I am thankful to the Lord and my Savior Jesus Christ…
- For the song “Blocks” by Derek Webb, a deeply honest and unabashedly sincere ballad of longing for love.
- For Social Media and the joy of constant interaction with others—old friends and new, digital acquaintances alike.
- For potatoes and the various forms one can prepare them.
- That The Hobbit is a trilogy now. As long as it is good, it means more time in Middle Earth, certainly my favorite fictional universe since pre-1983 Star Wars.
- For films – Specifically Apocalypto, Before Sunrise, Do the Right Thing, Slacker, Hoop Dreams, Schindler’s List, Blade Runner, and Emma
- To be a child of the 80s – G.I.Joe, Ninja Turtles, NES, national pride, cassette tapes, mom-and-pop rental stores. I am so blessed to not a be child right now. Children in the 2000s have social and material pressures I cannot imagine. The need for a cell phone, the assault of media without end, the loss of innocence thanks to internet deviance--kids, particularly those with two working parents and in public school, have it rough.
- For nieces and nephews who have given me a glimpse of what it would have been like to have younger siblings and children. Love ‘em all.
- For the success of Pixar animation studio. Quality work such as good as theirs deserves to be awarded and appreciated
- For my faith, the faith of my parents and a great number of witnesses before me. I adore having a worldview with a powerful, almighty God at its head and a beautiful, sacrificial Savior at its center. I love salvation and basking in the grace afforded me.
- For church families I have known throughout my years. I am thankful for the peers, the mentors, the young, and the time spent them with them all. As we look for a new church family here on the East Coast, I do so with great anticipation for the new relationships we will form
- For my wife. That woman…she puts up with a lot. Always.
- For different translations of the Bible. I feel as though every language after the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic is something of a remix/adaptation of the Spirit-breathed text, but they all seem to lend their own beauty to the meaning. I don’t care if the KJV have less accurate semantic choices than the ESV, some passages of the KJV are lyrically breathtaking.
- For deeper literacy in regard to not only words but images. I love the fact that books and films are more complex now than they were when I was a teen or even a college student. I am so thankful that the time invested in learning how to better experience art yields exponential rewards so constantly.
- For the success of Scott Derrickson. Scott was an adjunct who taught my foreign Film Studies class at Biola University. He was forthcoming and insightful and fair, and his most recent film, Sinister, has made over 15x its production budget. I just love the fact that he is doing so well right now.
- For my hearing. I love the music of instruments and the music of life--the bubbling of a brook and the rustling of wind in the leaves, the laughter of children of play and the percussive symphony of a hundred runners racing.
- For creativity and the practice thereof. It is no secret that I am a staunch ultimate creationist (meaning that God is the source of existence, regardless of the mechanism by which he brought it). When I create, whether with Lego or putting words on the page, I feel I am echoing the action by which all existence was made manifest.
- For my family and friends. I have a wonderful family, I married into a wonderful family. I have wonderful friends, and I am blessed.
- For fictional creatures: minotaurs, griffons, goblins, orcs, and gnomes. They are just so much fun. Also, pegasus. A horse with wings? Excellent.
- For modern plumbing. Showers, toilets, running water.
- For my teeth. I have the strangest dreams about losing my teeth, and I always become so disheartened. I think it’s because I know I have not taken care of them as I should and my subconscious is in a constant state of reconciling that carelessness with my fairly balanced pursuit of health for the rest of my body. I am glad I have not lost my chompers yet.
- For Crackers and Cheese. Any meal of the day, any day of the week, I can make this work for me. Oh snap, for breakfast get some scrambled egg on that jaunt—delicious.
- For Books
- For Pants.
- For Laughter. What a wonderful experience laughing is.
- That my novel has gone out to readers. I am thankful I am in a place spiritually, emotionally, and physically to have written a novel, and I am thankful that this week, I was finally able to share that completed work with a select group who will help me improve it.
- For my relationship with Jesus Christ. Answered prayers, inherent joy, peace in the face of uncertainty, and a longing to experience and express eternal love—Jesus gives it all and fulfills it.
- For the current, extended stint I have had without giving into lust’s temptation.
- For the paradigm the internet has enabled for the dissemination of independent art such as books, music, and film. The day’s of limited exposure due to cultural gatekeepers has truly shifted, and the inmates are starting run the asylum. This has led to my discovering a wonderful array of art I would not have otherwise.
- That I do not have a lot of money right now due to my lack of full time employment. The Lord provided a job for my wife so that our month to month bills are covered for phone, storage, etc; but our spending cash is severely limited. This has forced me to grow and be much more discern with my fiscal choices. I truly am thankful for this sanctification. That being said, I do lok forward to working full-time again, when that right fit is presented.
- For the work of David Fincher, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Spike Lee, and Donald Miller
- For food. Man, I love food.
Wow, so we got overlap and some oddballs,
but there you have it. Funny thing. As
soon as I finished, about another dozen things flooded my mind. For what are
you thankful?
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