30 Days of Thanks - Day 16 - Good Coffee, Strong Coffee

At times it is a luxury - a joyous experience with room for exploration and creativity. Many times it is a necessity - requiring all the caffeine you can handle to make it through, or recover from, an all-nighter. It can help to stimulate and open up restricted airways and sinus passages. It can be a simple comfort on a rough day; a conversation carrier with old friends; a tasty treat to warm you when it is frigid. Whatever the case, I am thankful for that great gift from God that is coffee!

30 Days of Thanks - Day 15 - Peacemakers

Once upon a time in China, two rival lords were entangled in grueling land and trade negotiations. As discussion progressed, one lord felt as if the denial of certain concessions by the other had dishonored him. This lord decided to avenge himself, gathering the entirety of his troops and moving toward a hillside on the border between the two territories. The other lord, hearing of this movement, gathered his troops and camped in the plain a ways off from the hillside. This lord had managed to muster a more impressive army than the other yet the avenging lord still sought war.

The night before going to battle, the avenging lord sought the advice of a local sage. This sage had also heard of the plans and that the lord was coming to him for direction. The sage knew, too, that the lord was set on action and was unwilling to withdraw. When the lord approached him, the sage arose and began walking toward the camp. The sage declared, "Come. We must work quickly to finish before the sun rises. I will arrange your troops in a formation that will assure true victory and you will rest to prepare to receive it." The lord followed the sage back to camp, excited about his upcoming victory. He put the soldiers at the sage's command and went to his tent to rest.

As daylight broke, the lord emerged from his tent in full dress for victory. He saw that his troops had been arranged in a strange row formation over the course of the night and he smiled at the thought that this would bring him what he desired. Shortly after sunrise, the other lord sent over a delegation to speak with him. "Good," he thought. "This formation is so fearsome, I have already won."

The other lord sent the following declaration: "Greetings. When I had heard that you had gathered troops to advance on my territory, I became furious and gathered the force you see across the plain. However, having seen your message displayed upon the hillside this morning, I know now that I was mistaken. I offer to you the concessions that you requested in our meetings in light of this. I see now the sincerity you give to our alliance. There shall be peace between us as long as we both shall live."

The lord stood, looking at the hill. The sage had arranged the troops in a formation that assured true victory.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." - Matthew 5:9

A peacemaker, like the sage, knows that a force that cannot be stopped must be redirected.

As far as I know, I just came up with the story above so: Copyright 2011 by Shannon Nichols.

For a good series on the Chinese written language:

How to Write 'Friend' in Chinese -- powered by ehow

30 Days of Thanks - Day 14 - Everything Matters

"For a brief time, I was here; and for a brief time, I mattered." - Harlan Ellison

We must face the fact that everything we do ultimately - through the cause and effect nature of our universe - matters. Someone is affected and, therefore, someone else is affected and so on ad infinitum. When we understand this, we should better value the time we spend here.

30 Days of Thanks - Day 13 - Community

I am thankful for community [1]. I am thankful that we were never meant to go it alone; that the first thing God says is "not good" is for a man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). I am thankful that God exists within a Community unto Himself and thus why He recognized this. I am thankful that there are many types of community - the family, the team, the club, the class, the group, the church, the Church [2]. I am thankful that we are called to support, encourage, build up, care for, provide for, correct, teach, guide, submit to, receive, love, and strengthen each other. I am thankful that what is commonly called "The LORD's Prayer" or the "Our Father" uses the inclusive language of community:

Our Father . . .

Give us this day our daily bread . . .

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us . . .

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil . . .

I am thankful that this community known as the Kingdom of Heaven - the Kingdom of God - is opened to us by a God who wants to be in communion with us and wants to repair the separation we have ultimately caused [3]. I am thankful that we can join together, that we can work together, and that we can make peace.

[1] I am not talking about the television show which I have never seen.

[2] Note the capital C.

[3] Caused between us and God as well as between ourselves.

