Happy Thanksgiving from Kigali!

It's Thanksgiving! Not really, here in Rwanda, but I feel nostalgic today for family and pumpkin pie and Cool Whip and Thanksgiving Eve services at Ev Free, and (yum) candied yams...

So in honor of Thanksgiving-that-is-happening-half-a-world-away, I am sitting here during my lunch hour thinking about how much there is to be thankful for. And honestly, I'm getting a little overwhelmed, and even beginning to feel a little uncomfortable because I know I have been blessed with so much.

Then, I remembered a great conversation I had with one of my dear friends and beloved mentors, Sue, back in June.

I was sitting in her living room and telling her how I felt so completely blessed and humbled at this season in my life by God's goodness, and I just was trying to think about what I could do to thank Him, to try to show Him just how thankful I felt.

She smiled a little bit, and said, "Yes, we often do want to DO things for God, don't we, especially those do-ers among us."

(If you don't know, that's me, a possibly textbook do-er. Sometimes I try to hide it, but it's true. Sue, of course, knows this very well.)

Then, with a voice full of warmth and compassion that I've come to love and cherish, she said, "Maybe He just wants you to receive His blessings with a thankful heart. And just be blessed. Maybe that's what He wants."

Her wisdom, like it always does, sailed into my heart like a deep breath in a wide open space. There's nothing wrong with doing things for God. It's just, sometimes, it's not what's required, is it? There's plenty of time for turn-over of blessings, for us to seek to bless God, to seek to bless others. But it's okay to let it happen when it happens, and not force it to happen. It's okay sometimes just to delight in His blessings. It's okay sometimes to just...be....thankful. Sometimes that's more than enough.

Sometimes I can hardly believe that's God.

You know, I love stars. I really do. I actually have some personal history with stars, even....embedded in the story of my past, there's something important in there about stars. Now whenever I think about the stars, they remind me of God, and His power and greatness and BIGness. But for some reason as I've been writing this quick entry, I started thinking about the stars, and it suddenly hit me that the stars don't DO anything. They're just...stars. And that's enough to inspire praise, and thoughts about God, and thoughts about God's goodness.

So this Thanksgiving, while my natural bent is to, well, DO something, instead I'd like to just...be...thankful. And my God, I pray that in this, You will be glorified.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

(PS: I love you, Sue!)