CHOOSING GRATEFULNESS
I don’t know about you, but I have been on a roller coaster of emotions over the last week. My analytical brain would like to make sense of everything that is happening across the globe, and it just hasn’t been able. I find myself trying to sort out my emotions and have found they are complicated web compromising of hope, fear, thankfulness, loss of control and love all intertwined. Most of us haven’t experienced anything like this. The closest thing that I can relate to is September 11th. I began to reflect on how my life is different now than it was then.
On September 11, 2001, I was working in a high rise building in downtown Indianapolis and was auditing the benefit plans of one of my clients. I remember hearing the news of the planes hitting the towers and standing in the cubicle in disbelief. The disbelief was still there but soon came fear. Fear knowing that I was in a skyscraper. I hustled myself home to my little house in Oaklandon. There, I turned on the news. The news was overwhelming. It was incredibly sad. I was alone in a nation full of uncertainty. I looked at my life having a fuller awareness of my mortality. In a matter of minutes, life could change. I needed to do something about it. God placed on my heart to go to church. I had never been regularly. I wasn’t a believer and didn’t really know what it was all about, but that is what I did. Fast forward a year and I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and was baptized. Fast forward another year, I met my husband in a Common Ground small group (aka growth group for those of you that know what I am talking about).
As I have been trying to make sense of the last week, I have been thinking about how my life is much different now than almost 19 years ago. While we are facing a crisis in our nation, I am thankful for so many things that I have now that I didn’t on September 11. Here are some of them:
my family
My extended family. It kind of grew exponentially. I have gained 4 brothers and sisters and 14 nieces and nephews.
My house church
Our CGNE community
Most importantly, I am thankful for my relationship with Jesus Christ and for the hope that I have today that was missing 19 years ago. I am praying that Christians around our nation and globe can be the hands and feet and shine the light of Jesus in their words and actions over the next 2 months. I am praying for the other “Jody’s” out there who are in similar circumstances as I was on September 11, 2001. I am praying that they would get a nudge and a longing for something more. For something that the world itself can’t provide - a longing for Jesus.
As I close, I ask for you to think about:
what you are thankful for?
Is there someone in your life that doesn’t know Jesus and could benefit from hearing His story of freedom, redemption and Good News?
Pastor Jody, Children’s Pastor