candy consumption... but that I do with a vengeance!

This year I tried to limit the caloric intake of the holiday and so reduced my actual holiday candy allotment to a single bag of candy corn. One bag containing two servings, that would be it. Dutifully I split the contents of the bag into two piles, eating one immediately, and somehow managing to put the other in a little container to eat as a treat at work the next day... except that I inexplicably forgot that I had the candy with me on the morrow and returned home with it still in my lunchbag.

I was sitting at the kitchen table the next morning, jump-starting my devotional time as usual with some thankful thoughts... at least three of them, one of which had to be illustrated in a little sketch in pencil in my journal. Originally my directive was to draw the moment which meant the most to me from the day before... but since my artistic skills are severely limited, some things for which I was profoundly grateful were eliminated from the selection process because I knew I could never sketch the moment in question. I'd have to be grateful for something a little easier to draw! Soon the purpose of giving thanks was lost in the ordeal I'd made of the activity, and I was coming close to abandoning it completely when I suddenly remembered that little container of candy corn.

Delighted, I grabbed it out of the bag on the counter and was ready to pop the small handful in my mouth, regardless of the early hour, when God halted me with a sudden “Not so fast!” that I heard in my spirit, if not in my ears. “One piece of candy corn for every grateful thought...no cheating!...and GO!”

I love it when God plays games with me, and so eagerly began. The thoughts came quickly at first, fueled by the little bits of sugary sweetness I gobbled after each one. I thanked Him for the re-connection with a friend I had seen the night before...traveling mercies in rush-hour freeway traffic I navigated to get to the event...the power nap I somehow had time for before leaving home that afternoon. After the first wave of gratitude there was still corn on the table, and my thoughts turned to things I normally wouldn't have mentioned... the sight of an owl flying through the trees in the yard just before dawn... watching a squirrel rebuild a nest with a mouthful of leaves it had collected from the ground below...a red-bellied woodpecker come to eat breakfast at the birdfeeder on the deck. Little moments I would have thought unworthy of my journal were gifts from God's hand whether I could illustrate them or not, and the acknowledgment of each brought delight first to His heart and then to my tongue.

Soon the pile of candy was gone but in its place was an understanding that God wants me to see His goodness in all things, and that walking in constant gratitude brings a sweetness to life that a little bit of candy can't begin to match. I've learned lately that even the scariest of seasons can be traversed with His constant love as my companion, and my steps sweetened with gratitude for bite after bite of the goodness of God.

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”

(Psalms 34:8 NKJV)

A String of Things to be Thankful For

The piece of twine stretched loosely across the wooden mantle, fastened to nails at either end. Along the expanse were clipped photos of the parents-to-be and single shots of the expectant mother in various stages of her pregnancy. More than just a clever room decoration for a baby shower, it changed the focus of the party from presents and cake to thanks for a healthy pregnancy and the joy that would accompany the birth of this long-awaited son and already much-beloved boy.

Sometimes we treat Thanksgiving like the baby shower before The Birth on Christmas Day... an excuse to eat turkey and watch football with family and friends... maybe a chance to grab a quick nap before the last dash to the Big Day begins. We need the reminder to stretch a string across the breadth of our days and deliberately clip mental pictures of all we have to be thankful for along its length - to turn our attention away from the party foods we're preparing and presents we're planning to buy and focus on the gifts we've already been given.

There are any number of ways to do it. An easy one is to simply review the pictures you've taken of late on your phone, thanking God for the people in them, the places you've been together, the laughter you found there... the love shared. Another is to make lists, deliberately naming your blessings in Ann Voskampf style, counting them as you write them down. Lately I've taken to picking a different letter of the alphabet each day and being especially mindful of blessings beginning with that letter I come across in a 24-hour period. I've been surprised at the things I hadn't thought to thank God for lately - the colorful beauty in a Peacock feather... the fun of a trip to the Zoo... a toasty sandwich at Quizno's. There is no such thing as a "hard" letter when your heart is full of thanksgiving. Sometimes we just need the reminder to let it overflow into the busy days that follow the holiday and lead the way in our celebrations as we await the arrival of the Birthday Boy Himself.

"In every thing give thanks..."

(1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV)

The Timing of Thanksgiving

It's the nature of the film industry that employment on any one job is of limited duration. A movie is budgeted, the crew gathers together for a few weeks or months of active shooting, and then scatters once more to wherever the next project takes them. While boredom is rarely an issue, neither is there any such thing as job security, as plans can be canceled on short notice when financing falls through or there is a relationship fallout between some of the key people involved. As contacts are made and reputations are built, the job offers come more readily, but the pursuit of a paycheck can be a constant struggle for those just starting out.

As a worry-prone mother of an electrician/lighting technician in the industry, I long ago committed my son's employment and financial status to God. My job is simply to thank Him in advance for taking care of the issue and for building in my son the skills set and personal character needed to be successful. Therefore, I was delighted with the news that his November bills would be covered by a three-week stint on a short film in at the start of a traditionally slow season of the year. Additionally, there was the hope that he might jump onto another movie after Thanksgiving. When telling a family member that we were keeping our fingers crossed that this would happen, it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't need to cross fingers on hands already clasped in prayer.

Two words in the situation I was relaying suddenly caught my attention: the job he wanted would start after Thanksgiving. More than a suggested start date, the combination refers to the timing of any expected answer to prayer. Truly the key to unleashing God's bounty in any situation is to thank Him for releasing His answers and gifts before they are received. The traditional celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday is to look back on the year just past and give thanks for the good things that have occurred in the preceding three hundred and sixty-five days. But if that's all we do, we stop short of receiving the full blessing that God has packed into that twelve-letter word.

I'm approaching the Thanksgiving holiday a little differently this year as a result. As usual, when our family gathers around the dinner table and looks at the platters of steaming family favorites set before us, we'll go one by one around the room and tell what we're especially thankful for this year. When my turn comes I will certainly thank God for His faithfulness in the year just past. But this time I will also thank Him for the same in the year to come, thanking Him in advance for His answers to the specific situations I've laid at His feet.

Too often we pray with the attitude of a quarterback who throws a pass deep and just hopes that a team member will catch it downfield. It's a last ditch effort to save a situation that we deem hopeless in the extreme. Yet God wants us to realize that He is on the receiving end of our prayers and He never drops a one. He honors hands raised in praise, those signaling victory before the end zone has actually been reached. In my son's situation it is that praise and thanks in advance that will turn the possibility of a job offer into a check deposited in the bank. The job may start after the holiday, but not before the thanksgiving – I've made sure of that!

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;”

(Philippians 4:6 NKJV, emphasis mine)