When we got back into the worship center, there was a new atmosphere of seriousness among the students. We sang a couple more songs and then I got up to preach.
Five minutes into the message, the entire worship center went black. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The generators had failed and every emergency light was out. We couldn’t see anything! Immediately, the students started murmuring, but I clearly sensed that God wasn’t finished with us yet.
Since the microphone died with the lights, I whistled for attention and then yelled into the darkness, “There is no way in the world that we’re going to let an electrical problem get in the way of what God wants to do in our lives here tonight!” The students cheered and then got very quiet; somebody put a flashlight in my hand, and for the next forty-five minutes I preached my heart out, even though I could barely see my notes and not a single face massive auditorium.
When I was done, I closed in prayer, and then the students began to sing spontaneously. First quietly, but then incredibly, they chorused the great hymns of the faith at the top of their lungs for well over an hour. No instruments, no song leader, no lights, no words—just powerful, heartfelt expressions of praise and thanksgiving to God. It was one of the most moving things I have ever experienced in my life.
We later learned that the tornado came right over the school. Cars were damaged; tree limbs and debris were everywhere. Just ten minutes later, the tornado touched down in another spot. Several people were killed and many more evacuated as houses, large retail outlets, and at least two churches were demolished. More than forty people had to be airlifted to emergency rooms all over that part of Ohio.
Meanwhile, God had the full and undivided attention of that campus as we recognized in a fresh, new way how we take the simple things of life for granted, but God sends a little wind, and, apart from His grace, we can all be gone in a moment. Talk about an immediate reduction in complaining and a marvelous amplification of genuine thankfulness!
We really have so much to be thankful for. Did the sun come up again this morning? Do you have another day to live for the glory of God? Then there is plenty to focus on for thanksgiving. You say, “Yeah, but there’s plenty to focus on and complain about, too.” My point exactly. We have a decision to make.
POINT TWO: THANKFULNESS IS A DECISION BASED IN REALITY
That’s a second lesson from that verse in Psalm 107. I’m not suggesting some mind-over-matter, power-of-positive-thinking nonsense here. I’m asking you to use your mind and ask, “Do I really have a lot to be thankful for?” The answer clearly is “Yes!”
The classic book (written in 1719) by Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, described a man who was shipwrecked. He spent twenty-seven years on a tropical island. His story illustrates perfectly that thankfulness is a decision based in reality. We find our hero, cast on this island all by himself. Here is his journal entry:
I now began to consider seriously my condition and the circumstance I was reduced to. I drew up the state of my affairs in writing to deliver my thoughts from daily poring upon them and afflicting my mind. As my reasoning began now to master my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could and to set the good against the evil that I might have something to distinguish my case from one that is much worse. So I stated it very impartially, like a debitor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed and the miseries I suffered. 6
We’ll call the list that he wrote, “The Complaining List and the Thankful List.” 7 Notice the deliberate choices of thankfulness based in the reality he was facing.
Robinson Crusoe’s Complaining and Thankful List
Complaint
“I am cast upon a horrible desert island void of all hope of recovery.”
Thanks
“That I am alive and not drowned as all of my ship’s company was.”
Complaint
“I am singled out and separate as it were from all from all the world to be miserable.”
“I have not clothes to cover me.”
“I am without any defense or means to resist any violence of man or beast.”
“I have no soul to speak to or relieve me.”
Thanks
“But I am singled out, too, of the ship’s crew to be spared from death. God, who miraculously saved me from death, can deliver me from this condition also.”
“But I am in a hot climate where, if I had clothes, I could not wear them.”
“But I am cast on an island where I see no wild beasts to hurt me as I saw on the coast of Africa. What if I had been shipwrecked there?”
“But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the shore that I have gotten out so many necessary things as will either supply my wants or enable me to supply myself even as long as I live.”
That is so powerful! Will you catch hold of this truth for yourself? We are asking God to change our attitude before we find ourselves card-carrying members of the wilderness club. We are also learning from His Word that our attitudes are decisions we make about how we are going to think. And that those decisions are based in reality. It’s not Disney World thinking to choose to focus on the good things in our lives. It’s wisdom!
Point Three: Thankfulness is a Life-Changing Decision
Here’s a final thought from Psalm 107: Thankfulness is a life-changing decision. My favorite word in verse 8 is the first one, “Oh.” It’s the best part of the verse. “Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord . . . for His wonderful works to the children of men!” That word oh tells us that something radical and life changing is coming. The psalmist is not being overly dramatic; he’s fired up because he’s recognizing that we are very close to getting hold of something powerful. And so he spontaneously says, “Oh, Oh, Ooooohhhh!! that you would get this! Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord!” There is passion here because the message is important.
