Thanks a lot

I'm sure everyone will be doing Thanksgiving themed posts today, and not to be left out I am doing one too.... with a twist. Have you ever said, "thanks a lot!" meaning you were anything but grateful? I know I have, there are situations when its tough to see outside of the current circumstance to things that you truly are thankful for. Its not as if there is nothing to be thankful for, just in those moments nothing comes to mind.

Below I have picked out some circumstance from the Bible, which while seemingly bizarre at times, are met with thanksgiving.

1CH 16:4 "He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, to make petition, to give thanks, and to praise the LORD, the God of Israel:" -Seems reasonable enough, but consider this, these Levites were tasked to do this as their job. How often are we thankful when getting assigned more tasks at work?


DAN 6:10 "Now when Daniel learned that the decree [pray only to the King of Persia] had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before." -What!? Who is thankful for one of their daily activities being suddenly punishable through death by lion? Are we thankful in the face of hard times?

JOH 6:11 [Feeding of the 5000] "Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish." -5 loaves and 2 fishes against 5000 hungry mouths. These odds did not look good, and yet Jesus gave thanks. Are we thankful for what we have, even when it doesn't seem like its enough? How about when Gods provides for us out of those meager circumstances?


PHI 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." -When was the last time you were thankful for a need you had? Ever tried to ask for a really big favor thankfully?

The list goes on, but the point is there is more to thanksgiving than a holiday with turkey and football. That being said, I am thankful for both turkey and football, and for a holiday that celebrates these two things simultaneously.

Blue Carpet Madness

So as I mentioned earlier, I am done with grad school for the semester. While, my major (Leadership and Management) is not incredibly challenging, and I only took two courses (night classes), it did take up a significant amount of time. On top of that I am going to school full time for the Army at the Field Artillery Advanced Course.

Our classroom is a high tech design with interactive laptops and projectors and all sorts of g-wizardry. It also happens to be completely covered with blue carpet; floors, walls, everything ~ hence the blue carpet madness. There are no windows and we spend upwards of 12 hours a day in it doing everything from mission analysis to classes given in the PowerPoint marathon format. The funny thing is, I am so busy there trying to learn everything and develop myself as a better officer, that I hardly notice the time or the blue carpet anymore.

Now, the church that we started attending here in Lawton is also covered with carpet, its brown carpet but carpet none the less ("They say taupe is very soothing"). I spend maybe an hour and half in the brown carpet sanctuary every week, yet somehow I manage to track every second of that time, and definitely take notice of the carpet. The thing is I should be so much more invested in the knowledge being put forth in the brown carpet madness than the blue carpet madness, yet somehow I have problems making the transition. I've written a lot about priorities in the past, and I think this falls into that category but, I find myself asking, Am I focusing too much on the "blue carpet" and not enough on the "brown carpet"?

In the words of Uncle L....

Don't call it a come back.
With this semester's Grad School courses behind me, and under pressure from the wife, cousin's wife, and my sister who are all torching the interweb daily as a part of NaBloPoMo- NoGoToSleepoWithoutYourBlogWritteno I have decided to relaunch G.I. Josephus.
Look for more exciting posts coming soon to IP addresses near you.