one thing remains

This past weekend at church the pastor spoke about gratitude. How it can dispel entitlement. How it fights discontentment. How it gives joy. How it brings emotional healing. He challenged us all to keep a list of the things we're thankful for, defining envy as "resenting God's goodness in someone else's life while ignoring His goodness in our own lives."

I admit that my first response was cynicism about "grateful lists," which melted into sadness (since cynicism is often a product of some unhealed pain in our lives), which then became a plea that God would show me His goodness in my life over this past year.

Sometimes, at my barrenest, I can only be thankful for the love Jesus displayed on the cross. Because when I don't feel the love of God, I remind myself that Jesus didn't brutally die and rise again just to abandon me 2,000 years later.

Sometimes I can only be thankful that God loves me every day. That He sings over me when I do not feel like singing (Zephaniah 3:17), that He is close to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18), that He wants me to come take walks with Him and sit by the window with Him and just talk to Him (Psalm 27:8).

I don't think this is a bad place to be. I also don't think God wants us to walk around blind to and ungrateful for the brilliant colors of the changing leaves. But I think He knows that those leaves will die and fall off and blow away in the wind, and that it is when our roots grow deep into Him and His love that we overflow with thankfulness (Colossians 2:7).

Constant through the trial and the change, one thing remains: Your love never fails. - Bethel Music