Giant Bird in the oven, smell of pumpkin and cinnamon, stretchy pants on, and enough food to feed a small army....Yep, Thanksgiving is here.
Let's face it one of the big reasons Americans look forward to Thanksgiving is the food. One of the only days where leftovers throughout the day is a good thing.
But I think sometimes we get so caught up in the food, the preparation, the unavoidable clean up, and all the distractions that come along with holidays we can lose sight of what's really important.
This Thanksgiving feast will be a lot different for me. There are a lot of things I can't eat this time around because of my health stuff. A lot of my favorites since I was a little punkin myself will be off the menu for me.
Am I disappointed? I'd be lieing if I didn't say a little. Pumpkin pie and coffee have been taunting my dreams. But I'm not as disappointed as I thought I'd be.
Last year I didn't have these diet restrictions but I also was a lot further from finding any kind of answer to my sickness. This year I feel closer to finding some relief...to healing. I can choose to be thankful for that or complain about the foods I can't eat.
So this Thanksgiving, as strange as it may sound, I'm thankful for all the things I can't and don't have.
Those things just allow me to be even more grateful for all the things I DO have.And when I start to focus on what I do have I realize there is no comparison.
Be cheerful
no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens.
This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
It's something I'm trying to live by every day of my life not just on Thanksgiving. No matter what I'm going through, what I face, or how much pain I'm in I can be grateful.
Is it always easy? Heck to the no. Always worth it? You bet your turkey.
I'm so incredibly thankful for the love in my life.I have people that I love and that love me.I have an amazing family, an incredible, God picked husband, and the best friends in the universe,
I may not have my health right now but I'll always have the love of my Jesus and what God has done in my life. And that is worth so much more than all the don't haves in the world.
So I challenge you in the midst of the pie eating and football watching today to think about that. No matter the foods that may burn, the things the kids may spill, or the tension that may come from family members, or the ones that refused to come... take a moment, breathe, and see that despite all that may go wrong or all the don't haves there is still something to thank God for today...and every day.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."Psalm 107:1
Character chosen,costumes bought or frugally made,candy purchased,pumpkin carved...Ah, Halloween..
For 364 days of the year,
we tell children not to talk to strangers. Then on Halloween, we encourage kids to not just go up to strangers but to hold out their hands and ask for candy.A strange holiday for sure.
Let's face it though,it's not just kids that look forward to partaking in this day.
A day where it's accepted, albeit expected for people to dress like someone or something else. It's fun right? For one day we get to put on a costume and carry around a plastic sword (that was me) and people aren't phased by it. It's acceptable to be the person behind the mask.
But the truth is long after the sugar high wears off and the pumpkins turn brown many of us are still wearing masks.The iron man and monkey masks are replaced with invisible masks fastened on by insecurity, doubt, fear, mistakes, and struggles that we try desperately to keep people from seeing.
We wouldn't walk up to some stranger and say "Hey I'm really depressed because I feel like I'm failing as a parent.Can I have some candy?"
How embarrassing would it be if people saw those things about us? How scary to think about people actually getting to know the real us.
The us behind the mask.
It can be exhausting,having to maintain a facade of everything-is-going-great and I’m-fine-how-are-? We don't usually want to admit we need help, let alone ask for it.
We're afraid what people see they might not like. And let's face it, we all want to be liked. The world is starving for acceptance. For love. But where are we looking for it and who are we look for it as? The real us or the facade of who we are trying to be for everyone else?
Sometimes we may attempt
to remove the mask, seeking some sort of freedom but as soon as someone
judges us or even looks at us funny the mask goes right back on. Or is replaced by a new mask.
I see now even as a Christian at a young age I wore masks. I didn't want people to see my insecurities, my failures, or weaknesses. A christian isn't supposed to show those right? I believed if people saw my faults they wouldn't be drawn to Christ, they'd just think well if she has problems too what's so great about being a christian? Acting like things are okay when they're not.Things were easier that way.
“When you’re afraid to be who you really are, you lose touch with the
truth of who you are and act in ways you may later regret,” Dwoskin
My mask brought me what I thought was comfort and security.And yet people couldn't get to know the real me.Even though I was free through Jesus I see now I didn't know true freedom.
True Freedom comes when we take off the masks.When we realize it's okay to not be okay.(Part of why we love REVOLUTION CHURCH so much.)
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, "That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults,
hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when
I am weak, then I am strong."
Only through Jesus can we find true peace in that. God knows what it will take to get us there and it usually means facing something we've never faced to draw us to Him and into a dependence on Him that we never experienced before. Sometimes it's giant things or a bunch of small things He uses to reveal to us the masks we're wearing and then help us get rid of them.
When I first got sick several years ago I was angry,frustrated, and scared but I didn't want to admit the extent of my pain to other people(physically and emotionally). So many times I suffered in silence. Even those closest to me didn't know the extent of my suffering. I didn't want to look like a failure...to myself,to others,even to God.
Isn't it funny though how we so often try to mask our feelings even from God. But the truth is, God knows. He knows our minds and our hearts better than anyone. Even though He can see through our masks He doesn't expect us to get rid of them before we come to Him.Wow.
I think so many times we feel like we have it all together.Especially as Christians. But hurting people don't need to see fixed up people who appear seem like they have a perfect life when they really don't.They need to see what Jesus can do through a hurting,flawed people,because that's what Christians are.All Christians. Screwed up people saved by grace. God's used my pain as an outlet for me to finally be able to be real with Him and through that with other people.
I open up with my family and close friends about my pain and I share my questions and fears with Jesus. I'm so thankful he doesn't want the fixed up, masked, version of me. He just wants me. The same goes for you. Christian or not, He just wants you.You're His beloved because he created you.That's what I love about Him,we can come to him just as you are.Messed up!
What masks are you wearing? It's only when we can be real with ourselves and with God that he can help us remove those masks so we can build authentic relationships and experience true freedom.
It's time to get real. Let people get to know the person behind the mask.
"You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb."Psalm 139: 1-4, 13
