storiesofvalue

The third category of material blessings might seem ill-advised, since we know all of our possessions will ultimately come to nothing.  However, God has placed us in a material world and given us the ability to fashion our resources in ways that meet our personal wants and needs.

Material blessings can be a stumbling block if they turn our hearts to greed, but they can be a source of great joy if we keep them in perspective.

When I was a young boy our family survived on a thin financial margin.  We weren’t poor, but every purchase we made mattered, and there was no room for waste.  One day after school I stopped by a friend’s house where his sisters were having a good-natured squabble over some silly subject.  Suddenly the dispute escalated and one of the sisters grabbed a piece of lined school paper from a freshly opened pack.  She wadded it up and threw it at the other sister.  For the next few moments both sisters went through the entire stack of paper, littering the room with their make-shift projectiles.  I was sick over the crime against frugality I had just witnessed.

This experience revealed to me, perhaps for the first time, how varied we are in the value we place on material blessings.  What some people take for granted, others embrace with great enthusiasm.  Appreciation is truly a matter of perspective.  For example, the modern phenomenon of short-term mission trips has helped a new generation of Americans grasp the nature of our affluence.  It is hard to complain about a five-minute wait in line at a grocery store after returning from a third-world country where children dig through trash piles for food.

There are a number of ways we can increase our gratitude for material blessings, but perhaps the best way is to share them with others.  The more we give, the less we find we need, and the more fortunate we feel.  Perhaps this is why Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38)

We should also feel blessed by God’s timing.  I realize it is God’s timing that most often trips us up on our journey, since it is easier to accept a plan if it unfolds as expected.  But in our better moments, we know trust involves God’s “when” as well as His “what.”

Recently I had a great conversation with a dear Christian sister who had suddenly lost her husband of fifty-nine years.  She shared an experience from a trip to a research hospital that went badly.  Due to a scheduling conflict, her husband, who had already been prepped for surgery, was told his surgery was cancelled.  The news was unwelcome, but this faithful couple made the long trip home, trusting God for the outcome.  Soon after returning they received a phone call from a doctor they had met on an earlier visit who apologized for their experience.  He scheduled the husband for surgery immediately.  When they arrived at the hospital the doctor apologized again and the wife said, “We asked God to send us to the best hospital and give us the best doctor, and we are convinced that is what He did.  There is no reason to apologize.” That’s faith in God’s timing!

Obviously, God doesn’t always choose to intervene in the bad choices humans make, and sometimes poor timing leads to costly outcomes.  However, good timing leads to positive outcomes, and if we are going to cry out to God when the timing is wrong, we must remember to praise Him when it is right.  It is difficult for us to know when His providence has moved, but when our schedule is interrupted by unforeseen events and things turn out for the best, we should consider the fact our circumstances are no accident.  Timing is everything, and God’s timing is a blessed thing.

Who are the people who have been a blessing in your life?  Are they family members, co-workers or childhood friends?  Have you found the strong sense of community God designed into His church?  This one thing I know: I could not succeed without other people.

Have you ever had an “Aha!” moment?  I have too, when I suddenly put two and two together and grasp an obvious principle or truth.  But I have also had “Oh no!” moments.  “Oh no!” moments are those sudden realizations of seasons in my life when I was seriously immature and others patiently endured my flaws.  I am not suggesting I don’t still have flaws, but when I look back on my life and ministry I am so thankful others encouraged me and helped me grow when I was younger.  I could have been surrounded by “know-it-alls” who drove me to defeat.  But instead, I had cheerleaders who were determined to make me successful by all means.

God has also brought people into my life when my spirit was broken and I thought I had nowhere to turn.  He has blessed me with an amazing wife, children, extended family and loving in-laws.  People have taught me, coached me and supported me.  I have been forgiven, uplifted and prayed over.  Not everyone God has used to bless me has been a believer, but most of my life I have journeyed with other brothers and sisters in Christ.  The bond we have created through good and bad has sustained me and enriched my life beyond measure.  I understand the heart of the Apostle Paul who wrote, “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (Ephesians 1:16).

