Keeping a Holy Lent, Day 22: Tell someone what you are grateful for…

I know, I skipped Day 21 – Ask someone for help. But, I haven’t done that one yet. I plan to do it. Indeed, I have an email that I am working on asking for help in my family’s process of moving. But, I don’t have everything I need for it just yet.

In the meantime, gratitude!

I am going to tell you that for which I am grateful, and it’s quite a list even if it is not exhaustive.

I am grateful…

For the sunshine today and the warmth that it provides

For the rain we have had here for the past couple days that it nourishes the earth

For the snow that I have experienced since being in Iowa, for its beauty and that it too nourishes the earth.

For a job

For the particular job I have and the joy and challenge and peace and stress and life it brings me

For new friends made over helping someone move and a few beers

For the fragrant aroma that hangs in the air after sautéing vegetables

For the smell of freshly washed clothes (and for change found in the seat of my car so I could finish)

For a place to live that serves me well

For dear friends (and I know that to begin to name specifics immediately gets one into trouble because one cannot name all the friends who have impacted their life, nonetheless there are particular people that I have been cognizant of recently and at the risk of leaving some out, I would like to name a few…) Wade and Diana and Emma, Aaron and LeAnn (and their sons), Dan and Felicia (and their family), Gerry, Lynn, Stephen and Jennifer (and their daughters), and for so many others who have shaped and supported me through so much

For colleagues in ministry and our dialogue and support of one another

For teachers and professors from whom I have learned so much

For my parents and the love – sometimes gentle and sometimes tough – they have shown…for my father and the sense of compassion he passed on to me…for my mother and the strength of will she shared with me

For my in-laws and their generous welcome of me into their family from the very first moments of my relationship with Lori

For music

For good stories

For games

For First Christian Church, South Bend and their nurture (and tolerance) of my creativity

For First Christian Church, Stillwater and their generosity that continues to support my family financially while we are in two places.

For Ankeny Christian Church and their openness to the Spirit of God, and their graciousness as my family is in two places.

I am so very grateful for my wife and my two boys and the bonds of love that strengthen and support me as we walk together on this journey of life, even from a distance at this moment

I know there is not anything profound in this list, but I am grateful for all this and more.

God of all times and places, help me to be grateful at all times and in all things. Amen.

Shalom Y’all,

Owen