Thankfulness

As I prepare to head out for a journey to meet up with a large portion of my family for Thanksgiving, I am looking over my life and realizing just how much I have to be thankful for. There's the obvious things that get overlooked, like family and friends. My family is pretty large, and yet we all get along and enjoy spending time together, which is a wonderful blessing. I have many friends, more than I used to think, and recently several of them have encouraged me greatly (you probably know who you are, and if you're reading this, thank you!). There's also the things that I think about all the time, but I'm not always thankful for. Our support is coming in, and while we aren't currently where we had hoped to be at this time, love and support are being poured out on us by people who love us and love God. We almost have more people praying for us than I can keep track of, and from the responses we've gotten while talking to people, there are probably many people out there that are praying for us and we don't even know that they are.

Then there's the bigger concerns. Things like the approval of the purchase of the new building for Christ Bible Institute in Nagoya, a seminary started by an MTW missionary, Michael Oh. The continued growth of the church in Japan, as evidence by events like the baptism and marriage of a new member in a church planted by Tim Johnson, a friend of mine.

And there's the fact that God hasn't given up on me. That alone should be enough to warrant tears of joy from each of us. God still pursues us, whether we have turned to Him or away from Him. No matter what we do or have done.

What are you thankful for right now?