November 24, 2003
Concourse C, Gate 21

Gratitude is not just an attitude, it is a condition - an optimal condition - of our hearts.

Thankfulness is not primarily an emotion, Rather, it is a diligent awareness of blessing, born of devotion to our living, loving Lord and nurtured by the practice of paying attention to his care.

Forgetting not all his benefits (Ps 103 style) is not, therefore, merely the absence of spiritual dementia; it is remembering, rehearsing, tracing and relishing his grace and love.

Happy people are not always thankful people; happiness may be a temporary, selfish ecstasy. But thankful people are healthy people, connected to the very heart of God through an unbroken, unruptured relationship of trust, reliance, worship.

Thanksgiving is neither naive nor cynical: it does not believe the unreal nor does it despair in the difficult. Rather, thanksgiving rejoices in the long-range plan and the unchanging, gracious purpose of the One who will have the final word and even now whispers a sovereign assurance of hope.

Speak up, then, thankful heart. What's your witness today?

"For you, for Him, for his kingdom, for his body, for his mercy and Lordship, for our family, for faithful friends, for scads of material blessings, for the future he has planned for us - through Christ...

...at this hour, Lord.
...at Gate 21, Lord, on my way home (from India and Nepal and Virginia) for Thanksgiving.
...from this heart of mine, Lord.,

Nothing but Gratitude!"

Blessings!
John