THANKSGIVING

I have been thinking about what I am thankful for this year. I have come to realize that I am not thankful only for God's love and the sacrifice of Jesus, but I am thankful for the life this compels me to live.

In the Old Testament we see examples of the writers of the Psalms being thankful for the law. Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path". But wasn't the law restricting and hard to follow? Wasn't it a bunch of difficult rules that were improbable to keep? That is not how the Israelites viewed the law. They saw it as a way to please God. They were glad to know they could be pleasing to God and glad to have the means to do it.

As for me, I am thankful for the life Jesus has called me to live. It is difficult sometimes. It is mentally draining occasionally as I have to try and remove myself from the American mind set I have placed on myself and view the world through a Christian lens. But it gives me purpose, I am not left to wander aimlessly through life, or work for self-gratification that leads to an empty life. It gives me energy and adds substance to my life. It gives me a hunger to help people that is never completely filled. I am thankful for the blood he shared, but I am also thankful for the life he calls us to live. I am thankful for the Christian life as the Israelites were thankful for the law. The Israelites were given a way to glorify God, a meaning to life. The Christian life does the same for me. I am not restricted by living a Christian life, I am freed. For that, I am thankful.

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
--2 Corinthians 5:14-15