The message is important because to get it wrong is to fly low and miss the joy of altitude living. To put it simply:
Gratitude is the attitude that sets the altitude for living!
Unfortunately, there is a kind of low-altitude life that too many people live. It’s a particular approach that grovels and slums and tries to get by under the radar of hope. It’s a down-and-dirty, cloudy, damp, depressing, ungrateful, unthankful, complaining, negative, ugh! sort of living. We’ve all spent some days there. It’s definitely a wilderness!
But there is another kind of living. It’s a high-altitude attitude—up where the air is clean and the sun is shining and the future is as bright as the promises of God. This life soars above and refuses to focus on the nega tive. If you have ever flown up there, then you know that’ s where we want to live our lives.
How High Are You Flying?
You say, “I want to live up there; I hate living down in the depressing low-lands of this world.” So do I, and I say again that it’s gratitude that sets the altitude for the kind of living you’re looking for.
I’m still learning that. After the dramatic week of ministry at Cedarville College, I boarded a plane to return home in a hurry. With a Sunday message on my mind, I couldn’t wait to find my seat and settle in for some focused message prep. Unfortunately, I was wearing my new Cedarville College shirt, and the woman next to me began talking about her own daughter in college. “Beautiful!” I told myself as she began, not comprehending the blessing that God had in store for my complaining heart.
Once we covered the typical “get to know you” stuff, the conversation turned in a much more serious direction. She told me about the tragedy in her wonderful marriage. About three years before, her husband had noticed a little lump on the back of his neck. He went to the doctor and found out that it was a malignant melanoma. In six weeks, he was gone. One day, they were having conversations like, “Should we go to Disney World this summer?” and six weeks later she and her five children were alone.
“For six months, I did really good,” she said. ȁPeople in the church loved us and cared for us. I was tr
usting in the goodness of God. But then,” she added, “I remember very specifically making some choices. I began to complain and allow my thoughts to drift in a wrong direction. Before too long, I was very vulnerable.”
She started to cry at this point and said, “A man came into my life who I had known before I knew the Lord. He began to say things to me.” Through her tears she continued, “I just got so far off the track. I got so far away from God, and hurt my family and the Lord.”
I waited for a moment and then asked, “What was it that turned your life around?”
She said, “I just woke up one day and I thought to myself, ‘How did I get here? How did I get over to this place? This isn’t what . . . I don’t want to be here.’” She stopped and thought for a moment. “It was really just a decision. I came back to the Lord.”
She smiled and said, “I was like the prodigal.”
“God received you, didn’t He?” I said.
“He did,” she answered.
“He embraced you and forgave you, didn’t He?” I said.
Her face filled up with joy and she said, “He did! ” She added, “God has blessed me so much now. My thoughts are so centered on the goodness of God and all that I have to be thankful for.”
Are you seeing the power of thankfulness?
She went on, “The Lord has brought another man into my life. When I was younger, I used to always watch that program on television, Eight Is Enough. I have five children and I always wanted eight. The Lord has brought a man into my life whose wife passed away, and he loves the Lord. He has three children.”
Amen! What a story!
But listen. The power of thankfulness is not just for her, but for you and me! With my complaining heart, I almost missed the lesson God had for me on that flight. He had to confine me to an airplane seat so I would listen to that lady’s great testimony. Let’s listen, and hear His words to be thankful in all things.
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
I have learned over time that a commitment to teach the transforming truth of God’s Word brings with it many opportunities to apply it in my own life. As I conclude this chapter, I am sitting in a tiny room and looking out my window at the mountains of Ecuador. My wife, Kathy, and I are here to minister to about thirty missionaries who serve the Lord in various parts of this poverty-stricken area. I agreed to this opportunity more than four years ago when my life was very different, and now I am feeling the pressure to complain. Of course, I am willing to go wherever the Lord wants me, but I can only speak away from my church so many times per year. For that reason, I wouldn’t normally drive across town to address a group so small, let alone make a twelve-hour trip by plane, stay overnight in Quito, and then make a six-plus-hour, two-hundred-mile trip along a single-lane gravel road with a five-hundred-foot drop-off.
To make matters worse, it is blistering hot, and I found out when I got here that in addition to speaking twice per day and the counseling that will go with that, both my wife and I are on one of the work crews and must take our turns cleaning the toilets and scrubbing the dining hall floor.
