Thankful Thursday

Producers are always eager to have buyers purchase the “new and improved” version of everything they see.

And some buyers are eager to get every “new and improved” version.

Others are more nostalgic, constantly longing for the “same old, same old”–and resisting new innovations whenever they come.

I prefer to grasp tight to the nostalgic past, reach towards the ever expanding future–and keep my feet firmly planted in today.

This week I’m thankful…

…for the new and improved DVD player that showed up on my doorstep this morning. (I installed it this evening–and now, for the first time in quite a while, I can actually watch a DVD on my computer if I want to.)

…for the new and improved work schedule I’ve created for myself. (I get my work done so much better if I go into the office early, before others arrive. Now I just need to leave at a corresponding time instead of just staying ten or more hours.)

…for the new and improved book Now, Discover Your Strengths that my boss bought me (and the rest of her direct reports. Many people might be less than excited to have reading assigned them from a boss. I’m ecstatic.)

…for the same old same old Bible that I’ve been reading since my trip to Sweden in 2003. (It’s worn, it’s torn, it’s been dropped in the toilet–but it’s also got my notes, my underlinings, and memories of the peaks and the valleys God’s brought me through.)

…for the same old same old routines that make dealing with the less-routine parts of work life less bothersome (It’s amazing how routines impose their own calm amidst turmoil.)

…for the same old same old computer that I’ve been using since I started college–that hasn’t yet given up the ghost.

Most of all, I’m thankful for the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever–but Who is so immense, so unfathomable that my knowledge of Him can be new and improved every day!

It’s been a long week, a busy week. I don’t have time or energy to be long. So I’ll just offer these spare words of thanks.

This week I’m thankful…

…for unexpected guests who didn’t stay long

…for hosts and hostesses who don’t mind that I’ve stayed long

…for non-alcoholic hilarity on a Wednesday night

…for prescriptions transferred and picked up

…for whites to be tie-dyed purchased

…for food on the stove to be eaten

And for a God who is on the throne, above every power of this earth.

I didn’t plan to find myself in Columbus, Nebraska. I interviewed for a job in Omaha–and got offered a job here.

A head-hunter matched my sister Anna to a job here.

Few of us really CHOSE to find ourselves in the east central part of Nebraska, in the greater Columbus area.

But here we are. And for that I am thankful.

This week, I’m thankful…

…for baking with my sister, her reading aloud from The Pioneer Woman Cooks while I dropped muffin batter into tins and rolled warm muffins in butter and sugar

…for Pampered Chef parties where Anna and Ruth and I bite our tongues while the rep tries to convince me that I should be a rep myself (If someone has just told you that she teaches cooking on a college level and that she regularly advises her students that they don’t need all the gadgets sold by companies like Pampered Chef…you probably SHOULDN’T suggest that if she’d just try your products she might just learn that “they’re not a want, they’re a need.”)

…for large hunks of beef and friends who will cut them into steaks for you (and laugh at you for rendering your own tallow from the trimmed fat.)

…for great reminders at Bible study that all work can be sanctified work (Thanks, Beth) and that it’s easy to lose focus at work but putting up reminders for yourself can help (Thanks, Teresa).

…for upcoming parties–hanging out this weekend with another who’ll be around town, a Valentines Party next month, drinks at my house in March (featuring SimplyThick!)

…for the Providence of God that brought me–and these–into this dinky little town at such a time as this

“Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” Job 2:10

The words trickled into my mind as I told my sister of my thankfulness that I had not yet experienced a bilious emesis (vomiting small intestine contents.)

I was forced to accept the truth of these words and follow up: “But if God should grant me a bilious emesis, I shall thank Him for it.”

This week, I am thankful…

…that God is sovereign over both health and sickness–and that He will conform me to His image with whatever means He pleases

…that God is a gracious designer who has formed my immune system to work exactly as it is

…that God is merciful and never gives me more than I can handle (even when my whole GI tract is cramping and I can barely force myself to take in fluids)

…that God grants reprieve through a few moments of sleep here and there and a book that occasionally takes my mind off the pain my body is feeling

…that, as of yet, I have not experienced a bilious emesis. Stomach contents have come up, small intestine contents have gone down–and God is sovereignly wise and unfailing gracious, even should that circumstance change.