Gratitude Challenge: Day 30

I have decided to spend the month of November focusing on thankfulness. To help me with this challenge, I signed up to receive a daily prompt from the Day One journal app, encouraging me to write about something I am thankful for. I will, of course, aim to pair the daily journal entry with a photo.

Here is today’s prompt (and the final prompt of the month):

What have I learned from gratitude journaling?

This is such a strange time of year. To be clear, it is the most wonderful time of the year… but still very strange. 

Perhaps you feel it, too.

I never know quite what to do with myself in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. 

I love Thanksgiving. I love being with family and friends. And then the weekend is over and you spend the next week trying to get back to “normal”… whatever that is. 

November is nearly over. Christmas is on the not-too-far-off horizon. Meanwhile, I feel somewhat caught in the middle of two major events, and I don’t always know what to do with myself. 

Do you ever feel like that?

“What should I be doing right now?” is a rather constant thought that I have running through my mind this time of year. 

This is maybe especially true for me, personally, because I have had such an active summer and fall. It felt like I was driving on the ministry superhighway, and now I have taken a sudden exit ramp and am driving on a much slower, winding dirt road. 

Since holding our ministry banquet on Saturday, November 18 (which was awesome, by the way!! THANK YOU to everyone who came out to be a part of it!) I have not had any major ministry events on the calendar. We are gearing up for a big trip out west, but for the past couple of weeks I have spent a lot of time wondering, “What should I be doing right now?”

That is when God reminds me that not all of life is about doing. In fact, so much of the Christian life is simply about being. 

Yes, God has called us to do good works, which He has prepared in advance for us to do (see Ephesians 2:8-10), but we are also called to simply be still and know that He is God (see Psalm 46:10). 

We are called to simply be a child of God, to know that we are loved, to receive His love, to abide in His love.

We are called to be satisfied in God, to be patient, to find our rest in God. 

And we are called to simply be thankful.

At the beginning of November I began this daily “Thankfulness” blog post challenge . Each day I followed a prompt from a journaling app to write about something that I am thankful for. What a great exercise! Not every day made sense for me to publicly write a blog post about (and not every day had a perfect photo to match the blog post). But I took time every day to consider something I was thankful for, and it was so good for my heart, for my mind, and for my soul. 

Primarily, I have found myself profoundly thankful to God, for He is truly good, and His steadfast love endures forever. 

I was also reminded daily of how thankful I am for my family. I am a truly blessed man!

But I also found myself constantly being thankful for our amazing, generous ministry partners!

I am so thankful for the people God has brought into our lives who have supported us, encouraged us, prayed for us, and served alongside of us through the years. (If that is you, THANK YOU! If you would like to learn more about joining us in the amazing ministry work that God has called us to do, please contact us and let us know!)

Since 2017, Jodi and I have been able to live as full-time Musicianaries, focusing on the ministry work that God has called us to while trusting Him to continue to provide for us through the faithful support of people who believe in this ministry and who have been blessed by this ministry.  We currently have vision that exceeds our funding, and are in need of increased ministry support to do everything that we believe God has called us to do in 2024 and beyond, but we are also exceedingly grateful for how God has kept us going strong for the past seven years. 

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:11–13, ESV