Thank You Very Much
A note to the reader: Grace and Peace to you from God our Father. I always thank God when I think about you. Seriously. Why you would spend your time reading this in an internet full of funny cat videos, I don’t know. I pray you would have love for all of God’s people. I pray that the faith and love from the hope that God gives leads you to speak the gospel and be the gospel. I know that the gospel is bearing fruit through you and I am humbled that I would be a method for growth, let alone mere time-killing. Because of you great kindness and patience, I have not stopped praying for you. I continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom that the Holy Spirit gives. I pray you would grow in the knowledge of God, being strengthened will of His might so that you would have great endurance in this hard world. God has rescued us from the darkness and brought us in to the kingdom of Jesus, the one He loves. It is through Jesus that we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And for that, we are thankful.

Being thankful is something I don’t do enough. There is that old motto: “If you only had today what you thanked God for yesterday, what would you have?” But I think it is more than that. Not on should be thank God on His sole goodness and blessings—though those are more than enough—but we should thank God because it changes who we are. Have you noticed that thankfulness and humility go hand in hand? If you are thankful for something, then it is not something you earned, but something given to you or something you have borrowed. Being thankful is a precursor to being joyous. Maybe that’s why Paul keeps harping on the churches to be thankful. Maybe that’s why Paul thanks God for the churches he’s writing to, even though they have a laundry list of problems and the resolve of a two year old. Maybe that’s why Jesus thanks His father before he does several of His miracles. I don’t know if that’s why, but I do know that if you are thankful, you are joyful. Likewise, there is always something to be thankful for. As Christians, we have one big one (Jesus’ Sacrifice) and a bajillion other little ones that branch off of that.

But more often than not, I forget how to be thankful and become a prideful shell of a toddler, whining and screaming until I get to eat dessert. Here are a few things I need to be more thankful for:

Money- Am I thankful for my money? It is all borrowed. How could I not be thankful? Do I use my money like it’s meant for something greater than my happiness? Do I use my money as if I am taking care of something that belongs to someone much more powerful and important than I? Do I act like it was all given to me or do I resolve that my ineffective little self actual earned a dime apart from God?

Friends- Am I thankful for my friends? Do I see them as an opportunity to serve them like Jesus or do I assume they are there to make me happy and listen to my boring stories and laugh at my lame jokes? My friends are not because I deserve them. They are not an “apology for my parents” as one internet picture spam suggests. They are a gift from God and an opportunity to do what I was made for: love.

Enemies- Am I thankful for those that point out my flaws? I know I’d like to think I am always right, but my adversaries come along and poke holes in my inflated ego. Am I thankful that I am counted worthy enough to even have enemies? Am I thankful enough to pray for them?

Family- Am I thankful for my family or do I treat them as a given? Do I use the opportunity to serve them or do I expect them to always put up with my childish ways? Do I seek to spread Jesus throughout my family tree? Is there more hope, love, and faith in my family tree because of me?

Possessions- Am I thankful for my material blessings or just blinded by them? Do I use them to advance the kingdom or to distract myself from the cry of the poor? Do I let them show love or do I let them make me miserable? “See these rims; I earned em’ “ False. I have earned nothing, from the car I drive to the plain white v-necks I wear.

Body- Am I thankful for my incredibly healthy body or am I so obsessed with every supposed blemish pointed out by an even more blemished idea of beauty? Do I use my body to run, jump, swim, sing, dance, eat, drink, and sleep for the glory of God or do I do a little too much of one and a little too little of the other? Is my body a temple or a city dump? Am I thankful for all the billions of cell, processes, and motions in my body that I don’t control or am I complaining about the few things that go on in my body that I actually do control?

Community- Do I love my community or do I demand that it change because of my skewed views? Am I thankful that there are people around me with enough resolve to actually strive to create a better Jeremy Eaton or am I so upset that one member in my community doesn’t like the same music I do? Do I view the community as it is and seek to pour more of God’s love into it or do I exaggerate every flaw I can find and look to tear it down?

Time- Do my use my smorgasbord of time in college for something worthwhile or do I waste it all away? I am in a period of my life where time is so abundant. Am I thankful that I have not felt the crippling weight of a life of responsibility and cordiality? Am I using these years of sleeping in, facebooking, internet videoing and stooping for something worthy? Am I investing God’s gift of time wisely? Am I thankful for everyday?

Relationship- Am I thankful that someone would actually choose to get closer to me and all my flaws or am I too insecure to even notice her? Am I allowing God to make me more like Jesus through another person or am I more interested in whether or not she is going to notice my nose hair? Do I seek you give all that I am for her betterment in thanks for what god has established or am I consumed with having a pain free, challenge free time? I can’t be thankful enough in this area. I can’t be thankful enough in any of these areas.\

The Cross-  I can’t even begin to discuss how unthankful I am and how thankful I should be.

Bottom Line… I could be more thankful, and as a result, more joyful and all around pleasant to be around.



God is Supreme
Jesus is the image of the invisible God; for that I am thankful. In Jesus, all things in heaven and here on this increasingly warmer earth, all thing visible and invisible, all things from  thrones to ghettoes have been created through him and for him. It was created for Him. God is for God. Let’s be thankful that he included us in what is rightly and solely His. Jesus is before all things (including us) and He holds all things together. He is the head of the body; He is the head of the church. God forgive us for whenever we try to follow anyone but Him. Jesus is the first to be resurrected and we are soon to follow because of Him. The Father was pleased to have his power dwell in Jesus, His son, and reconcile all things to himself.

We were all once alienated from God and were enemies because of our evil behavior. But the cross has reconciled us to the Father and has presented us holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Don’t let the enemy try and accuse you. You are blameless because Jesus was blamed. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope of the gospel, you will be counted as righteous. For that, I will be eternally thankful. This is the gospel.

Jesus is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously content (and blog) with all the energy I have and with all the power of Christ working through me.