I’m Sooooooo Thankful - June 25, 2007

Campmeeting just ended this past Saturday.  As a pastor, campmeeting is somewhat of a “thorn-in-my-flesh” situation that occurs every year.  You get together to do some planning in preparation for the 10 day event a few times with the other pastors who have been assigned in the same area as you are.  Then the week before campmeeting all the pastors meet in Auburn at Auburn Adventist Academy (the site of our annual campmeeting) to set up tents, put up thousands of chairs, and do whatever else needs to be done to prepare for the thousands of people that will be coming from all over western Washington for this event.  After “camp pitch” is done (generally by Tuesday) we come back on Thursday for the festivities to begin. 

Throughout the week I found myself complaining quite a bit (as I do every year).  I commute from Seattle and it just wipes me out going down to Auburn every day to do this thing.  But then this year I was challenged by a good friend of mine to start thinking about the positive.  He told me that every day that he wakes up that he thanks God for the things that he is thankful for. 

The next day I tried it.  And I limited myself to thanking God for the things that I am thankful for at campmeeting.  The night before I heard about a girl who surrendered her life to Jesus and I was thankful for that.  I was thankful for the opportunity to work with new people.  I was thankful for all the lives that were being impacted by God throughout the course of the week (including my own).  I was thankful for the opportunity to see old friends and I was thankful for the cool weather.  When I was done I was thankful and not bitter.  That you Greg for the tip! 

Posted by matthew gamble on June 25, 2007 at 08:39 AM
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