Lots of thoughts lately about next steps for the FREEDOM TOUR.
How can we do more for the kids at the Home of Hope? Who can we bring into the circle? Where is God leading us?
All great, meaningful questions worth asking, but as I scan the list of What’s Next possibilities I realize I need to add one essential question.
Am I Grateful?
I don’t mean the cursory Thanks-God-Now-Let’s-Get-On-To-The-Next-Thing kind of grateful. I’m talking about a grateful heart.
Some other project gets more attention and I’m sure we’ll never attract the people we need.
I don’t get the desired response and I wonder why “no one” supports us.
You see the pattern, right?
I’m jealously grasping for more as though every element of my past experience tells me God won’t provide abundantly. And while in a moment I may feel jealous or stuck or disappointed or whatever, those momentary feelings cause me to make up a story that simply isn’t true.
I could choose to be grateful for what we have. I could look back and count the blessings and trace God’s faithfulness through the history of this crazy project.
The truth is I can’t make a list long enough to contain all the things for which I’m grateful.
- I’m grateful for deep, lifetime friendships, for people who’ve shown me what servant leadership looks like.
- I’m grateful for sponsor organizations and individuals who gave sacrificially and allowed us to send more than $60,000 to the kids at the Home of Hope over three years.
- I’m grateful to everyone who’s joined the circle by reading the blog, buying a jersey, doing a one-day ride, supporting a rider financially, praying for us, or joining the 500-mile team.
- I’m grateful to the men at Harvest Farm who show me what it means to surrender and truly embrace a New Life.
Like I said, I can’t make the list long enough. But when I begin making the list my entire attitude changes. Listing these items refocuses my vision from what I don’t have to what I do have. Doing so reshapes my heart and opens my hands.
Rather than grasping, I’m releasing–and I’m open to receiving.
What’s on your list?
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