I can be pretty dense.
Sometimes God has to repeatedly put something in my path before I stop tripping over it and realize, “Hmmm. Maybe there’s something here I’m supposed to see.”
That was the case with a book I’m currently reading. People were regularly popping into my life, some from rather unexpected places, to recommend … no, actually, to nearly insist … that I read this book.
After the umpteenth time, I finally fired up my Kindle and downloaded the doggone thing. And I think, I hope, I pray my life will never be the same again.
Yes, I know claims like “my life will never be the same” sound way too dramatic to be believable, or even palatable, in these days of dubious infomercials and Ponzi schemes.
And yes, I do believe the Bible is the only completely inerrant book. Every other book, in my opinion, requires the spitting out of some bones as the meat is swallowed.
Now, having said all of that, let me say this: reading One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are (Zondervan, 2011) is changing me.
It’s not an altogether painless or easy process, though. Change rarely is.
I haven’t found this book to be an especially easy read, even on a superficial level. Author Ann Voskamp employs a sometimes convoluted, imagery-laden, stream-of-consciousness writing style that tends to drive the journalist in me nuts.
I keep trying to bail before I’m finished, but I can’t. I know there is gold to be mined in these pages.
If you want to learn more about Voskamp, you can check out her blog, www.aholyexperience.com. My intention is not to extol her, but rather her powerful, timely call for followers of Christ to actively, consciously look for the blessings of God, every single day, no matter what’s going on.
Which brings me to a necessary, painful confession …
I wrote about living thankfully just two months ago, when our calendars reminded us it was “officially” time to give thanks. I challenged us in that November column to be grateful for something, or many things, every single day. I said it could change us.
I believed it, wrote it, and then forgot it. I’m ashamed to admit that after issuing the “Thanksgiving challenge,” I let that powerful, transforming discipline slip out of my life.
Voskamp’s book has reminded me not only to be aggressively thankful, but to create a literal list of big and small blessings. Her personal goal was to see and record 1,000 good things in her life. (By the way, she doesn’t live in a mansion on the French Riviera, but on a pig farm, where she homeschools her six children.)
Voskamp reached her goal and kept going. She continued to chronicle blessings, daily evidences of God’s presence and goodness, and it has carried her to wonderful places, including the N.Y. Times bestseller list.
More importantly, she says her gratitude quest has given her new insights into the heart of God, and filled her with the supernatural joy He promises to those who seek and trust Him.
I know she’s right. Thankfulness has often been my life preserver in cold, dark waters. Why on earth did I let go of that infinitely better way to live?
“Why on earth,” indeed. You see, that’s just it—we’re stuck here on earth, where life is quite often hard. Pain piles up and snuffs out gratitude.
And our culture teaches us to say “more,” not “thank you.”
We trip over blessings all the time and don’t stop to see them.
But I am determined to stop from now on. To notice and give thanks. I’ve restarted my thankful list. I’m going to 1,000 and beyond. Want to go with me?