“You’re blessed,” friends told me when on hearing about the Considine-side Thanksgiving gathering.
“I don’t take it for granted,” was my reply.
Not For Granted
I don’t take it for granted that my aunt and uncle have an ample house and are willing to host 94 of us. Yes, 94—and that doesn’t count the two in utero.
I don’t take it for granted that I have a boatload of first-cousins who like to be together.
Nor do I take for granted that we 94 have health enough to travel for hours and to savor all that food.
I don’t take it for granted that my blind Aunt Judy can play any hymn by ear if you call out the key or that my family allows me to call them out liberally.
I don’t take it for granted that ago Grandma and Grandpa Considine set the pace for celebrating this way.
Nor do I take for granted that dad gets along with his siblings or the harvest of righteousness that came from my mom and dad, and my aunts and uncles, generously sowing peace.
I don’t take it for granted that every bit of it, every good and every perfect gift, comes from above (James 1:17). For what do we have that we did not receive (1 Corinthians 4:7)?
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?“
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:35-36).
God Does Not Like to Be Taken for Granted
Despite my list above, I am aware that I am unaware of so many of God’s blessings. My spiritual sensitivity is lacking. Even if my heart is not calloused like the palms of my hang-bar hands, it is still dull. It does not perceive God’s goodness as acutely as it should.
I want to sense God’s blessings like I sense the tiniest pebbles in my running shoe.
I want to feel every one of God’s blessings like the princess felt the pea.
Not, by the way, because I want to be a princess, but because God is worthy of all my praise.
We know this. For we have tasted and seen that God is good. We know that we were raised from death to life for this reason: to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9b).
But do we also know why?
The reason God does not like being taken for granted is not only that it robs him of glory, but also that it robs me of joy… [T]hese two goals — God’s goal to be glorified and my desire to be satisfied — are not at odds. Because God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him.
God is a very important person and he does not like being taken for granted. . .It flies in the face of his eternal purposes: that he be known, loved, praised, and enjoyed.
Yes, we know why.
God is a very important person
John Piper, “God is a Very important Person“
and he does not like being taken for granted.
“Where are the Nine?”
Christians should be the last people on earth to take any gift for granted. In fact, we ought to be the most thanks-giving people on the planet. Believers in Jesus should be thankers—thanking God people, thanking people, thanking God for all sorts of things and all kinds of people.
And, most of all, thanking God “for his indescribable gift.”
But also, I think, thanking Jesus Christ.
Remember when Jesus healed the 10 lepers, and only one returned to thank him? It’s recorded in Luke 17:11-19. The punchline is in verse 17:
“Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?”
When this “foreigner” returns to Jesus, he falls at his feet, and gives thanks. The Greek word for “thanksgiving” in Luke 17 is eucharistéō, which means more than saying “thank you.” It describes active worship.
In response to such grateful worship, Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well.” The other nine got their physical healing. But this leper alone experienced a whole, healed heart—sensitive and responsive to God’s gift.
He did not take Jesus for granted.
Easy for You to Say
“Easy for you to say,” you say. “You have so much—a loving family and health and friends.”
You’re right. I do.
And so do you. You might not feel like you do—you might not feel like the tender Princess atop her mattress stack—but you do have blessings beneath you, around you.
I know you do. This “not for granted” business is real.
I know it is true because I see it.
I saw it in a dear friend’s Caring Bridge post tonight. Her husband’s cancer is back with a vengeance. First my friend and her 20-year-old daughter listed very difficult updates since Friday’s CT scans.
Then, they ended the update in exquisite princess fashion.
“Throughout these intense few days, we were able to have family come . . .support we couldn’t be more thankful for with the emotional roller coaster we’ve been on. Also, thanks to all the love and support from family and friends, Mom and I were able to stay close at a hotel throughout the storms giving us more time to be there for __. We would not have been able to do this without that support, and we are deeply grateful for it.
God has shown his presence so much in these last few days. His presence has been our anchor, our rock we hold fast upon, and he has never failed us. Daily we pray, and ask you to join us in that prayer, that he be glorified always, that his will be done, and that we will have the strength to see it through.”
My friend takes nothing for granted. Thanks… couldn’t be more thankful… deeply grateful. God has shown his presence.
This was the one leper’s realization, too. He saw that Jesus doesn’t just heal bodies. Christ our hope in life and death—our only salvation—gives us himself.
We do not, we dare not, take that for granted.
And we feel like a princess.
Will you join me in praying for this family?
More on how to feel like a princess, or a prince, when God’s love does not feel comfortable:
Spiritual sensitivity…to see every day with fresh eyes and great gratitude what is always, always there. It is good to hold fellowship with you, sister, that we can remind each other when needed.
I have just joined you in praying for your friend and her family. 😢
Thank you, Cindy. Yes. To hold fellowship that we can remind—stir up, exhort, encourage—is good. Thank you for praying. They met with the oncology team today.