Proclaim your thanks!
Thanks to My friend Micheal Harbour, I was reminded of the original Thanksgiving Holiday Proclamation. I re-read it and was astounded at the level of intentionality maintained by our president Abraham Lincoln. Take a moment to read, and be thankful.
It was written by William Seward and given to A. Lincoln to sign. He did and the original was sold to support recovering soldiers. Listen closely.
It is the duty of nations as well as men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
(signed)
A. Lincoln
Awake
You know that feeling in the middle of the night when you are lying in bed and you wake up suddenly. The noise that woke you is now blurred. The faint echo of it, still ringing in your ears is now questioned as real or as part of your dream. Still, you can’t ignore it. Your heart is beating quickly. Your face is flushed and you find yourself gripped with either fear or the rush of adrenaline. Needless to say, you are awake. WIDE awake.
I don’t know how it happened, but today, I feel as if I have woken up. I think when you begin to consistently look at the world and your place in it with purpose and meaning, something happens. It doesn’t happen immediately. But, I do think that one day something clicks. I was speaking today with a good friend and we were talking about the things that have been on our mind. Interestingly, he’s had one particular thing on his mind for a few weeks/months now. I told him that it was the same for me, but a completely different topic. I find it refreshing to know that I’m not the only one who obsesses over things. Of course, maybe it’s not obsessing if you’re trying to work some things out for the better. Maybe the spirit of God pushes you to contemplate certain ideas because He wants you to encourage more of his people to to be thinking about similar things.
Meg Ryan speaks a line from the often panned movie Joe Vs. The Volcano. She says, ”my father says that most people in the world are asleep and there are only a few people who are awake. But those who are awake live in a state of Constant Amazement.” I feel that many are somewhat asleep. I assume the reason is that they aren’t people who have realized their purpose.
When you suddenly realize your purpose or place in this big overbearing world, something happens. The noise that was your life is now blurred. The faint echo of it, still ringing in your ears is now questioned as real. Still, you can’t ignore it. It has led you to this moment. Your heart is beating quickly. Your face is flushed and you find yourself gripped with either fear or the rush of adrenaline pushing you to act…to see this to the end. Needless to say, you are awake. WIDE awake.
Are you awake? As for today, I am.
What’s in your thankful jar?
I’ve committed to do something this week. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but I’m going to be intentionally thankful for my life and those things within it. This past sunday night in our life group, we had our children write down the things for which they were thankful. Reading through the list I came across a few of the following:
Colors
Hugging
Plants
Lego Star Wars, The Complete Saga
Dogs
Donuts
Jesus
I am thankful that I have a family.
The same night, as I said prayers with my little 2 1/2 year old, he spent several moments thanking God for Cake. Daddy’s Cake, Mommy’s Cake, Sissy’s cake, Andrews Cake, Aubrey’s cake… This little boy is teaching me a lot about being thankful. It is quite easy to spend most of my day wanting and needing things I do not have that I forget all about being thankful for things I often take for granted. So, I encourage you this week as I am myself, to remember to thank God…often. I can learn a thing or two from my little ones.
Observation – Lesson 5
I’m currently in lesson 5 of Richard Boleslavsky’s book ACTING: The First Six Lessons. I’m going through the lesson and then applying the same to our life as Children of God. It’s actually quite interesting. The two correlate quite well. The passion of Boleslavsky in regards to the theater is something that many of the churchgoing Christians of today lack. His passion was to create and present art through the experience of the theater. The hopewas that one entered the theater in a particular way and left a changed human being. This is similar to how we are on Sundays. Although we do not articulate the day as such, we hope to leave changed. If we do not, then we attend out of obligation and not freedom. The lessons presented in the book create avenues of discussion for those of us wishing to devote as much time and energy into the pursuit of the creator of art and the creator of experience.
In lesson 5 we see the idea of Observation.
The idea is that our experience can grow when we learn to incorporate our observations into our art. To watch carefully the actions of others – to see the way they carry themselves and interact with others -to see how others manage themselves in ordinary tasks and how they act when they think no one is watching them. The exercise of observation and study brings about a greater sense of experience from which to draw.
This brings us to an interesting idea. When we ponder our life and how we carry ourselves throughout the day, how much do we remember? Do we observe ourselves? Many of us are fantastic at observing others, but what about turning that lens inward? Can we remember, to the detail, our actions of the day? If we are to be intentional, this is critical. Can we remember the day and our interaction within it? Can we remember where our feet took us or what our eyes showed us? Can we remember where our self control faltered and when our demeanor changed? Can we recall who our mouth encouraged and who it tore down? Can we recall the seconds or minutes spent in silence as we remembered the God who continues to save us? Can we recall what we heard or more importantly, HOW we heard? Did we hear with ears that were ready to hear or were we already full? {No more room inside for petty conversation.} What about our hands? Who have we made connection with today? Have we connected with anyone in a meaningful way or are we on our way to a completely self-centered life?
How observant are we?
Observation is a core element to living an intentional life. We cannot interact intentionally within it unless we know how to navigate through it.
