Gratitude isn’t a feeling. It’s the daily discipline of choosing to see the good over the bad and to see God in all of your circumstances, even the bad ones.

Gratitude isn’t a one and done deal. You have to choose it and seek after it and crave it every single day, or you will default to attitudes of entitlement and/or bitterness and/or apathy.

You can choose to be grateful and thankful even when you don’t feel grateful or thankful. And yes, there’s still always something to be thankful for, even if it’s the breath in your lungs and the beat of your heart.

The command is to give thanks every day in every circumstance– not give thanks for everything but in everything. That is God’s will for you.

Seriously, though. I think I prefer Peppermint Mocha to Pumpkin Spice.

I’m also a fan of the cheg-nogg (chai tea + egg nogg = excellence).

I even have some pepperminty essential oil that I inhale from time to time.

The best part of the year is almost here.

“The greatest blessing God can give us is to put us in a position where we must trust him. This is our only path to joy. He will do whatever is necessary to disrupt our self-sufficiency and illusion of control” (Jim Dennison).

That’s a hard truth.

Here’s another. God wants us to be holy more than He wants us to be happy.

That means that God will allow circumstances and events that might cause temporary unhappiness but will lead to eternal holiness. The eternal always outweighs the temporary.

The one I’m still learning is that God will absolutely give us more than we can handle but not more than He can handle. It’s about destroying that myth of self-sufficiency and the illusion of control.

The Bible says God won’t allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to bear it, but He will put us in situations that go beyond our ability, i.e. what we can do in our own strength, so that we can fall on the grace of God and find out how perfect His strength is in the midst of our weakness.

I don’t want hard lessons. I want ease and comfort. But that’s not where I learn to trust God and hear His voice. That’s not where I sense the nearness of His presence. As Elijah only heard God’s voice after the whirlwind and the raging fire, so God often will speak to us in the midst of difficulties rather than tranquility.

God, help us to walk faithfully where you’ve planted us. Be strong when we are too weak to bear our load. Be near.

Sometimes, that’s what you need– to come to the end of your proverbial rope. Sometimes, you need to reach the limit of your self-sufficiency and your own way of doing things and realize your ever-present need for God.

There is great freedom in saying, “I can’t but You can.”

There is power in confessing your weakness, resting in God’s promise that when we are weakest is when His strength is perfected in us.

For those times when you don’t see how you can manage one more minute, you find that you are able, not through any effort or ability of your own. You find God is able to sustain and carry you.

May this be the day we boast in our weakness and run to God as a little children run to their parents with their need and trust.

May this be the day of our Declaration of Dependence.

It seems to me that when you hold unpopular beliefs, you have two choices: you can either sell out your beliefs and compromise your convictions or you can stand firm in your faith.

If you sell out, what you end up with will be a vague spirituality that offers no hope to anyone and strips the gospel message of its power to save.

If you hold firm, you may feel like you’re standing alone sometimes, but ultimately, the truth will prevail.

For me, I know that it’s not my great faith in God that sustains me but faith in a great God. It’s not me holding on to Jesus but Jesus holding on to me that will enable me to persevere to the end.

These days, it is costing more and more to follow Jesus. We’re getting closer and closer to the day when it very well may cost you your life to proclaim that Jesus and not the almighty state is Lord.

I’m praying that you and I can hold on to what we know from God’s word to be true. I’m praying for the prodigals that they will return to the only faith that can really and truly save.

God, help us all.

“Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, 
ready to rescue you. 
If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there; 
if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath. 
Disciples so often get into trouble; 
still, God is there every time. 
He’s your bodyguard, shielding every bone; 
not even a finger gets broken. 
The wicked commit slow suicide; 
they waste their lives hating the good. 
God pays for each slave’s freedom; 
no one who runs to him loses out” (Psalm 34:17-22, The Message).

I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

“‘It isn’t Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?’

‘But you shall meet me, dear one,’ said Aslan.

‘Are—are you there too, Sir?’ said Edmund.

‘I am,’ said Aslan. ‘But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there'” (C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader).

It was a coffee kind of day. But then again, that’s every day. There is not day in my universe where there is not coffee.

Lately, I’ve started drinking cold brew coffee. Target has a brand that I really like (but also really can’t remember the name) that keeps me going when I need the caffeine but lack the will to make actual coffee.

I’m not picky about hot versus cold coffee. Well, I take that back. I’m not a fan of cold coffee that used to be hot. Coffee that has been sitting out until it’s transformed into lukewarm goo is disgusting.

What I mean is that I like hot coffee and iced coffee. Yeah, that’s it. Also, I like cold brew coffee.

Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee.

Lately, my mind has taken me back to people and places I knew that are no more. I think about my grandparents’ houses on Dee Road and Alcy Road where I spent so much of my childhood.

Part of me would give anything to be able to go back– even if only for a moment– and relive those memories, take in the scents, and see the faces.

Part of me is thankful that I have these memories to cherish and that these people and places were part of shaping me into who I am and who I am becoming.

Truly, I’m grateful it happened. And yes, it all was grace.

Rich Mullins would have turned 64 today. I can truthfully say he and his music had a huge impact on my life and my faith. The Christian music industry lost a true artist and a beautiful soul when he passed away over 22 years ago.

Here’s something he wrong that is a worthy read:

1. Forget about finding happiness. Happiness is not worthy of your search.

2. Bake a cake – a really rich cake, preferably from scratch and especially if you are an inexperienced baker or a tested, tried, & notoriously awful cook. The value is in the baking more than in the cake.

3. Call up some enemy of yours and invite that enemy to eat the cake with you. If the cake is good you may lose an enemy and gain a friend. If the cake is bad, at least vengeance is sweet.

4. If you can’t think of a single enemy, then call up a friend. Invite your friend over to eat the cake with you. If the cake is good the favor may be returned. If the cake is awful your friend may go buy one from a bakery for you. If you are without any enemies or friends, take your cake to an old folks’ home. Eat it with them! If the cake is good you will no longer be without friends. If the cake is terrible you will no longer be without enemies.

Finding a friend, making an enemy – now those are things worth pursuing. Happiness may come tagged on – but even if it doesn’t, at least you will have done something and established some relationships.

5. Memorize Isaiah 40 or the first Psalm or Psalm 91. Read the closing chapters of the Book of Job. Meditate on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). Write out one of the Prison Epistles (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Collosians) and send them to some other unhappy person.

All of this may not make you happy but it will tell you how to be holy. Once you tie that knot you may find yourself in a position to be made happy.

6. Work hard. Clean something. Find new and more space-efficient ways of folding your clothes. Rake someone else’s yard for them. If you are unhappy maybe you can help someone else be less so.

7. Go back to the third chapter of Lamentations and then repeat after me:
“It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear
The yoke while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence
For the Lord has laid it on him.”

8. Reread the 23rd Psalm and remember that if the Lord is your shepherd, then you are in a lush pasture. You are by a still stream. If it seems otherwise to you, it may be because you would rather be happy than be God’s. If this is so, then you have more reason to be happy than anyone. God has chosen you – ungrateful, decadent you – and being His is a joy and a happiness that goes beyond anything else you may seek, and in your folly settle for. God will (in His mercy) make you discontent with anything less than Him.
So we have only one step left…

9. Rejoice.