Tuesday, November 20, 2012

A Spirit of Thankfulness

Give thanks in all circumstances; for that is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.            
~1 Thessalonians 5:18~

In the spirit of thanksgiving I felt it appropriate to write on something for which I am thankful.

We often hear comments about the modern church that are far from positive. Many of those comments involve the up-and-coming leaders of the church, the young adults.

There is a lot of buzz about post-modernism and the claims that 'all is relative'. Much claims are being thrown around that young people are not concerned about truth; that they do not believe it can be found or that it even truly exists.

About a week ago I officially became the new teacher/leader of the Young Adult Sunday School class at my church. I am thankful for this opportunity to discuss with this important group of people God's Word and its relevance to contemporary society.

Amongst the current claims to postmodernism, it was incredibly refreshing to hear during our first session that our Church's next leaders do believe there are answers to their questions and that they want to find them! I am thankful that my brothers and sisters in Christ shine a light of  hope in a seemingly hopeless group of people. 

Though society may tell young adults that no answers can truly be found, and though they are nearly indoctrinated to agree, deep down they want to believe they can find truth. They simply need to be encouraged to seek it out. 

It would be incredibly easy to focus on the things that are wrong with the church and dwell in that place of believing that the next generation is far worse than the last. Believe me, I am no stranger to pointing a finger. However, it is much more productive to recognize the wrong but then be thankful for promising aspects and use those to work toward the right.

Often our thoughts and our prayers to God are about what we do not have; about all of the wrongs in our lives. Why not look at what we do have; at all that is right? Once you look, you'll be sure to find an over-abundance of blessings God has bestowed upon your life.

All it took was a closer look and a willingness to listen to notice an immense amount of promising features in this group of young adults. I am thankful that God granted me the eyes to see and the ears to hear and I am looking forward to seeing and hearing many more great things from this group.

So, look closer...What are you thankful for today?