OK, James! Time to apply the truth that thankfulness is a choice. Yes it is, and I am making it right now. Thankfulness is a choice rooted in reality. In spite of all that I see worthy of complaint, there is far more that I can choose to focus on that is worthy of thankfulness. And so I prayed: “Thank You, Lord, for the privilege of speaking Your Word. Thank You for these phenomenally committed servants who serve You in such a dark place. Thanks that we are not called here, thugh I know if we were, You would give the necessary strength. Thanks that we have three wonderful children and a loving church who allows us time away to minister to others. . . .” Oh, it is good to give thanks! My altitude is soaring at this very moment!
LET’S TALK SOLUTION
Now it’s your turn to look inside—to see if the attitude of gratitude resides in you. That is where the solution comes, through a change in heart. Here are three questions to ask, each with an action step, to help you develop a thankful attitude:
1. Am I a thankful person? Ask yourself that question. Let’s go to the school of thankfulness for a moment and learn from the graduate student Matthew Henry, the famous Bible scholar. More than 250 years ago, he wrote these words in his diary after he was robbed of all the money he had in the world. “Let me be thankful first, because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, let me be thankful that although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.” No doubt about it; thankfulness is a choice. Answer the question for yourself: “Am I a thankful person?”
2. Am I seeing the blessings of thankfulness in my life? “Do I know the joy that comes with gratitude? Or is my life like a wilderness? What percentage of my thought life is focused on good, positive, praiseworthy things? How often do I go out of my way to recognize with gratitude a person that God has used to bless me [a parent, neighbor, friend, or a small group leader]?” When thankfulness is part of the discipline of our lives, we will see increased joy and happiness.
3. Am I choosing thankfulness over complaining moment by moment?
Gratitude is one moment at a time. It’s like freeze-frame! Ask yourself, “Am I choosing thankfulness right now? Am I?” Remember, attitudes are patterns of thinking formed over a long period of time. But those long periods of time accumulate moment by moment and choice by choice. Choose to be thankful, moment by moment.
At the end of this chapter, there appears a small list, “Five Things to Be Thankful For.” Don’t write on that page. Instead, make 122 photocopies of it. I’m not kidding. (With the list shown three times, that will cover 366 days.) Then put the stack by your nightstand, and try filling one out every night before you go to bed—big things, little things, good things every day. Lay your head down with gratitude on your mind, and your dreams will soar. Get up in the morning and read what you wrote. You’ll be flying high all day.
This exercise will absolutely change your life. Those sheets are your tickets to a new habit: thankfulness. Guaranteed!
Look Up
Lord, thank You for Your Word. Oh, that I would give thanks to You, Lord, for Your wonderful works in my life. I thank You today for the gift of life. I thank You for air to breathe. For health and for strength, I am grateful. And for loved ones around me—not perfect people, but people who support me and care for me—I am grateful. I thank You for my church family and the joy that I find in them.
God, thank You today for Your Word. And thank You for Your Holy Spirit, who pursues me so faithfully and brings Your truth to bear upon my behavior. Thank You for the life-changing experience of walking with Jesus Christ. Thank You for the assurance of sins forgiven and the promise of eternal life.
I choose today by an act of my will to turn away from those things that would frustrate and defeat me and to focus upon Your goodness. I pray even now that You would cause genuine gratitude to continuously come forth from my lips, for You are worthy. In Jesus9; name. Amen.
Five Things to Be Thankful For
“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
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Five Things to Be Thankful For
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Five Things to Be Thankful For
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NOTES
1. The National Institute of Health Care Research has awarded federal grants to support university studies exploring spirituality. Harvard University is one pioneer in the academic research showing the relationship of spirituality and health, according to David N. Elkins, “Spirituality: It’s What’s Missing in Mental Health, Psychology Today, September/October 1999, 48.
2. Elkins, “Spirituality,” Psychology Today, September/October 1999, 48, citing a study in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 1998.
3. The two studies by Duke University researchers are reported in the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 1998, and the Southern Medical Journal, 1998, respectively; as cited in Elkins, “Spirituality,” Psychology Today, September/October 1999, 48.
4. The findings on lifestyle, depression, and mortality are reported in the Religion and American Practice journal, 1996; the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1997; and the American Journal of Public Health, 1998, respectively; as cited in Elkins, “Spirituality,” Psychology Today, September/October 1999, 48.
5. If you know someone struggling with rebellion, and those tapes could help them, you can call 888-581-WORD for ordering information. For additional resource information, read about Walk in the Word at the back of this book.
6. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (Philadelphia: Running Press, 1990), 85.
7. Adapted from Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 85–86.
CHAPTER 3:
REPLACE A COVETOUS ATTITUDE...
NUMBERS 11:4–5
SAY IT IN A SENTENCE:
Covetousness, rampant in the Western world and in the evangelical church, blocks the flow of God’s fullness in our lives.
Lord, Change My Attitude: Before It's Too Late Page 6
