"Coming from a Place of Thanksgiving"

In everything give thanks.

I'm up early. The house doesn't have a heavy underlying stench of smoke this morning. I am able to see the lights of houses several blocks down the street. It's all a welcome change from the falling ashes and smoke-filled skies of the past few days. I am thankful.

Coming from a place of thanksgiving is often a comparison thing--I'm thankful I'm not like THEM; or Thank God I don't have THEIR life; I'm so glad THAT didn't happen to me! May I view my life from a very personal place and not one of comparison.

I have much to be thankful for. The list is lengthy.

I have been part of a physical fire storm here in my home state for the past week...a very long week. The foundation of my thankfulness, however, is that I have a spiritual life. I continue giving thanks for it. Nothing can touch it nor take it from me.

There have been ups and downs this past week as fire came roaring down the mountains, heading for the valley floor where I live. With heavy winds at its back, the fire had a life of its own. In my mind I was thinking that I lived on the "other" side of Springfield and Eugene, and there was a buffer between it and me. Then...I heard of Medford in the southern part of the state, with its population of over 80,000 people, being forced to evacuate. Reality is a heady trip.

The winds died, and the fire lost its savage nature. How? Why? I know the how--even the winds obey their Creator. Why? All things are at the hand of God, touching and affecting humankind in personal ways.

I am a person of faith. Faith, however, only has as much value as who or what I entrust with that faith. Ideologies come and go. God doesn't.

We are living in hard times. There is only One who can see any of us through them. I am thankful.