30 Days of Thanks - Day 12 - Wide Margins

I once heard that anyone who reads a book without a pen in hand is not really reading. I would have to agree. Underlining or bracketing passages, jotting down notes, and interacting with the text brings that greater life to reading. As such, wide margins are a treat to any dedicated reader. These give you the space to become intimate with the work - merging minds as you scrawl out your meditations and make the codex an old friend. These margins must be clean. Lined margins steal space and constrict the relationship. The size of the margins must also be nonrestrictive to the size of the type. What good is it to increase your space at the sacrifice of the connecting area? Unfortunately, most wide-margin Bibles have yet to understand these two conditions and also seem to enjoy maintaining a two column format which makes the provision of wide margins even more pointless.

Though it may sound silly, I am thankful for wide margins that allow me to turn my reading into a conversation.

30 Days of Thanks - Day 11 - Veterans' Day

I am thankful for the liberties I enjoy at ease - those for which others have fought and died. I am therefore at greater thanks to those whom have struggled to secure those liberties for myself and others. May we not forget those who bind their lives to loosen the bonds of others.

"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." - John Philpot Curran

"The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters." - Frederick Douglas

30 Days of Thanks - Day 10 - Doctor Who

He is a cross between James Bond and MacGyver, travels through time and space (and, occasionally dimension) aboard a ship that looks like a tiny police box [1] but is far bigger on the inside, is of a species of regenerating aliens known as Time Lords, fights off various fiends who would enslave or destroy, tries to hope for the best from others, enhances his companions lives, has found more uses for a screwdriver than you could imagine [2], and genuinely enjoys the adventure of it all. What is not to like? [3] Honestly, the character has a special place in my heart - a heroic potential that beckons me to influence the lives of others for the better even if it may seem crazy at times.

[1] His TARDIS (or Time And Relative Dimension in Space) has a faulty cloaking device so it is stuck looking like a 1960s-style London police box (a phone booth for police communication or calling the police). Note that this was done before Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

[2] The sonic screwdriver is a wonderfully nifty plot device.

[3] Granted, the best Doctor by far was the Tenth, played by David Tennant who decided to pursue the actor's path at the age of three because of his love for Doctor Who (specifically the Fifth Doctor, which is slyly referenced in the Children in Need 2007 mini-sode below).

30 Days of Thanks - Day 9 - Music

I think the best way to explain this one is through a series of quotes (and a good song at the end).

"Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in tough times of my life I can listen to music and it makes such a difference." - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

"Without music, life would be a mistake." - Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

"Song opens a window to the secret places of the soul." - Habad

"He who sings frightens away his ills." - Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

"God sent his Singers upon the earth

With songs of sadness and of mirth,

That they might touch the hearts of men,

And bring them back to heaven again." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Singers

"In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it." - C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

"There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad. For a long while they sang only each alone, or but few together, while the rest hearkened; for each comprehended only that part of the mind of Ilúvatar from which he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony. And it came to pass that Ilúvatar called together all the Ainur and declared to them a mighty theme, unfolding to them things greater and more wonderful than he had yet revealed; and the glory of its beginning and the splendour of its end amazed the Ainur, so that they bowed before Ilúvatar and were silent. Then Ilúvatar said to them: 'Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I will sit and hearken, and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song." J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

30 Days of Thanks - Day 8 - Election

No, I am not referring to the selection of blithering idiots by other blithering idiots that is going on today; I refer instead to the election of us blithering idiots by a King who deserves much better - the election to salvation.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

-Romans 8:29-39 (NRSV)

I am thankful that this is not an election of exclusion, but one of inclusion - we become family. It is an election motivated by compassion - He recognized our plight. It is an election to salvage and restore. It is an election that will end with things being set right. Thank You.

30 Days of Thanks - Day 7 - The Spoken Word

Last night, as I listened to my church's worship leader explain the concept of worship to our kids [1], I contemplated the beauty of the spoken word. The simple fact that we can communicate is reason enough to be impressed, but the further concept of linguistic evolution - the change and development of language over time to meet the needs of those who use it - makes the spoken word a jewel of human experience. So much good can be done, yet so much evil as well.

I am thankful for the spoken word. Thankful enough to respect it and make the effort to use it wisely. Our tongues can do so much - building up and tearing down empires. The question remains: what will you do with yours?

[1] He used John 3:30 - "He must increase, but I must decrease" - as the thesis for the discussion. Brilliant!