Thanksgiving Hangover

Feels like Monday morning comes really quickly after a holiday weekend.  While Mondays are often a reminder of all the drudgery that makes up our daily lives, a Monday after a holiday is a jolt to the system.

I had a lot of unrest over the holiday weekend.  With all the news and information about Ferguson, I had a lot of angst.  I’ve cried.  My thoughts have been filled with questions.  I have wondered about my place in it all. What does one person do when it seems like there is injustice everywhere?  If you’ve been reading my recent blog posts, you know that I have been wondering what is it that I need to do.

At the very same time, my heart is full and running over.  My personal life has been blessed.  God has filled my life with love and friendship.  I have received kindness from others that I don’t deserve.  All of my needs have been supplied. I am beyond blessed.

This morning, as I was praying, I was lead to look up a few things on Pinterest (can you believe it?) and check out a few charities in my community.  The formation of a plan was planted in my heart this morning. It’s time to let Thanksgiving hangover into my life.

Let me share with you a few things that spoke to me over the weekend:

I heard a preacher on a Christian radio program teach this text (sorry, I don’t know who it was):

 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.  Matthew 14:14

He asserted that Jesus’ plan for serving others is to go, compassion, &  heal.  He argued that we do it backwards.  We wait until we have compassion.  It is this preachers belief that we have to go first & then God’s Spirit will fill us with compassion and shows us just what to do. We are not to wait until we have compassion.  We are to go, and in going we will receive what we need.

Later, I read this-

“Ministry to the sick and the poor, the giving of the gospel to the lost, is not to be left to committees or organized charities.  Individual responsibility, individual effort, personal sacrifice, is the requirement of the gospel.  E.G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 147.

Followed by reading this-

“All can do something.  In an effort to excuse themselves, some say: “My home duties, my children, claim my time and my means.”  Parents, your children should be your helping hand, increasing your power and ability to work for the Master.  Children are the younger members of the Lord’s family.  They should be led to consecrate themselves to God, whose they are by creation and by redemption.  They should be taught that all their powers of body, mind, and soul are His.  They should be trained to help in various lines of unselfish service.  Do not allow your children to be hindrances.  With you the children should share spiritual as well as physical burdens.  By helping others they increase their own happiness and usefulness.  E.G. White, Testimonies. vol 7, p.63.

Here I am.  Monday morning. I’m filled with the need to increase my level of service.  I am convicted that there needs to be some changes in my life, and how I am training my children for service.  I am not going to talk about details of what this means for me.  I am sure the details of my life will be different from the details of yours.  Yet, I share with you the challenge to allow Thanksgiving to spill out into your life.  Not just in your giving to charities.  Not just in the support of work in your church or community organizations.  I challenge you to allow it to spill out into your daily life.  This isn’t just for special events or mission trips, while those are important.  It’s about cultivating a life of service right where you are.

I looked up the opposite for injustice.  I found words like justice, fairness, and equality.  I like to think that the extreme opposite of injustice is favor.  It’s receiving more than you deserve from someone who owes you nothing.  In the face of injustice in the world, I want to offer gifts of service that are produced because God is working in me.  I want to be used to let God’s love pour into those in my sphere of influence.

Big challenge.

God’s got stuff He wants to give to others through me.  God’s got stuff in you that He wants to give the world.

Don’t fear the Thanksgiving Hangover.

Be Encouraged,

Kelly

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