Last month I turned forty. For some that’s old, for others it’s young. For me, I feel the same way I did at thirty-nine! But turning forty seemed like a good time to stop and reflect on God’s goodness in my life. So on the morning of my birthday, I took a couple hours and wrote down forty things I’m thankful for at age forty. There’s not a strict order to my list, but it does move more or less chronologically through my life.

Upon turning forty, I thank God for:

  • Creating me.
  • Choosing me to be his child before I was born.
  • Opening my eyes to see the truth, goodness, and beauty of Jesus Christ.
  • Uniting me to Jesus eternally.
  • Putting all my sins on Jesus and Jesus’ righteousness on me.
  • Giving me the Holy Spirit.
  • Adopting me into his forever family.
  • Loving me and liking me.
  • Allowing his word to come to me in my own language.
  • Coming to me on a Sunday afternoon after church when I was seven years old to make me his own.
  • Using this life to prepare me for the next.
  • Creating hope in my heart that this life is not all there is.
  • Never leaving or abandoning or ignoring me.
  • Allowing me to be born into a Christian family.
  • Allowing me to grow up in church, hearing the Bible taught, preached, sung, and prayed.
  • Allowing me to grow up around Christian grandparents who modeled for me what the Christian faith looked like.
  • A mother who sacrificed so much for my good.
  • A mother who instilled in me a love for learning and a joy in discovering all the wonders and treasures in God’s world.
  • Growing up in a small town.
  • Growing up in an environment where hard work and character mattered.
  • Growing up (mostly) without cable television or the internet so that being outside was normal and even preferable.
  • Growing up on ten acres of land where my siblings and I could explore and have adventures in the woods and creeks of East Texas.
  • Jennifer, a rock and friend and counselor, my sister in blood and in faith.
  • Josh, a joy and challenger and friend, my brother in blood and in faith.
  • My Dad modeling for me a love for the Bible and the church.
  • My Mom and Dad teaching me (indirectly) how to teach and showing me the joy and value of giving your life for the good of others.
  • The pain from my parent’s divorce that has pushed me and keeps pushing me into the arms of my Heavenly Father.
  • Countless trials and afflictions and sins and burdens and tragedies and disruptions in my life that have created and increase a longing in me for a new world and a new body with no more sin or sadness, a world where I will finally and fully see and be seen.
  • Suzy – where would I be and who would I be without her?
  • One third of my life spent married to my best friend.
  • Suzy’s optimism, faith, laughter, wisdom, wit, persevering spirit, beauty, and above all, her fear of the Lord.
  • Elisha, Gideon, and Lidia, my children and daily joys, for their life and health and love, for their God-given differences and uniqueness and gifts, for so many moments of joy and life together.
  • Friends who have walked with me – encouraging, praying, challenging, loving, supporting, laughing, and crying with me.
  • Preston Highlands Baptist Church – for the shared vision we have of the glory and goodness of Jesus Christ and of the necessity of our life of faith together, for their patience with me and all my deficiencies and quirks and sins, for brothers and sisters to journey through the wilderness of life with.
  • The opportunity to be sharpened and sanctified through formal theological education so that I may more faithfully and helpfully serve God’s people.
  • Good books, repositories of truth, goodness, and beauty, for shaping me and helping me see.
  • Good health, never guaranteed, always a gift of grace for the good of others.
  • Opportunities to see firsthand God’s work among the nations, for time spent with brothers and sisters in Christ in other cultures.
  • Jesus, who loves me and has freed me from my sins and gives me good hope through grace and comforts and strengthens my weary heart.
  • The promise of God’s sustaining grace that will keep me till the end, when it will become clear that “from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36).

My hope is that by sharing my list with you, you would be encouraged to make your own. The Bible commands us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18). Taking time to write down as many things as you can think of that you’re thankful for can lift your mood and strengthen your faith and renew your resolve in ways you may not expect. It did for me. God has good gifts for us in gratitude.

Growing in Gratitude, With You,

Pastor John