Just recently a young boy in the congregation I serve had surgery for a burst appendix.  Although his ordeal was painful and frightening, it was also cause for great thanksgiving.  His loving parents recognized his symptoms and rushed him to the emergency room where doctors had him transferred to one of the finest children’s hospitals in the country.  Once there, surgeons made some skilled assessments and rolled the boy into surgery.  When I arrived at the hospital, he was alert and surrounded by family and nurses.

If we were to rank the blessings in this situation, which ones would we place at the top of the list?  Certainly, the loving parents who cared for their son would be prime candidates.  So would the technology that made the surgery possible, since all of the love in the world wouldn’t have mattered if medical care had been inaccessible.

In reality, it is dangerous to rank our blessings, since we can’t possibly see things from God’s perspective.  For example, how can we know the back-story of the doctor who treated the boy I have mentioned?  What great work did the providential hand of God perform in his life that brought him to the place he needed to be at the time two worried parents needed him?

Yet, as noted, if we aren’t capable of listing every blessing, we must make some sort of determination.  Permit me to suggest three categories for your consideration: people, timing and things.

I place people first because God moves in the hearts and minds of those He sends into our lives.  God commissions supernatural angels to care for our needs, but He also uses human angels or messengers to carry out His mission.  We can all think of people who have influenced us and helped us through difficult times.  There are others who may not have connected with us on an emotional level, but performed a kind or courageous act that changed our lives.  Where would we be without people?

Count Your Blessings

As a kid, one of my favorite church hymns was “Count Your Blessings.”  We only sang hymns in worship, and this one had some pep along with a catchy phrase, “Name them one by one.”  Since that time there have been a lot of great songs of praise written to bless worshippers around the world.  I love them all!  But perhaps because I learned “Count Your Blessings” as a child, it has a simplicity that still speaks to me.  How do I count my blessings?  It’s easy.  I name them “one by one.”

Even today, when people see someone going through a horrible trial they might say, “That ought to make you count your blessings.”  I have been unable to find a Bible passage that tells us to count our blessings, although the Apostle Paul tells us to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  The Psalmist writes, “I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds” (Psalm 77:12).  So it is clear we should take time to think about how God has blessed us and be thankful.

But counting our blessing “one by one”, as a concept, continues to intrigue me.  I have practiced by writing down a number of blessings in my life for devotional purposes, and shared some blessings publicly in prayer circles.  Yet, “one-by-one” suggests something perpetual; inconceivable really.  How could we possibly list all of our blessings, since the moment we write one down, ten more have taken their place?  I checked.  In the time it takes me to type the caption, “My Blessings”, my pulse beats three times.  By the time I have finished typing “every beat of my heart” it has pulsed seven more.

The lesson here is that we not only cannot out-give God, but we can’t out-count Him either.  We have forgotten and overlooked more of His blessings than we will ever count.  The best we can hope for is to take note of our greatest blessings.  But how do we determine these?

From yesterday – If there is any truth to this perception, then the key to increasing our praise for God is to become more invested in life’s simple blessings, and show care not to take them for granted.  “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” (Psalms 150:6) 

This is where the subject of spiritual discipline comes to play in our prayer life.  No, we don’t want a cold, formalistic approach to prayer that robs us of our spontaneity.  It also doesn’t make sense to turn our praise into a guilt trip.  Rather, we need some means of scheduling times of reflection into our lives for the purpose of increasing our appreciation for God and His mighty works.

The Psalms are a good example of such reflection.  They were written in various contexts, but at heart they were the result of personal meditation.  This is obvious in David’s declaration, “When I consider your heavens,the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4)  While we may not consider this to be an overt expression of praise, it does show David was one who intentionally considered God’s person and providence.

In our culture, we have so many distractions and so few margins it is hard to build this process into our lives.  We are more likely to pray for God’s deliverance or strength in the moment than take time to contemplate His handiwork.  Certainly,  some seasons of our lives are more conducive to such delving than others, but delve we must lest we miss some of God’s greatest blessings.

