Giving thanks

This morning, I started my day eating breakfast with people dear to me, enjoying crispy hash browns and coffee and NOT worrying about the calories - a beautiful way to ease into my Monday. And for this first movement of the morning, I give thanks.

Coming to church, I walked into the office and in ten minutes' time, found my day filled with human need. Someone in need of a ride across town, someone in need of communion and healing prayers, someone in need of a morning phone call to see how they made it through a dark night, someone in need of peace, someone in need of prayers from afar for a small baby's risky surgery.

People who need thank-you notes, people who need the rest of my church newsletter articles, people who need to confirm appointments with me, people who need return phone calls.

And it might have happened that my first reaction to the way my day is shaping up was something like weariness, as I tried to figure out how to arrange the pieces of my day "just-so."

But when I sat down to reflect, the first words that popped into my head were"give thanks."

Give thanks for the blessing of a "job" that lets me visit people and take care of people and focus my heart on big things instead of just small, temporal, day-to-day administrative tasks.

Give thanks for the calling that God has put before me, to create hope and meaning in the world.

Give thanks that we can care for one another in time of need, and bring words of encouragement to one another in times of sadness, and bring prayers of hope to one another in times of struggle, and bring words of assurance to one another in times of uncertainty.

For the beautiful, crazy, imperfect, joyous, tedious, hilarious, insightful, and totally fulfilling community of faith that surrounds me - both near and far - I give thanks.