And I Love The Bitterness- Thanksgiving Thoughts

Thanksgiving.  Turkey day.  Day of national pride and honor, day of being thankful for all the blessings, thankful for all things bright and beautiful.  Yes, it is that time of year again.  To be honost  I do like this particular holiday.  I love the food- though I must admit I would rather see beef briscuit on the table than turkey.  Or a hamburger...  mmm yes, piled high with lettuce, tomatoe, onion, mushroom, jalapeno...  Can't go wrong anytime you serve that...  But food aside, it is nice to have a day set aside to thank God for all blessings great and small.

All month I have been watching and listening as people count down the days to this most sacred of holidays, recalling what is precious to them.  I have seen people move about, expressing thanks from their lips for everything from children to spouses, parents to siblings, houses, jobs and cars, and oh the list carries on...  But there has been one thing suspicously absent from all.  Well, several things actually, but for sake of easy reading and easier typing, I shall sum all of it up in one word: bitterness.

Allow me to explain what I am meaning, before I am cast off as a heathen and a hater.  Let me start off with something simple.  Joy.  True joy.  I assume that we have all felt it, some level of it anyway.  But can you truly and fully appreciate joy- without knowing sorrow?  What about gain- we all have gained something we appreciate, yes?  But what level of happiness does gain bring unless we have also experienced loss?  Do we understand freedom without slavery, or liberty without tyranny?  Can there be a winner without a loser?  Is it not true that everyone is a friend, and thus friendships are devalued, unless we have dealt with enemies?   Can we know the depths of love, can we understand it's impact on our lives without also having experienced hate?   

And speaking of love- would we ever, even just once, experience the healing power it holds- if we are never broken?

My friends- can we know just how sweet life is without knowing life's bitterness?

The reality is, without bitterness, the rest of life would blend together.  It would be one endless blah, with every emotion the same as the next, our senses dulled, and we would be left with the inability to comprehend the very emotions we crave.  Love, joy, peace, all would be as common to us as a glass of water or a handful of dirt.  I dare say, that without bitterness, we would still be broken, lost souls in need of a Savior- but never understanding why.  I don't think I would ever want to be in that state of mind...

So while it is true, this great turkey day I will be thanking God for all He has done for me, I will be grateful for the love, joy, peace, happiness... 

But I will also take a moment and thank God for the bitterness...  because what would life be without it?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone- and may God bless you in all things bright and beautiful- and may He bless you in the bitterness!

My Destiny, Part Three: Rebirth

...until out of the corner of my eye I see- a light.  Just a tiny hole poking through the darkness at first.  But within mere moments I not only see, but am enveloped completely by it, overwhelmed by it.  There is not even the smallest trace of darkness anymore.  It has vanished so quickly that for a moment I wonder if it was even here.  And then it is but a fading memory...

A breeze passes over me, and suddenly I feel lifted with new strength.  It is not my own, no mistaking that.  My body still feels as though it is made of sand, inconsistant with no ability to hold structure on it's own.  Yet this strength holds me together, lifting me to my feet.  New found freedom washes over me.  Love infuses me.  Life takes hold of me.  Life... 

It is then that I notice something laying at my feet.  I look down and find a shell where only minutes ago I lay broken.  It looks like me...  Or, what was me.  The twisted form of myself that had become gnarled from disease.  Is it any wonder I could even move, I ask myself?  Or were my previous movements just an illusion from the mind of a paralyzed man?  What exactly is happening to me?

It is then that I see a lamb, as though it had been slain, yet living in all might and power.  It is the very God I had cried out to, the very God whom seemed so very far away, standing not above me, but beside me, holding me up.  It is then I realize that this new strength is His.  He has taken the darkness from me.  I do not have to ask, for the answer is already there- it was He who paid the price for my life.  He had ransomed me with His very blood.  Then in His power, He took my old self, that broken blackened creature of the night that I was, and changed it. 

I am a new creation.

This is my destiny.

I have done many wrongs, hurt God and others, in a life that was a suicide mission.  But no more.  Now God has set me on a new path; a path of peace though we are in a war, a path of love though we are surrounded by hate, a path of hope despite being surrounded by hopelessness.  This is the great adventure.   I do not know what lies ahead of my feet.  I am so blinded by the Light that it is all I can see- but it is that the Light, the Light of Christ, that I shall follow- no matter where it leads. 

I am redeemed. 

I am restored.

I am reborn.

The Lord Jesus Christ has came to my aid.  The Son of God has taken my place in judgement where I should have stood.  He saw my frailty, my weakness, my disease.  When all others cringed from me, when all others ran from me, when there was no hope in any other name under Heaven- he ran to me, and purchased the rights to my soul with His very blood.  He resurrected my dead soul just as He was resurrected from the grave.  He is the Light that I will follow until the end of eternity- and beyond.

This has been my story, from beginning to end.  Sometimes I forget myself, and I look back for that shell of a creature I once was.  But I never can see it.  Oh yes, sometimes my eyes do start to adjust to the darkness again.  But they never fully adjust, and I stumble and fall to my knees where the Lamb lifts me up and surrounds me with His love and His light again. 

Yes, this has been my story.  But my question to you is, is it not your story too?  For my brothers and sisters in Christ, do you remember the time when He came to your rescue?  Or have you forgotten the joy His love brings?  Stop looking back at your past.  Turn yourself back around, focus only on Him.  Your past is dead and gone, a distant memory cast into the sea of forgetfulness, cast as far from you as the east is from the west.  It is forgotten by God...  Why don't you forget it too?

As for those of you who may read this, who are still in that miry pit...  There is only one way out my friend.  There is only one way to freedom.  You can remain in that pit, broken, twisted, dying...  But there is another destiny that awaits.  A destiny not of regret, not of hopelessness, not of hate.  It is a destiny of peace, love, hope, redemption... 

Your adventure awaits...

Well?  What are you waiting for?