Microthanks

 bob-maclafferty  1 Response »
Nov 282019
 

shower thanksIf you share thanks around the table today, and I urge you to do so, what kinds of items will you share? Large themes like freedom, country, or family? What about small things? Being thankful at the micro-level may be a new experience. Let’s try some microthanks!

We moved into a different house this month and one morning I was complaining to my sweetheart about how the shower head in the master bath was so low. I cracked my head on it several times. It’s just right for her, but I could use another foot of height. As soon as I got through griping, I said to my self, “Self! You ungrateful grouch! Aren’t you thankful for anything about this?” Yes, yes I am! I am so thankful for the blessing of a warm shower. That magical blessing of continuous warm water coming down from above me (well, it’s above me when I crouch!), making it easy and refreshing to become clean!

If you haven’t said it, you’ve heard it. Thankful for the roof over your head, yada, yada. But are you really? I remember a time when we spent winter months with little to no heat, bedroom temps dipping into the upper 30’s at night. I’ll tell you that I was very specifically thankful for the roof. We may have been cold, but we were dry. Cuddling under a pile of blankets is a whole new experience when it’s 37 degrees on the outside of the blanket pile!

As I write this, I’m thankful for my office chair! It has too many levers to count, but it is comfortable for keyboarding and leans back nicely for casual reading. What a blessing!

I’m thankful for garden hose washers. You know the flat rubber thing inside the end of the hose you screw onto the faucet? It keeps water from spraying everywhere. I buy them a bunch at a time. I was able to share one with a neighbor a couple of days ago.

I’m thankful for the crisp, brown leaves that cover our lawn. So great to kick and crunch through. And just think, each one is a disposable solar panel and ventilation system that replenishes the soil each year. Talk about intelligent design! Thank you, God!

I’m thankful for sarcastic humor that I get from colleagues and certain family members- you know who you are!

I’m thankful for Pilot G-2 07 pens! Smooth, comfortable writing.

I’m thankful for the feel of a good, well-fitting pair of leather gloves when there is a hard job to perform.

Yeah, I know some of you are thinking I’m being a bit silly about this. But I challenge you to try some microthanks today. Yes, share the big things, but let thanks for specific, little things fill your heart and mind with wonder and a new appreciation that you can experience each and every day.

Thanksgiving Prep- What’s on Your List?

 bob-maclafferty  No Responses »
Nov 272019
 
Thanksgiving PrepEveryone has a list of things that must be bought before Thanksgiving. Most of these involve food. As I write this, the predawn darkness and steady rain  bring peace, quiet, solitude. Two days ago, none of those conditions existed.
My sweetheart and I found ourselves strolling through a local Walmart Monday, three days before Thanksgiving. We had just been in the store the day before, but something was different. The number of shoppers in the store was up, but that wasn’t it. The difference was the urgent, almost frantic pace of most of the shoppers! They zig-zagged up and down the aisles at a feverish pace, making the store look like the inside of a beehive on a hot summer day. 

Walmart had done its own Thanksgiving prep. The most prominent feature on entering the store was a literal mountain of yams! Of course, no stuffing mixes could be found anywhere. We did our own zig-zagging, trying to find this one item among the overpowering displays of Christmas cooking items already competing for attention. Maybe it was because I wasn’t feeling the best. Maybe it was a general attitude problem on my part. Either way, I had an overwhelming urge to just get our stuff and get out of the store!

On this day, Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I hope and pray I don’t need to go back to the store for a missing item! I’m sure the pace will have moved from frantic to frenetic (Yes, there’s a difference- I looked them up!).  Turkey, stuffing, yams, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie filling, Advil, Tums, 40 watt candelabra bulbs, furnace air filter… Hey! Don’t judge! What’s on your list!

On this day, the last day to prepare before Thanksgiving, what am I doing to prepare? Shopping, cooking, housecleaning, finding the extra chairs, installing the table leaf, last-minute leaf raking, toddler-proofing the breakables… the list could go on and on. As I pondered the list and my focus and time, it seemed that most of the prep was centered around the meal and the event we make of it. Suddenly, one glaring omission became apparent. I may be preparing for the meal, the event, but was I preparing to give thanks, which should be the whole point of this day?

Why don’t I spend time clearing my head of stress and my body of frenetic activity and prepare myself to give thanks? And no, I’m not just talking about saying a hurried and cursory grace before the gorging begins. I’m talking about preparing myself to revel in the blessings showered on me every day by my Heavenly Father. I’m talking about considering special family members and friends who bless me in unique ways. I’m talking about key coworkers who brighten our days and call us higher. I challenge you to join me today, on Thanksgiving Prep day, preparing not just for a meal, but for a true outpouring of thanks!

Worship- Is it a lost art?

 bob-maclafferty  No Responses »
Nov 232019
 

worship, singing https://stream.org/misheard-hymns-seriously-silly-catalog/Worship, smership. What is it anyway? I attended worship. I was part of the worship service. I worshiped. Noun, adjective, verb.  Google’s first definition for worship is “the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.” A feeling or expression. Reverence and adoration.

Her lips parted as he strode into the room. The look in her eyes was one of pure adoration…. Not a completely unfamiliar scene in a romance novel or movie, right? But Google’s definition finishes by directing these feelings or expressions to God! 

As a member of a somewhat conservative faith fellowship, my expressions are often muted. I slip into the pew silently, soon bowing my head for a quick prayer of focus on my Father. Often my verbal utterances or expressions are limited to a somber “amen” in support of the pastor and a particularly moving sermon passage. 

Stephen Altrogge, a Pennsylvania pastor, writes about our unwillingness to praise, especially out loud.  We use our conservatism or introversion to justify our controlled and subdued responses. If you’ve done such a thing, as I have on occasion, remember with me that our response to something glorious should supersede our personality traits or preferences. 

Several stories in the New Testament refer to paid mourners, those hired to wail and cry at the funeral of a loved one. This tradition has always disgusted me just a bit. However, when I think of my worshipful utterances, how often am I guilty of relying on others to make them for me? I allow a talented and energetic praise band to sing and play, with my singalong lyrics all but inaudible. In fact, I have observed this phenomena several times, seeing the dominating performance of talented musicians, whether praise bands or pipe organs, make congregants feel as if their melodic contributions are unnecessary at best and contraindicated at worst.

I have also attended services where the singing from the pews, regardless of the music genre, was the dominant source of volume in the sanctuary. And, again, by observing my fellow “worshipers”, I can tell you that the expression of reverence and adoration was far more powerful when we were participants rather than spectators.

I challenge you to re-evaluate how you contribute to the musical part of your next church experience. Unless your voice is so unsuitable for singing that you bring great pain to all around you and window glass shatters, I encourage you to sing, not under your breath, but LOUDLY! BTW, if you are a glass shatterer, please still sing, but maybe at lower decibels. Your outpouring of adoration is still important to your experience and to your Heavenly Father. Let’s sing out loud!

Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. –Isaiah 12:5, NIV.

Also check out Let’s Make a Little Noise!