The Issue Is Not the Issue: thankfulness as a posture.

In this season it has been taught to me the reality of our ingratuitous heart and its centrality to the circumstantial nature of our complaints.
Holy One, grant unto me, unto us, a thankful heart.

Thank you for the stuff I have that I don't need.
Thank you for a bed, a closet full of clothes, a TV, movies, books and furniture.
...stuff I have that I don't need.
Thank you for a house to live in, a room with space for all my stuff, a living room, a shower, a kitchen and a yard--a little space to get outside of myself and experience a touch of creation.
...stuff I have that I don't need.
Thank you for a rational mind, some knowledge, a little bit of wisdom and lots of learning.
...stuff I have that I don't need.

Thank you for the things that I have but that I don't deserve.
Thank you for a semi-healthy body with a pumping heart, an ounce of capacity for loving and a seeing into the deeper things.
...things that I have but that I don't deserve.
Thank you for my emotional faculties as well.
Thank you for a beautiful wife who knows and has experienced my innermost darkness yet still has the capacity to think I'm worth something.
...things that I have but that I don't deserve.
Thank you for an invitation into the Community when all I had ever known was familial dysfunction.
Thank you for a mother, a father, a sister and extended family who are still living.
...things that I have but that I don't deserve.
Thank you for relationships that are deep--touching the soul--and those that are not.
Thank you for a mentor, friend and brother who sees a little bit of something in me to affirm.
...things that I have but that I don't deserve.

Thank you for realities that are accessible to us even though we don't understand them fully.
Thank you for the possibility to know you, to live with you, to be with you without any shame.
...realities that are accessible to us even though we don't understand them fully.
Thank you for freedom from sin, from sexual dysfunction, from bad habits, death cycles and ignorance.
Thank you for healing.
Thank you for rythms in which we can access your grace.
...realities that are accessible to us even though we don't understand them fully.
Thank you for the possibility of enjoying life, of living life, of experiencing life.
Thank you for the actuality of being a blessing instead of a cursing.
...realities that are accessible to us even though we don't understand them fully.

Thank you for things of the past, things of today, and those of the future as well.
May we be proved blameless in your sight.