Thanksgiving Challenge Day 22

 

I’m thankful today for anticipation.  I’m spending the day running errands getting my family ready to hit the road for Thanksgiving.  Sometimes I like preparing for things as much as experiencing the thing itself.


God,
Thanks for joy in the journey, for the fun of preparing and looking forward to the future, but that here and now has its own reward.
Thanks,
Jason

Learning to Listen

My preschool daughters love to pray, especially in public places like restaurants, but they don’t exactly have “inside voices.”  You’ll probably hear us before you see us. 

Imagine a toddler screaming at the top of her lungs, “God is great!  God is good!  Let us thank Him for our food!  Woo-hoo!”  They like to cheer at the end instead of saying, “Amen.”  For them it’s way more exciting. 

It’s at times like this, when all of the world can hear, that I realize that prayer can seem a little weird.  C’mon, talking to someone you can’t see and waiting for answers you can’t technically hear?  That’s weird.  Some days it can feel more like talking to yourself than hanging out with the Creator of the universe.  It reminds me of a stand-up comedian who is bombing on stage, tapping on his microphone saying, “Is this thing on?”  

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The Waiting Game

I’m standing in line at Toys R Us as I write this.   Trust me, I’ve got the time.  It’s the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and apparently they’re giving away free money or something because every person in central Kentucky is in line in front of me.   I’ve never seen this many people in the store at one time.   My wife is doing the math and telling me how I messed up and picked the wrong line.  Every line, of course, is moving faster than ours.
It reminds me of how much of Christmas involves waiting.  Every time my daughter asks me how long until Christmas, no matter what I say, she always answers with, “that’s too long!”  We actually have two advent calendars just to give us something to do while we wait.   
Yes, Christmas is a waiting game.  Waiting in shopping lines.  Waiting in traffic.  Waiting for cookies to bake.  Waiting for holiday movies to come on TV.  Waiting for vacation.  Waiting for packages.  Waiting for cards.  Waiting to see Santa.  Waiting for snow.  Waiting to put up the tree.  Waiting for family to arrive.  Waiting for family to leave. Waiting to unwrap presents.
Waiting.  Waiting.  Waiting.  We’re all waiting for something this Christmas.