students of jesus

The past two Wednesdays I’ve recommend that rarest of genres, Thanksgiving-themed movies. Today I proudly pay homage to the finest of the bunch.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: John Hughes’ 1987 tale of two misfits trying to get home for Thanksgiving still fits like a pair of bedroom slippers. Steve Martin plays Neil Page, an uptight businessman thrown by outrageous fortune into the care of the eternally traveling salesman, Dell Griffith, played by John Candy. The most unlikely pair of fellow travelers and bunkmates, the two men bond in ways both manly and true. It’s true there’s one scene where Steve Martin drops the F-bomb at least a dozen times in a two-minute span—but I’m not going to lie to you—I even loved that scene. Beyond the comedy is a yearning for home, and we discover something about the bonds of family along the way. The final scene of the film not only welcomes both of them to the banqueting table, but us as well.

The Creator did some pretty good work back in Genesis. His work was so good he took a day off just to admire it all, its goodness and fullness.

It’s difficult to admire—or give thanks for—something when we are so busy with the next thing. Contentment gives us the perspective we need, contentment leads to thanks-giving. Each of us needs to find a thankful perch and look upon what God has done. That’s one reason the first settlers chose the fall: after harvest, before hard winter, and before everything had to be cured, salted or dried out. Their timing is instructive.

There’s a moment when mere fruitfulness turns to ripened sweetness. It’s the savor of the task complete, the taste of a harvest safe in the barn. We give thanks when we breathe in the fragrance, and exhale gratitude.

Ask Yourself: Do I set aside time at the end of a task to enjoy the whole?

Live Into It: Graham Cooke offers some excellent advice: "Wherever you are right now, listen to the sound of Heaven and be at peace. Be at rest, and let God’s peace come. Let His peace come, and let the weariness of your life be washed away."

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

These words come from Isaiah 53:2-3). He’s telling us about Jesus. When Isaiah sings the Suffering Servant songs he paints a picture of someone who has experienced the worst in life: rejection, disappointment, even abuse. This, too, is part of the Bible’s revelation about Jesus.

Jesus’ suffering on the cross is well known, but Isaiah is also pointing to the anguish of heart, the Lord’s heart, the feelings he experienced among his own people. Like John said in the opening of his gospel, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” This, too, is suffering. Soul suffering.

And here is a mystery, one perfect during these 30 Thankful Days: we might have many pictures of Jesus—the majestic Jesus, the suffering Jesus—but rarely would we describe him as “sad.” How is it that the Man of Sorrows, the one acquainted with grief, is the same one who invites us to enter his Master’s joy?

Ask Yourself: Where are my springs of joy and gratitude?

Live Into It: Even through difficult times, we do not see Jesus give in to sadness. Yet we live in a world that avoids sadness the way previous generations avoided disease. If I think happiness is my highest good, I’m in for disappointment. If the love of God is my highest good, I’m in for inexpressible joy.

We should give thanks. It's God's will, and it's really, really good for us:

“The careless soul receives the Father's gifts as if it were a way things had of dropping into his hand yet is he ever complaining, as if someone were accountable for the checks which meet him at every turn. For the good that comes to him, he gives no thanks—who is there to thank? At the disappointments that befall him he grumbles—there must be someone to blame!” ~ George MacDonoald

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” ~ Paul, the Apostle: I Thessalonians 5: 16–18

"Praise be to you, O LORD,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.”
~ David, King of Israel: 1 Chronicles 29: 10 - 13

Each time I head down the gravel lane to my house I’m filled with thanks. Quite literally—each time. In 1995 we moved to Kentucky after five very frustrating years in a big city, and I never thought we’d own a home again. I was content to live in a rented small-town house that fit our needs.

But my wife had a dream. She had a vision of living in our own home on farmland that had been in the family for generations. It’s not an exaggeration to say that her vision and faith took us from a rented house in town and transported us to a legacy home in the country. Now, daily—for the last 15 years—I thank God for his kindness and my wife’s dreams each time I return home. Reality grew from the dream, and the efforts of the woman who dreamed.

This kind of dreaming, the vision of Godly possibilities and the conviction that God is with you, is the stuff of thanksgiving and praise. And yet it is a dangerous truth: the very source of inspiration can become a source of deep disillusionment if these dreams do not come to pass. Our dreams push us forward by helping us imagine a world that differs from the way things are. Such vision is the gift of God. We should be very careful not to throw away God-given hope. Some people (Abraham, for example) held fast his God-given dreams beyond all reasonable measure, and he is forever known as the father of faith.

We reach an age where our dreams become memories: either memories of what has come to pass or memories of the dreams we never pursued. No one ever dreams of becoming insignificant, but sometimes we stop dreaming. Today’s devotion leads us to this: sometimes we give thanks by refusing to discard our God-given dreams.

Ask Yourself: What has God promised?

Live Into It: Take time—all the time you need—to answer the question above. I think you’ll discover he has spoken more than you remember. It’s Saturday. Slow down. Take a little time with Hebrews 10: 32-39 and 2 Peter 1: 3-4.

“Father, I pray that what you have begun, you will provide in me the grace to continue.”