Wow, have we ever been hit with storms and crises this summer and fall.  For the most part, we, here in North Alabama, have missed the effects of the hurricanes and floods that have affected so much of our country.  It’s easy for us to be thankful that we were not hit any worse than we were, although many of us had friends or family members who were hit by the storms.

I am impressed by how many people, who were in the middle of the suffering, have taken time to be thankful for something, even though almost everything has been taken away.  One friend of mine lost his home and suffered a broken arm in the storm in Mississippi.  He was thankful that he had a place to live during and after the storm with family.  He was fortunate enough to have a small renter house that he can move into until his home can be rebuilt.  His children have moved back to their former schools. He is blessed.

The resilience of folk never ceases to amaze me.  As we approach Thanksgiving in 2005, let us join many of the folk who are in misery in giving thanks for what we have instead of mourning about what we don’t.  Several years ago, I used an illustration I had found in the newspaper about thanksgiving: “True thanksgiving is a woman dying with cancer in a charity ward in a major hospital saying, “God has been so good to me”.  Today, I might say, much closer to home, that true thanksgiving is a Hospice of Marshall County patient, dying (with whatever disease), saying, “God has been so good to me”.  I hear it often.  It causes me to be ashamed of my shallow thanks.          -tony

A few weeks ago, my wife and I were driving for several hours.  During that time, to break up the monotony of the trip, we listened to part of book on CD and to some gospel music CDs.  I love Southern gospel and the Gathiers’ type music.  What I became aware of, as I was listening, was all of the lyrics were about “me and mine.”  Rather than praise to God for who he is, it was about what I’m going to get by and by or what great things I have done for God.  I still like the music, but it brought to mind one of the facts about our times: It’s all about me.  Too many radio and television evangelists preach a gospel of “come to God and get” instead of “come to God and serve.”

August is already upon us.  I looked at the seven day forecast on www.weather.com and noticed that the days are getting shorter by about a minute a day.  It won’t be long until we will wish for the daylight savings time again.  Right now, my back yard may have to be bush hogged before I can mow it again.  The rabbits have gotten bolder.  They have begun to nest under my concrete driveway.  I see them run out each time I pull in with the car.

We may all look ahead and see the problems.  We may also see the problems today.  Jesus said the troubles of today are sufficient, without leaning into the future to see others.  The country gospel song says, “One day at a time, Sweet Jesus”.  That’s how we live life.

Before we become overwhelmed, we need to tell God that we can’t handle things today.  Then we give them to Him.  I’m constantly amazed at how He finds answers that I can not imagine.  (If there were a prayer answered in the way I expected, I’m not sure how I would handle that.)  When I start tying to run His business, I really do get bogged down.  I can’t even handle all of mine.  When I give it to Him, He can run with it.

I have no idea what the next five minutes will bring, much less the next week or the next season.  God is sufficient for the future.  Sometime, we need to simply say, “One day at a time, dear Jesus, is all I’m asking from you”.  Let us feel the joys that life brings every day, confident that even if we don’t know what the future holds, we know who holds the future.  Such words are more than clichés; they tell us an important truth.          -tony

I am listening to gospel music right now.  The songs and hymns I am listening to bring me promises.  A few minutes ago, I listened to “Whispering Hope” and remember how many times in the middle of the night when I thought the entire world was going wrong, God gently spoke.

Right now, they are playing “How Great Thou Art”.  Although it speaks of the majestic power of God, it also speaks of how God comes to us in nature, as well as through His son.

I have noticed for the past several mornings as I looked out of the kitchen windows across my back yard, two rabbits.  For the past two or three mornings, they have gone by one of those green recycling containers that I put in the yard to keep the kids away from my single stem blueberry bushes.  They would wander around and around the container, sometimes climbing up and looking on the upturned bottom.  I wondered what the attraction might be.  Yesterday I mowed the yard and found out.  Water had collected in the rim of the upturned container.  They were using it as a water source.

Maybe, they have other watering holes.  Thinking, not of the rabbits, but of having a place for mosquitoes to breed, I righted the container so that any water would drain through the bottom holes.  I wondered about those rabbits, too.  Should I leave it upturned so they could have a watering place, should I turn it over to prevent mosquitoes?  What would the rabbits think?  A part of their world had been destroyed through no fault of their own.  Some great hand had made a difference in their lives, not to deprive them, but to prevent what could be considered a menace.

Sometimes when things go wrong in our lives, we do wonder what we have done wrong to cause it.  Many of us have been so conditioned to have guilt as a first response to any adverse event in our lives.

I just got back from a trek to Pennsylvania to pick up my son and meet a friend of his (female, but not a girlfriend?).  He had flown in from Albuquerque, where he works, to visit the friend there.  Since she could not come to Alabama with him as planned, we drove up.  The weather was great for the entire trip.

Of course, we had a great time; meeting someone who was a delight to meet, visiting some sites we had never seen before (Hershey, Lancaster (Amish country) and Gettysburg), and actually sleeping late for a couple of days.  One of the most striking parts of the trip was driving up the country, through the Shenandoah Valley, then into the part of the country where the trees were still mostly bare.

Well, you’ve made it through another Easter.  One thing about the events of that time was the fact that there was a great storm, so much so that it appeared to be night.  Some have said that the darkness was caused by the storm.  Some have said that the darkness was caused by an earthquake that blotted out the sun.  Some have suggested that it was an eclipse of the sun.  Implied in the events that many have talked of was that God could not look on the crucifixion of His only son.

I sat in church a few weeks ago and looked across the congregation.  Three people I knew who had lost adult children were there.  I have sat in groups in which there were parents who had lost children.  I have been in the intensive care unit when children have died with the parents holding their hands, and I have stood by a father who watched his child die in his arms in an emergency room.  Yet, I do not know, nor can I imagine what it must be like to lose a child.  I pray that I don’t find out.

The Old Testament book of Isaiah says, speaking, we believe, of Jesus himself, that “surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” (Isaiah 53:4 KJV)

You serve a God who knows about grief.  He did not want to watch the suffering of His son any more than you want to watch the suffering of your child, spouse, parent, or anyone who has been someone you have loved and cherished.