Thanks for Nothing!

We all have heard the expression “Thanks for nothing!” It isn’t really an offer of thanks at all. It is an angry declaration that the person speaking feels they have been treated wrongly, cheated, held out on.  This week the utility company came to my home and accused me of owing hundreds of dollars in unpaid bills dating back to four years before I moved into this house. It did not matter that I produced all the paperwork showing my innocence. They demanded money and I would not give it, so they cut my power line in two. I didn’t say anything to them, but for a while I sure wanted to say something like “Thanks for nothing. Have a nice day.” In my drippiest sarcastic tone. 

Sometimes, we look at our lives and there is so much stuff to deal with, so many problems we can’t solve. We feel like the squirrel in the movie “Over the Hedge” who runs to one end of the hedge and back and declares “It never ends!” Then he runs to the other end of the hedge and back and says, “It never ends that way too!” We feel helpless. Helplessness is not a feeling we like to experience, so then we become angry. 

We want God to fix it. Make it better. We are his children and when He doesn’t meet our expectations of what a Father should do, we act like, well, children. Children who are angry and ungrateful and say “thanks for nothing.” 

What if “nothing” IS a gift? What if we had to trust Him for everything? What if instead of taking our problems away He walked with us through them? What would we learn from that? How would it transform us? 

If He gives me “nothing,” can I in sincerity say “Thank you, Father, for nothing?” trusting that in His love and wisdom He has given me something worth more than it appears to be?

In church yesterday we sang a Keith Green song, “There is a Redeemer.” The first part goes like this:

There is a redeemer, 
Jesus, God's own Son,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, 
Holy One,
Jesus my redeemer, 
Name above all names,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Oh, for sinners slain.
Thank you oh my Father, 
For giving us Your Son,
And leaving Your Spirit, 
'Til the work on Earth is done.

"In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

We can give thanks to Him IN everything, because He has given us his Son, and that IS EVERYTHING. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

One Hundred and a Handful

image created with "I Am This Many" kit by Amy Stoffel of Scrap Orchard.

This is my 100^th blog post.  TAH-DAH!  I considered hosting a giveaway (legally called a sweepstakes) for you in celebration, but I’ve decided not to even though I LOVE giving presents.  I have determined that for me, the cons outweigh the pros.  Since I blog simply because I like to, and to keep in touch with people in my life, my motivations for hosting a giveaway would mainly be to thank readers and to increase traffic to my microscopic little blog.  THANK YOU!!!  Okay, now I've thanked my readers.  As for increasing traffic to my blog, I wonder what kind of traffic a giveaway would really bring.  My group of readers is very small, just a handful by blogging standards.  Since there is no other incentive, they must read my blog for the content (or because they love me so much).  I think I would like to keep it that way.  I love comments, but I am not interested in “drive by comments” from people who just want to sign up for a freebie and have no interest at all in me or my blog.  If my blog stays little and obscure because of that, I'm OK with it.

I also do not have the money to hire a lawyer or the time to do research to make sure a sweepstakes is legal and to minimize my liability.  The FTC, the IRS, the USPS, the ABC, the 123 and the XYZ all in some fashion regulate sweepstakes, contests, and lotteries on blogs and web sites just as they do elsewhere.  There are about a bazillion laws.   I would have to follow all the sweepstakes laws of every state and country of every participant.  There is a fine line between a sweepstakes and an illegal lottery, even if there is no money charged.  I deeply desire to glorify my Savior through my blog, so I will not take the risk of accidentally breaking the law. 

It has been my prayer that God would bless this blog and He has.  Not with huge numbers of “page views” but in the way He has connected me with people I would never have otherwise come into contact with.  I have been so encouraged by the comments and emails I have received!  It is a huge blessing to hear from someone that something I have shared has touched them and encouraged them or made them laugh.  

A true giveaway is offered to every participant, not just to one whose name is randomly selected.  God loves each of us.  There is no random drawing or luck involved in salvation.  You don't have to hope to win salvation.  You can know you have it.  It is a gift for any who choose to accept by faith.  I will keep sharing with each of you all the “Cool Beans!” stuff in my life - our stories from the mission field and our family, lessons He teaches me, etc.  I will keep praying for each of you and thanking God for you.  To paraphrase a Keith Green song “I’ll just keep doing my best, and pray that it’s blessed, and He’ll take care of the rest!”  In the meantime, I give all of you my gratitude.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." -- Romans 1:16

"If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." --Romans 10:9

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