In this season of thanksgiving, I find myself realizing I have so much to be thankful for much like my favorite song we sang at Praise Community Church 感謝の心 "Thankful Heart". Often it's so easy to overlook blessings. When things go good, we become accustomed to it and almost desensitized.
It reminds me of my first year in Japan. We were celebrating Tanabata (it's a huge summer festival especially in Sendai where I lived). At the end of the festival, there are fireworks. Well in this year particularly, Sendai went through a tragedy in the form of an Earthquake, tsunami, not to mention a nuclear meltdown down the road (several miles). So many people were lost and so many tears were shed in this area. Through this, Sendai endured and reached this celebratory festival. I say all this to reach my small point...we had fireworks for literally an hour and a half!!
I'm not just talking random fireworks but grand finale style fireworks. Most people that have never experienced this would think wow that's amazing. But after about 30 minutes you start feeling desensitized to the amazingly beautiful display going on overhead. You start going to the bathroom, getting food, having conversations with friends all but ignoring the abundant work of cosmic art above your head.
When things are in abundance, it's so easy to forget about thankfulness. How often am I simply thankful for water? How often am I thankful for air that passes though my body as I sit here? It's so easy to be blinded by blessings or start to expect them as one of those "unalienable rights" our founding fathers talked about.
Yet when I find myself lost at sea yearning for freshwater to drink and spot a random case of Aquafina floating in the distance, I'm two stepping my thanks and praising Jesus as it comes closer.
It is through these moments that I continually need to humble myself before the LORD and simply be thankful for his grace.
For several years, I have felt so lost which is partially why I moved to Japan in the first place. Wondering why everyone around me seems so settled and life seems to just flow for them. Yet for me, I felt alone, lost and wondering what my place in this world was. It was through these moment that I felt Him saying stop worry you are exactly where you need to be.
There have been so many things I have second guessed or things I wish I had done differently that it's easy to get caught up in the pain of hindsight and not see the beauty beyond the fog ahead.
I sit here in my apartment ahead of my first Thanksgiving in America in 5 years, ready to celebrate it with people I never knew existed months ago. I vividly remember wondering and worrying about moving to Texas thinking that I had completely gone crazy deciding to move here. Yet I can look back at so many moments and things in the few months I have been here and simply say "WOW".
It's so easy to be caught up in the fear of the unknown but today I choose to be thankful for the journey He has put me on. It's crazy to look at the adventures and the things I've been blessed to experience and share with people. I'm thankful for His grace in those moments of fear and panic that pull me away. His steadfast hand keeps pushing me forward into these situations that I embrace building up the amazing journey that is life.
“Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!”
Psalm 117:1-2 ESV
Kansha no Kokoro 感謝の心
It reminds me of my first year in Japan. We were celebrating Tanabata (it's a huge summer festival especially in Sendai where I lived). At the end of the festival, there are fireworks. Well in this year particularly, Sendai went through a tragedy in the form of an Earthquake, tsunami, not to mention a nuclear meltdown down the road (several miles). So many people were lost and so many tears were shed in this area. Through this, Sendai endured and reached this celebratory festival. I say all this to reach my small point...we had fireworks for literally an hour and a half!!
I'm not just talking random fireworks but grand finale style fireworks. Most people that have never experienced this would think wow that's amazing. But after about 30 minutes you start feeling desensitized to the amazingly beautiful display going on overhead. You start going to the bathroom, getting food, having conversations with friends all but ignoring the abundant work of cosmic art above your head.
When things are in abundance, it's so easy to forget about thankfulness. How often am I simply thankful for water? How often am I thankful for air that passes though my body as I sit here? It's so easy to be blinded by blessings or start to expect them as one of those "unalienable rights" our founding fathers talked about.
Yet when I find myself lost at sea yearning for freshwater to drink and spot a random case of Aquafina floating in the distance, I'm two stepping my thanks and praising Jesus as it comes closer.
It is through these moments that I continually need to humble myself before the LORD and simply be thankful for his grace.
For several years, I have felt so lost which is partially why I moved to Japan in the first place. Wondering why everyone around me seems so settled and life seems to just flow for them. Yet for me, I felt alone, lost and wondering what my place in this world was. It was through these moment that I felt Him saying stop worry you are exactly where you need to be.
There have been so many things I have second guessed or things I wish I had done differently that it's easy to get caught up in the pain of hindsight and not see the beauty beyond the fog ahead.
I sit here in my apartment ahead of my first Thanksgiving in America in 5 years, ready to celebrate it with people I never knew existed months ago. I vividly remember wondering and worrying about moving to Texas thinking that I had completely gone crazy deciding to move here. Yet I can look back at so many moments and things in the few months I have been here and simply say "WOW".
It's so easy to be caught up in the fear of the unknown but today I choose to be thankful for the journey He has put me on. It's crazy to look at the adventures and the things I've been blessed to experience and share with people. I'm thankful for His grace in those moments of fear and panic that pull me away. His steadfast hand keeps pushing me forward into these situations that I embrace building up the amazing journey that is life.
“Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!”
Psalm 117:1-2 ESV
Kansha no Kokoro 感謝の心
