Thankfulness

I've been having some lightbulb moments the last couple of weeks. The thing about lightbulb moments is that it's usually something you've heard your whole life, read your whole life, and probably told other people about your whole life, but all of a sudden it's like a light comes on in your head and that thing you've heard your whole life instantly makes sense. It becomes a key opening up the door to a whole new perspective. I really don't like to read. In order to finally break down and read a book, I have to know that it's going to be a life-changing book. I have to have had enough people to mention it and encourage me to read it. I guess I have to know that it's going to be worth my time to read it. A couple of weeks ago, in the midst of the craziness with the kids, a friend of mine suggested reading Ann Voskamp's one thousand gifts. I've heard several other people mention how great it is so I decided to give it a chance. I hate it and I love it. Like I said, I'm not a reader, and this writer is extremely detailed and it's kind of a free writing style like from her thought process, so I just get kind of lost in all the details and scatteredness. However, the lessons gleaned from the book are life-altering. I'm only about half way through it, but here's some of the quotes that have stuck out to me...

This is actually a quote from C.S. Lewis "If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable; think of it a s a place of training and correction and it's not so bad."

"They say time is money, but that's not true. Time is life. And if I want the fullest life, I need to find fullest time."

"Hurry always empties the soul."

"I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here. I can slow the torrent by being all here. I only live the full life when I live fully in the moment."

"When I'm present, I meet I Am, the very presence of a present God. In His embrace, time loses all sense of speed and stress and space and stands so still and...holy."

"The real problem of life is never a lack of time. The real problem of life--in my life--is lack of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving creates abundance; and the miracle of multiplying happens when I give thanks--take the just one loaf, say it is enough, and give thanks--and He miraculously makes it more than enough (John 6:11)."

In reading this book and in my time with the Lord, He has continually brought me back to thankfulness. So, we're fighting the funk of fall with thankfulness.

Right now, what is making me overflow with thankfulness is ministry with my high school friends. Campaigners (having a small group of girls to talk about life and Jesus) is my favorite part of Young Life, but it's also the hardest thing for me to get going. For 2 years, I've been praying and trying and praying and trying...and finally, something's starting to happen. Thank you, Jesus.