The Thankful Game, because, well, it’s Thanksgiving

Did you really think I’d make it through Thanksgiving Week without playing the Thankful Game?

But before we get to that, let’s flash back to Thanksgiving 2011, real quick, just for nostalgia’s sake.

Scene: Pattaya, Thailand, at Pattaya Praise, a.k.a. best worship event I’ve ever been a part of (imagine worshipping with crazy Irish people in a ladyboy bar. Yeah. That happened.)

Plot: Hours and hours of worship, huge parties in the slums, and me dressing up as a clown. (No joke. Here’s the proof. Personally, I think oversized shoes and a curly red wig are a good look for me.)

Characters: Aforementioned crazy Irish friends, other stellar peeps from around the world, my alter clown ego, and, of course, my favorite Thai kiddos.

Emotion: The most abundant sense of thankfulness, joy, and community I’ve ever experienced.

(nostalgic sigh)

(No, but really, every time I read through those sentences I sighed at the end. Without.fail.)

So Thanksgiving 2011 was a pretty hard one to top. Its one less brilliant moment was after the ridiculously huge Thanksgiving dinner I ate with some American friends…I devoured so much sweet potato casserole I got physically sick. (Which is a euphemism for throwing up, in case you were wondering.) I guess butter and sugar and marshmallows didn’t fit into the diet of fresh fruits and veggies I’d been eating for two months? But gosh, I do love my sweet potatoes.

Anywayssss.

Enough with the bad mental pictures.

Back to the thankfulness.

On this week of Thanksgiving, in the year 2012:

I’m thankful for pumpkin-scented candles.

And I’m thankful for pumpkin-flavored food. (Cookies, pancakes, oatmeal, muffins…yes, I am addicted.)

I’m thankful for belts.

And I’m thankful for boots.

I’m thankful for closet organizers.

And I’m thankful there are no longer 20 pairs of shoes strewn about my closet floor.

I’m thankful that I finally pared down my closet to those clothes which I actually have recollection of wearing. (Goodbye, extra extra small shirt from 8th grade. A beautiful little Thai girl will love wearing you.)

And I’m thankful that at this point in my life international travel feels absolutely normal. Barely fazes me. (Well, except for the 25 hours on an airplane. That I loathe.)

I’m thankful that I work at a place where I laugh and hug and am told really dumb jokes every day.

And I’m thankful that I have coworkers who resemble me in general levels of craziness.

I’m thankful that there are gluten-free products that don’t taste like cardboard.

And I’m thankful that I have celiac, rather than it affecting someone who loves bread and carbs. Really, just give me vegetables and chocolate and I’m basically set. (You think I’m kidding but I’m not. I can eat broccoli like nobody’s business.)

I’m thankful that thankfulness…even for silly, fatuous things like sweet potatoes and closet organizers…creates an immediate sense of joy. Without fail. These things may seem pointless in the entire scheme of life, but it’s this act of thankfulness that creates joy and contentment.

AND, on another serious note:

I am so grateful for this season of life — for these past nine months that have looked nothing like I ever anticipated they would look. I’m thankful that the Lord closed doors that for all practical purposes should’ve have been flung wide open…that He closed them because He knew I needed to be here. He knew I needed to meet the people I’ve met, that I needed to live alongside my family, that I needed to work at the coffeeshop that has given me more joy than any other job I’ve had, that I needed to be humbled in the ways I’ve been humbled, that I needed to learn the simplicity that exists in seasons of rest, that I needed to be encouraged and loved and filled by people here. And I’m sure there are a thousand other reasons that I don’t yet know. But He knows, and that itself is something to give thanks for. Daily.

He knows.

Goshdarnit, there is so much to be thankful for.

Be thankful, friends.

(and eat sweet potato casserole)