14 Things I'm Thankful for in 2014

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" Psalm 107:1 ESV

There are countless things I could give thanks to but since it’s 2014 I’ll limit myself to 14. Here are the top 14 things I’m thankful for in no particular order.

1. Jesus – I’m thankful that God loved me so much that He adopted me and picked me to be called His child and sacrificed His own Son that I might live, made pure by His righteous blood.  

2. My family – You can read more about my family on my last blog post. They are the greatest earthly gift I’ve ever received. I love these people more than anything. I am so incredibly thankful for the crazy group of people I get to do life with.

Photo Credit: Fort Vanity

3. My Church- You can read more about why I’m thankful for Mars Hill here. In short, my life has been forever changed my Mars Hill and though this is the last Thanksgiving that my church will even exist, I’ll forever be thankful for the ways God changed my life.

4. My pastor – God has used Pastor Mark to change my life over the past two decades. I’m thankful for Pastor Mark’s dedication to Jesus, solid theology and preaching the Bible. I dearly love this man and I look forward to one day sitting under his leadership again. 

5. Disneyland – I love Disneyland! We take a family vacation there about every 18-24 months and it really is the happiest place on earth.

6. My job – I have my dream job. I look forward to going to work every single day. I get to work with a great group of people at a job that is all about exotic cars. Seriously, I’m the luckiest guy alive!

7. My freedom – I live in the greatest nation on earth. My freedom and the freedom of every American is guaranteed in writing by our government and supported by a pretty bad ass military.  

8. Teaching the Bible – I’ve had the honor and privilege of teaching the Bible to teenagers over the past few years and I’m incredibly thankful for that. I learn far more than I ever teach by working with this great group of students and I’ll forever be grateful for this season.

9. My friends – I have a great group of friends. Those closest to me are some of the best people I’ve ever met. I am incredibly undeserving of the people God has put in my life but I sure am thankful.

10. My biological family – We certainly aren’t the closest family in the world but we are also far from the worst. I am thankful that my mother, a single mom, raised me as best she could. I’m thankful for my aunt and uncle who have sacrificed much to try to give me a good life.

Photo courtesy of Renus and ElTora Cabe (Mu aunt and uncle)

11. Sports – This seems trivial but sports matter to me. I enjoy relaxing (or freaking out) over a good athletic competition. Good teams or bad, winning seasons or garbage seasons, it’s a good way to unplug from the real world for a while.

12. My Bible – I have access to the Word of God. Unlimited access, no restrictions, no one will arrest me for it, it’s just there. I love reading my Bible, learning new things from it, teaching from it, sharing the truths it contains, and sometimes just praying through it.

13. Food and clean water – I’m super thankful that I live in a country where I have access to any food I want as well as clean and safe drinking water. There are many in the world without these blessings. I also just enjoy food, I love trying new things, gathering with friends to eat, finding a new restaurant, tacos, bacon, cookie, and well…. I just really like food.

14. The Perrigo family – I wrote about them in my blog on family but they are worth another mention. There is no family on the family that means more to me than them. I’ve never met a family where I have been so incredibly fond of each and every member. My life is truly better for knowing them. 

Photo: Courtesy of Alyssa Perrigo

Thankful To Be An American

I'm going to try to write a few blogs this week about things I'm truly thankful for. This first one is hopefully not too controversial, It is something that has been striking me lately as I see all the usual social media complaining change to thankfulness this month. I've found myself very convicted of my own complaining and lack of realization of my own privileged. 

This is the week when we American’s stop complaining about being cut off in traffic, Starbucks getting our drink wrong or the line at the store being too long. In fact this Friday, we’ll seek out bad traffic and long lines. Well some of us may still complain as well. The point is, it’s Thanksgiving week, the dedicated time to stop and give thanks.

Given all that we have in this great nation, it amazes me that we need to dedicate a day remember to give thanks. Even the poor in America live in abundance! We have more opportunity than any other place in the world. President Ronald Reagan said, “In America, our origins matter less than our destination, and that is what democracy is all about.”

Before you dismiss me as a rich guy who just doesn't get it, I am poor by American standards; my back account is currently overdrawn and I worry every month if I’ll have enough to make my bills. I struggle daily, but I’m in the best country on the planet to have these “problems”. I’m able to easily pick up side jobs and sell possessions whenever I need. When I look at my “poverty” compared to the rest of the world, I realize exactly how wealthy I am.

The media would tell you that I’m poor. If my income doubled, I’d still be making less than a “livable wage”. Yet, I have I home with heat, running water, food, and electricity. Many people in the world do not. My family owns two cars that we drive to the grocery store. Many in world walk miles in often empty hopes of finding scraps of food. All by basic needs are met and exceeded. This simply is not true for most of the planet.

Charity Water reports, “In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year walking for water. Women and children usually bear the burden of water collection, walking miles to the nearest source, which is unprotected and likely contaminated.” People are walking miles through horrible conditions to get filthy water and they are thankful, yet we have our day ruined by a referee blowing a call in a football game.

Even our homeless have places to get food and shelter. We have the greatest freedoms in the history of mankind. Our military is the toughest fighting force ever conceived. We have a raging immigration debate because people from all over the planet want to come to this land of opportunity. If you live in the United States of America, you have much to be thankful for every single day. The poorest among us, have much to be thankful for. The richest among us have much to be thankful for.

Please never forget the blessing we have as Americans. Please never forget the men and women who died to give us these blessings. Please never take for granted how rich you are. Please remember to give thanks today and every day for the blessings you have. Please stop complaining about the 1% and realize you are the 1%.