no thanks

спасибо (spa-SEE-ba): thank you; an expression of gratitude


I rarely hear this word at the youth center. And the absence of it drives me nuts. 


Give them a gift, and if they don't like it, they throw it on the floor and demand something better.


Award them a prize for a competition or successfully-completed lesson, and they snatch it and run off with it, or complain if it's not what they wanted.


For the daily food they're given, less than half of them usually offer any word of gratitude for it.


Volunteers come to spend time with them, play games and organize activities, and seldom if ever do they even say a simple "спасибо."


I look at all they're given, all that's offered to them and at how ungrateful they are for it, and the blatant ugliness of it sickens me.


But am I guilty of the same?


How many times a day do I walk right past the very wonders of God without even acknowledging them?

(photo by my talented friend, Grace Thornton)

The very ground I walk on is littered with hand-crafted bits of art which declare the glory and the beauty of the One who made it all.

I have breath in my lungs, legs to carry me where I will, eyes and ears and nose and mouth to take in all the glory that He daily, moment by moment, delights in creating and sustaining.

Friends, family, laughter, textures, colors, sounds, feelings, moments...each bit is a gift, each an invitation into joy and life everlasting from the Glorious King of All Kings. And a humble offering of heart-glad thanksgiving is my part in this holy communion which is the very substance of life. But when I forget to see, when I pass it all by, when instead of offering thanks for all that He gives, I instead complain for that which I think He has not given...I'm just as steeped in the ugliness and pain of ingratitude as my dear aggravating kids who don't know Him and this life that is so full of Him, full of joy and wonder and all the goodness our hearts ache for.

thank You

Thank You for life, and for teaching me how to live it. I don't quite have it down...I still forget, still stumble, still complain and still judge...but I'm learning...I'm learning that knowing You is all there is, and all there ever could be, and knowing and making You known is the heartbeat of my life. Thank You. And thank You for these kids, through whom You've taught me so much. 

I have a hope. I hope that one day those kids will be raising their voices and hands and lives with me in a joyful chorus of thanksgiving to Love Himself. Lofty, perhaps. But He can do all things, after all. He can even redeem a lowly, ungrateful wretch like me. And that's saying something.