I’ve been keeping a running list of things I’m thankful for this month. It’s a good exercise (one I’ve copied from other people), and I highly recommend it. My list contains the staples, like coffee and chocolate, and a few things that may seem odd, like regular trash pick-up. Drag the junk I don’t want to the curb and it’s gone—who wouldn’t be delighted with that service?

As I ponder on gratitude people continually come to mind. Wife, family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and many others. While my list includes a warm house and Mexican food, people dominate. A wise mentor once told me: Things are to be used, people are to be enjoyed. We mix those up to our detriment.

People are to be enjoyed. Jesus enjoyed the people around him, turning water into wine at a marriage feast, spending time teaching his disciples, and inviting children to sit on his lap. He modeled a spirit of gratitude for others.

The number of good people in my life makes me indebted to the Lord. The psalmist wrote: We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. Every person in my orbit is a wondrous deed placed there by God. For each and every one I give thanks.

I encourage you to write out a list of things you’re thankful for this season. I’m betting a lot of people will make that list. Pause, consider, and take pleasure in the good folks the Lord has placed around you. Enjoy the people in your life, and you’ll find they enjoy you as well.

Psalm 75:1

Photo by Jon Tyson

The Lord sent a message through his prophet Ezekiel to the leaders of Israel. Despite their status as a favored nation, these priests and kings took advantage of their positions to enrich themselves, ignoring those who suffered under their hands.

The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.

These despots controlled through coercion and intimidation. Cruel in their ways and greedy for gain, they grew fat while their own people went hungry. All this while claiming to worship the one true God in a city filled with temples dedicated to demons.

The Lord would have none of it. He eventually removed the charlatans and cleaned the place out, and offered this beautiful promise:

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

The Lord himself took the role of shepherd, searching for the lost, bandaging wounds, and bracing up the fatigued and exhausted. He made them lie down in green pastures. The Lord fed them with what they needed the most—justice. Finally, the oppressive leaders of Israel received a dose of the brutality they dished out, and insightful people knew the Lord took charge.

Leadership matters. Societies flourish or faint based on those who hold the reins. Trustworthy leaders understand this, and the best never lose sight of the fact that the Lord keeps track.

Ezekiel 34:4, 15&16

Photo by Michael Hamments

Where do you draw strength from when you need it? Who or what do you turn to when scared or worried? What sources of hope do you hold?

The sons of Korah sang the praises of Zion, the city of God, which stood as a symbol of God’s kingdom present among his people. They ended this short psalm with this line: Singers and dancers alike say, “All my springs are in you.”

What does this rather obscure phrase mean, and how might we apply that meaning today?

All my springs referenced their sources of spiritual joy, and those celebrating the goodness of the Lord (singers and dancers in this case) turned to God in thanks and acknowledgement. They knew who buttered their bread, and they exulted in this connection with their Creator.

I’m reminded Revelation 22:1, where we read of another abundant spring flowing to God’s people: Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

The Lord provides plentiful amounts of hope and joy and meaning. Inexhaustible, his riches flow in crystalline streams. But I must find my way to that water. I often meander, hoping to find joy and comfort in other places. But each diversion leads only to brackish pools, shallow and stagnant.

All hope, all peace, and all good things are found in God’s waters, and his springs become our springs if we seek him out.

Psalm 87:7

Photo by Jonathan Larson

In the lead up to the most dramatic miracle he performed, Jesus consoled Martha regarding her brother Lazarus, lying dead in a nearby cave. Martha fervently trusted Jesus, her personal friend and regular guest in her home. She believed that Jesus could have saved her brother, and that Lazarus would live again in the next life. Then Jesus pressed further.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha soon experienced the vast power behind these words. Before her eyes Jesus called Lazarus from the grave. I am the resurrection and the life shifted in her mind from hoped-for promise to stark, blazing fact. Jesus literally gave life back to her dead brother.

Do you believe this? Jesus’ question to Martha appeared rhetorical, but in actuality he asked her if she truly believed that the man standing in front of her controlled life and death, decomposing flesh and the laws of biology.

Martha believed Jesus as much as she could before the raising. Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. But shortly thereafter she believed on an entirely different level. She realized that the Son of God indeed stepped into the world, dined at her table, dried her tears, and breathed life into her brother.

The central question of our lives is the same one Martha faced—what to do with Jesus? Do we believe his teachings about actually being God in the flesh, the resurrection and the life? Our answer makes all the difference, in this world and the next.

Jesus’ statement about himself, and his actions to back it up, remain valid. Even after all these centuries he questions you and me in the same way—do you believe this?

John 11:25-26

Photo by Lexi Laginess