Copping attitude

We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. -- 1Thessalonians 1:2-3

These little verses from Paul, these greetings that begin most every epistle, are often viewed as throwaways, simply formalities of writing. Yeah, yeah, glad to know you-- but here's why I am really writing to you. But today I was thinking especially about how important these opening words (and the ones like them found in the other letters) really are.

Paul was not sitting in the lap of luxury as he wrote his letters to the various churches. Sometimes he was chained in prison. And yet he still offers words of thanksgiving for the people to whom he is writing. He lived in an attitude of gratitude.

Churches that seem to have forgotten him as soon as he left their premises. Churches filled with people he had never even met (yet). All the epistle writers engage in this same act of thanksgiving, in one way or another. 

It seems when you rely on God, you really, truly come to understand just how much you have to be thankful for. Even on a lousy day.

So it's Monday, the start of a new week. Where to begin? How about you stop, take a deep breath and think. 

Or better yet, thank. 

Thank God for the gift of a new day. 

Listen to your neighborhood, the sounds of new beginnings, for birds and children, trash trucks and school buses. Maybe you live in the country and can listen to the clip-clop-clip-clop of horse hooves on the road. 

Thank God for ears that hear.

The sun is getting up later than usual. Maybe it's been awhile since you sat in silence and watched the sun climb out from below the horizon, shake off the cloak of darkness and shine with the glory of the Creator. 

Thank God for eyes to see.

Your turn. Slow down-- stop, even. Rest in the lap of the Lord and give thanks.

Amen.