Thankfulness - Guest Post by Bryan Norford

It’s all too easy to complain, isn’t it? Yet at the same time, we long for contentment. Complaint and contentment are incompatible. And the truth is, we have far more to be thankful for than to complain about.

But isn’t it simplistic to say the supreme gratitude for the abundant life in Christ we have now, outranks complaint of any person or problem that comes our way. Of course, if we fail to express thankfulness, it will seem simplistic.

The supreme value of thankfulness, is it’s ability to raise us up to the place where we belong, seated with the Father in heavenly places. Without it, we wallow in the dirt of earth, often seeking contentment in the surrounding environment. The world offers nothing but fading hope.

Godliness with contentment is great gain (1Tim. 6:6). Real contentment is impossible without fellowship with God. And that is based on our thankfulness to Him. God’s will for us in Christ is: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances,” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

Humankind declines into a futile mind and a darkened heart when lacking two essentials: recognizing God’s glory and thanking Him (Rom. 1:21). So commences a downward spiral. The reverse process leads to an opposite conclusion.

Acknowledging God’s eternal power and nature and giving Him thanks raises us above our earthly problems and pursuits, to a place of pervading joy that dominates the changing scenes of life. Thankfulness brings contentment by changing our attitudes to an unpredictable life.

My necessary prayer is to thank God for wife and family, food, clothing, shelter in abundance, a soft chair and a warm bed. Despite encroaching prostate cancer, I still have sufficient health, strength, and the ability to write. I have contentment where I am.

May 2017 be a year of renewed thankfulness for the continuing daily provision from His hand, the abundant life promised, and the eternal life to come.

SETBACKS: PART OF THE PROCESS by Bryan Norford

It is wonderful to welcome back one of our long time contributors, now turned guest blogger - Bryan Norford - who is weighing in on this months topic. Enjoy his sage advice.

I’ve been reading with both favour and concern the blogs this month on the “dry times.” With favour, because most recognize those times are part of life. Solomon wrote, “There is a time for everything,” Eccl. 3:1. That prompted the following from my devotional in our book, Happy Together.

There’s nothing like a day of accomplishment when everything goes according to plan and is complete. But we also have frustrating days of redo, repair, or failure, achieving nothing of significance.

Upon reflection, we realize that there must be times for preparation, planning, and evaluation; times for correcting previous work or adapting to changing circumstances; even times for rethinking and renewing the way we live.

In the big picture both the time of advance and apparent retreat are all part of the same process. To advance tomorrow as we did yesterday, we may need to retrench today. Today’s reading gives some rationale to this process. In it we recognize a bigger picture than we can see, even when questions are unanswered: “the burden God has laid on men.”

This is particularly true of the setbacks of life, which baffle us. At those times, Ecclesiastes exhorts us to find satisfaction in the daily routine, recognizing that every day has meaning in God’s bigger picture beyond our grasp.

But I also read others with concern, typified by Shirley Tye’s honest blog, of the frustration so many experience during those times. My experience has been so different. Let me suggest some reasons why.

I didn’t start serious writing until I was in my mid sixties, and then I only wrote those things I felt passionate about. Unfortunately the older I get, the more I feel passionate about, and my continuing problem is how to fit in all I am constrained to write.

Consequently, apart from the initial  panic staring at a blank page we all have at times, I have never had a dry period to contest. Of course, I have the advantage of being retired, and I don’t need to write to make money. Nor does erratic response—even no response!—dictate what I write.

My primary motivation in writing is the legacy I feel compelled to leave. First, of course, to my family—children, grandchildren, great grandchildren—but also to the wider community after my departure.

Now, at eighty, with prostate cancer creeping into my bones, I still have so much on my heart to write, and I’m not sure I’ll have time to complete it! Check my website to see some of my work over the last fifteen years or so: http://www.pebblepress.ca/

So let me finish with some good advice from Strunk and White’s, The Elements of Style, that always lurks in the back of my mind.

It is now necessary to warn you that your concern for the reader must be pure: you must sympathize with the reader’s plight (most readers are in trouble about half the time) but never seek to know the reader’s wants. Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one. Start sniffing the air, or glancing at the Trend Machine, and you are as good as dead, although you may make a nice living. (p. 84)

REMEMBERING THE PAST by Bryan Norford

Knowledge of the past is essential to living in the future. The quote above is the reason history repeats itself; even our personal lives bear this out. If we fail to learn from others’ mistakes, preferring to learn from our own, we risk re-inventiing the wheel with its attendant disadvantages and trauma.

