A Heart of Thanksgiving

Lately I’ve been thinking about how I have a tendency to always be looking for the next big thing in life and how I’m always trying to answer the question of “what’s next?”

As humans we tend to always be craving more. Maybe it is looking forward to a vacation, a raise, getting engaged, or some other life event. Even on the race, having the adventure I so desired for so long, there were times when I caught my thoughts wandering to what life would be like after I returned to America.

Now I’ve been home for almost four months and I am beginning this new season with Center for Global Action. I’m looking back over the past few months and realizing I viewed them as an in-between season, waiting for the next “what’s next”. But I’m also realizing that it was a sweet season spent with family and friends and resting with no huge requirements or expectations on me.

I’m realizing that when I am so forward focused, looking for the next big adventure that I forget to be thankful in the moment, for the little things happening all around me.

Last week as I was hiking through the mountains of South Carolina I found myself trying to get a glimpse of the trail ahead, trying to figure out how long I would have to walk uphill before the path would level out and I could catch my breath. And in one of those moments I heard God say, “Does knowing what is up ahead prepare you any more for it? Does knowing you are about to walk uphill for fifteen minutes make you more able to do that?” When I am focused on the path ahead, I am missing the beauty of the part of the path I am on now. I miss the pretty flowers or the view of the river down below. And in the end I still end up huffing and puffing up the mountain the same as whether I knew it was about to happen or not.

As humans I think it is in our nature to crave more, to be seeking more. We were created for a relationship and intimacy with God that nothing else can satisfy and we crave the day when that relationship is full and restored in heaven.

I love how C.S. Lewis put it, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

When we look for the things of this world to satisfy us we miss what we are created for. And when we spend our time longing for the what’s next in life we miss the blessings and love the Lord desires to lavish on us in the here and now.

So in this next season I want to strive to live with a heart of thanksgiving. When we live with thankful hearts it awakens us to the beauty of the season we are in and to experience the love the Father lavishes on us, the love we were created to experience.

For this season we were challenged to make goals for ourselves. One of my goals is to actively be more thankful by thinking of five things I am thankful for each day and keeping track of those things through out my semester.

I would love to have you join me in this, to seek awareness of the goodness and love of the Lord with me in this season. I’ll be sharing some of the things I am thankful for periodically through my blog, Facebook, or Instagram, and I would love to see the things you are thankful for whether it is a comment, post, or picture!