If singers invite us to immerse in truth carried on a song, then poets invite us to envision what we know deep down but can’t yet see. Poets are able to show vision’s path because they notice the nuances of life, of heart, of what’s real. Each nuance tugs open the curtains hanging on our eyes and nudges over the coverings on our hearts. When this happens, we get glimpses of what we desired all along. To be loved and to love. To know this desire is a true gift of God, for it is desire that stirs hunger, and hunger which drives us to seek Truth, which is Jesus.

The Who and What of Thanksgiving

 

Prayer

Thank you, Lord,

for singers of songs, for teachers of songs who help me sing along the way …

and for listeners.

Thank you, Lord,

for those who attempt beauty rather than curse ugliness,

for those who take stands rather than take polls,

for those who risk being right rather than pandering to be liked,

for those who do something rather than talking about everything.

Lord, grant me grace, then, and a portion of your spirit

that I may so live as to give others cause to be thankful for me,

thankful because I have not forgotten

how to hope, how to laugh, how to say, “I’m sorry,’

how to forgive, how to bind up wounds, how to dream,

how to cry, how to pray, how to love when it is hard,

and how to dare when it is dangerous.

Undamn me, Lord,

that praise may flow more easily from me than wants,

thanks more readily than complaints.

Praise be to you, Lord, for life;

praise be to you for another chance to live.

–Excerpt from Guerrillas of Grace

 

How do you imagine others give thanks to God for you? From those thoughts, what do you thank God for? What would you want to ask him for?