So what mistakes did I make that I could have avoided if I’d listened to God’s wisdom from his Word and others’ experience? What memories now haunt and bless me as I approach my eightieth birthday?

With sadness, missed opportunities that I will never have again, come to mind. Fear, laziness, ambition, all contributed to life decisions that undoubtedly reduced the quality and joy of life for my family. I believe it is only by the grace of God that they had a less serious effect than they could have.

Following God’s will provides the most meaningful life. My personal desires, and less than enthusiastic embrace of the Christian faith earlier in life, took me in a different direction. It’s just too bad we end life with the experience we need for life and start our life without it!

But these memories are counterbalanced by looking back to see God’s hand in my life and in my family, despite my waywardness. The goodness and graciousness of God are overwhelming. We still face challenges, but the knowledge and experience of God’s care continually overcomes fear and uncertainty.

Now as age and health issues catch up with me, I have decided to reduce my commitments to a lesser number, so that I can give better attention to those issues important to Ann and our growing family. As a result, I regret I will no longer be a regular contributor to this blog.

Participating in the InScribe blog has been a worthwhile journey, as every writing experience contributes to personal skills. But particularly, to share faith and experience together is strengthening for all of us. I’m grateful for the many experiences shared by all of you, and also the kind comments in response to my own.

However, thanks to Tracy’s gracious invitation, I may meet you here on occasion as guest blogger. I will also share our ongoing experiences on my personal blog at Norfords’ Ramblings, where I can achieve a broader, if more irregular, expression. Perhaps we can also meet there occasionally.

And to all of us—for time and eternity: “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” Jude 24–25.

THANKFULNESS FIRST by Bryan Norford

 

Why is it that we tend to blame God for the difficult times of life, but credit ourselves when things go right? Clearly that cussed nature inherited from our earliest forebears still dogs us all, even when we know different.

The exhortations in Scripture and frequent calls from the pulpit to be thankful—even the theme for this month’s blog—only emphasize this tendency. Do we really need a special day in October to be sure we’re thankful?

The Bible even goes so far as to suggest lack of thankfulness is the leading edge of futile thinking, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened,” Romans 1:21, my emphasis.

An inspired thought: clarity of mind comes from thankfulness. Without it our view of life is distorted and unreliable. Absence of thankfulness only feeds into a pervading view that God is somehow responsible for our ills. We concentrate on the darkness around us, with increasing resignation, bitterness, or anger.

None of us reach the older years of life without having faced distressing circumstances. I have been impressed this month with InScribe blogs where members have described the most difficult conditions of life, yet allied with evidence that thankfulness was the bridge holding each one up over those troubled waters.

This thankfulness would not initially be for the experience, but thankfulness during it. As we are exhorted, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus,” 1 Thessalonians 5:18. But of greater value is the almost universal idea that adversity brought new understanding of our faith and a more intimate walk with God.

The hardships we experience are not to be desired or sought, but adverse times teach us much we cannot gain in less oppressive episodes. In all circumstances, our joy, peace, and sense of well-being, all depend on being thankful.

I believe that was Paul’s secret to contentment.  “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want,” Philippians 4:12.  

May it always be ours.

WHY WRITE? by Bryan Norford

It's Always Different

I have been fascinated while reading our September blogs by the variety of paths that inspire writing. Those stories relate surprising and intricate ways God has brought many InScribers to write for Him, and I confess provoke a little envy that my journey is just plain ordinary.

But the form of our call is does not determine its importance. God has a storehouse of methods to gain our attention and call His people to action, more than we can imagine. Furthermore, His timing does not always coincide with ours.

I didn’t venture into serious writing until my late sixties. But I was always intrigued how versatile the English language is, particularly in determining the tone of our message, whether to friends, in ministry, or for business documents.

During those earlier years, like many people, I always had a vague desire to “write my story some day.” But as I grew towards retirement and an increasing assurance of my faith, I became incensed with so much arrogant nonsense our declining culture calls truth.

 With the Great Grandkids

Coupled with that, our growing family of grandchildren and great grandchildren became the focus of our concern and prayers. We didn’t want our dear family caught up in falling and failing values that increasingly bring misery.

So began a journey to leave a legacy of basic truths of our faith, and their relevance to a joyful life of meaning: a life not dependent on earthly health or wealth, but energized by a settled status with God and his eternal reality.

The words of Paul continue to be my motivation, “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal,” 2 Corinthians 4:18. Little in this life makes sense without this starting point.

Thus, among other areas of ministry Ann and I feel called to in our latter years of life, writing has become a major focus—as long as we remain coherent! A written legacy of faith will reach further into coming generations than spoken words that dissolve in the wind.

Sixty Years Married