Perspective and Celebration

We are emotional people, and at the risk of commenting on a science in which I have no formal training, I think our celebratory behavior might have a physiological angle.  It seems to me both our tears and our cheers are tied to our personal investments.  This is why our hearts break when people we love make major mistakes in their lives.  It is also why we find parents crowding a stage when their children perform.

This may explain why we are more likely to pray for a need than praise God for His blessings.  I am not suggesting we never praise Him, but am merely echoing the common observation that the two are out of balance.  When good things happen to us in the normal course of life, we may not think to praise God because we lack emotional investment.  It is true, if the sun comes up on a cloudy morning, creating a painted sky, we are moved to thank God.   But if the sun merely comes up, it might not occur to us to say anything.  On the other hand, if winter snow is falling and our children are huddled around the television to see if school is canceled, they are guaranteed to scream with delight when they see the name of their school scroll across the screen.

If there is any truth to this perception, then the key to increasing our praise for God is to become more invested in life’s simple blessings, and show care not to take them for granted.  “Let everything that has breathe praise the Lord!” (Psalms 150:6)

Prayers of celebration, in the form of praise, abound in scripture.  God is praised for His mercy, goodness and creative genius.  The Psalmist David wrote, “One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works,and I will proclaim your great deeds.  They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate; slow to anger and rich in love.  The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.  All you have made will praise you, O Lord; your saints will extol you.  They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.” (Psalm 145:4-12)

It is difficult to separate celebratory praise from prayer.  Surely it is possible to praise God as a proclamation to others, but much of our praise is raised as prayer in the act of celebration. In others words, praise is the language of thanksgiving to God.

Praise is also celebratory in nature as well as in content.  Have we not shouted “Thank you God!” when a police officer let us off with a warning, or a favorable lab report arrived in the mail?  Are not collective “Hallelujahs!” heard on high school and college campuses when passing grades are posted (and yes, there is “wailing and gnashing of teeth” too). We whisper our confessions, but shout our acclamations.

Could it be the reason our prayers of praise appear so spontaneously is because they come in a moment of welcomed relief?  The prayer of praise at having received a police warning follows our prayers for mercy as the officer slowly approaches our car window.  The lab report is the culmination of days of waiting and the collective prayers of friends and relatives who have waited in agony for an answer.  And the passing grades come after months of study and all-night dorm room vigils.  Praise is the language of thanksgiving, but it also the outpouring of emotional release from our worst fears.

When it’s Time to Celebrate

At this moment I have just returned from a retirement celebration.  The honoree asked me to pray because she wanted to give praise to God, even as her co-workers praised her for her years of faithful service.  Gratitude has a way of stirring humility in our hearts and wise people know nothing good happens without God’s involvement.

Recently, NBA star Kevin Durant was awarded the league MVP, an award highly prized by professional basketball players.  In his acceptance speech he took time to personally thank everyone who had contributed to his success as a person and a player.  Kevin began his comments by thanking God, which may not sound all that unusual.  But he closed his speech by returning to his belief he had been blessed by God.  He said he wanted to open and close his thoughts by giving honor to the “Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End”, and to thank Him for saving him.  Kevin Durant has learned how to celebrate.

Normally, our prayers of celebration take less time than the ones we offer in times of distress, or in the process of working through a critical decision.  Our fears seem more relevant than our blessings.

The phrase, “We pray to God when we need Him, but forget to thank Him when things go well” has certainly become a cliché.  On the other hand, this is the place to start and conclude in our relationship with God.  We thank God for the things He has, is and will do in our lives.  As Kevin Durant said, He is the “Beginning and End”, not only of human history, but our personal story as it weaves through His eternal plan.  “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18), for everything (Ephesians 5:20).

Therefore, we will approach prayer as our needs appear on the surface and seek to resolve our questions with Biblical truth.  We will consider our prayers “here” and “here”.   At times we will risk praying during circumstances that test our faith.  Other times we will push ourselves to pray so we don’t become absorbed by the world.

Where do you find it most difficult to pray?  As you seek to answer this question, be encouraged.  God isn’t sitting in heaven stewing over the fact you can’t get it right.  Instead, I think He is pleased that you care.  Give it time.  Make an effort, but don’t rush.  No relationship worth having was  formed overnight.