Sharpening Your Saw; Body, Mind, Heart, Soul, and Spirit
I hope that the prayer journey of thanksgiving offered you a place of gratitude, blessing, and hope. On October 27, the prayer journey began on Instagram, Twitter, and my blog and FB page “Off the Hooks.” Each day was focused on a prayer of thanksgiving. Giving thanks for friends, family, creation, God’s daily mercies, his protection, strengthen his faithfulness, as well as second chances, workers in the world, and our talents and skills.
The prayer of thanksgiving originated on October 1, 2019, after reviewing my monthly calendar. In thirteen days, I would be the energizer bunny moving from a conference to a workshop and travel. I would facilitate a workshop, present a paper, moderate a panel, sit as a student, preach my initial sermon, and my second sermon. I also would fly to Dallas and visit my daughter. And then celebrate a wedding anniversary with my husband.
I took a breath and realized nothing would change. I still had to teach classes, which meant reading and prepping and grading. I had two writing projects in their final editing stage before publication. Household responsibilities could not go on hold. Laundry is like grading papers, a never-ending cycle.
My first inclination was to create a plan. I’m a devote planner, a calendar-head, over organizer, scheduler type of person. However, I’ve lived a few years, and I understand Murphy’s Law: “If anything can go wrong, it will.” I appreciate John Steinbeck’s adapted line from Robert Burns’s poem: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.” Each quote reminds me no matter how carefully a project is planned, something may go wrong.
Yet, I rested and rest in God’s Word: “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9). With that scripture planted in my heart, I took a breath and thought I need to stay calm. I need to pray. I need prayer. But it was more than that, I needed to be grateful.
The 33-Day Prayer Journey kept me consistently praying. I had to write prayers, say prayers, post the prayers, and pray the prayers each morning as I monitored social media. But every prayer was a prayer of thanksgiving. Giving thanks for the ups and the downs. I rejoiced in everything, and others were rejoicing with me. We were a community in communion.
Something was happening, and I realized something was happening; therefore, I had to rejoice. God was sending me into new territory—new doesn’t mean easy or comfortable. You know when something new is happening in your life, it can make you stressful or grateful. I didn’t want to complain, grumble, or mumble when the “unlaid plans” made their way on my agenda. Like the abscess that caused me to manage pain with Aleve, so I could speak twice at a conference. Or the root canal five hours before teaching a three-hour class.
God was opening doors that had not been opened before. I had to celebrate by lifting up each moment, knowing, “This is the day the Lord has made!” I had to rejoice. And the consistency of the 33-Day Prayers of Thanksgiving helped me remain grateful.
According to Henri Nouwen, “Celebration is how faith in the God of Life is lived out, whether there are smiles or tears. Celebration reveals the deep undercurrent of joy that flows beneath all of our ups and downs.”
Source: Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in An Age of Anxiety