KingdomCome
Don Follis
Thankfulness in the Kingdom
Get out a pen and paper and start your list...
email Don via editor@urbana.org
The following column on Thankfulness written by Don Follis first appeared in the November 7, 2003 issue of the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette in Champaign, Illinois
The Good Book recently nudged me, saying that a thankful heart is the essential ingredient to successfully navigate my middle years. One Bible verse says, “No matter what happens, always be thankful.”
So I got a pen and paper out, and started making a list. Suddenly my heart began swelling with appreciation. In no particular order, here’s part of my list.
I am thankful for a family and friends and colleagues that accept me as I am, warts and all. I am thankful for people who ask me hard questions and hold me accountable to be the kind of man I want to be. I am thankful for work, especially for the ability to provide for my family. I am thankful for my church, particularly for the pastors who care for the flock, sacrificing every day to make a group of redeemed sinners into a community of hope.
I am thankful for the ability to make confession when I’ve done wrong. I want the words, “I’m sorry, will you please forgive me,” to be always near my lips. The Proverbs say “with many counselors, there is safety.” I’m thankful for a group of friends who give me counsel.
I am thankful for those who encourage me by putting their hand on my shoulder and saying, “I like you, pal. Hang in there.” I am thankful for the choice to be a man of faith, however faltering. I can’t see God, but I’m thankful for the ability to look into the night sky and say, “By faith I understand that the entire universe was formed at your command, that what I now see did not come from anything that can be seen.” (Hebrews 11)
I am thankful for forgiveness. I feel emboldened and relieved to know that when I really mess up God forgives me, my family forgives me and my friends forgive give me. That gives me courage to forgive myself. If the Apostle Paul could forgive himself for pompously watching people stone a man to death (Acts chapter 7), I can surely forgive myself for making lots of foolish mistakes along my journey.
I am thankful for friends. One friend, now an Army chaplain in Kuwait, has liked me for more than 30 years. We still talk every week. A pastor friend in town knows all my fears, but he never judges me or holds my mistakes against me. Another local buddy and I have been calling each two or three times a week for 20 years. We talk and we encourage and we cry and we jaw over sports and we pray together. No one could put a price tag on that.
I am thankful for my health. Earlier this fall, in an unbelievably selfless act, my youngest brother donated one of his kidneys to my very ill brother two years younger than I. Both brothers are doing great, thank God. Every time I open my eyes, or hear the birds singing or jog through my neighborhood, or show off to my daughter by doing pull-ups on a bar in my backyard, I thank God for a body that works. “If you have your health you have everything,” my mother reminded me recently.
I am thankful for a good wife of 25 years. For twenty-five years she’s put up with this old dog. Thank God my wife knows that in my heart I’m merely a playful Golden Retriever, not an attack dog. She scratches me behind my ears, making this old puppy feel happy, safe and content. “The man who finds a wife finds a treasure and receives favor from the Lord.” (Proverbs 18:22). The greatest treasure of my life makes me truly grateful.
I am thankful for my children. My children came through my wife and me, and yet, I know they are just on loan to us for a while. Prophet Kahlil Gibran says parents can give children their love, but not their thoughts. They can house children’s bodies but not their souls. My parents held the bow steady and let me fly, and I now I am trying to hold the bow steady for my kids.
Just this morning I found myself dreaming, hoping and planning for tomorrow. For that, too, I gave thanks.
How about your own list? Get a pen and start writing. During this season of thankfulness, show it to someone you love who needs a big dose of hope and encouragement.
Copyright November 7, 2003 by the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, Champaign, IL 61820
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