This being the season, I am thankful for…

My family. First and foremost. Always.

Buried treasure. Speaking of family, we were cleaning out some long-forsaken closets the other day and stumbled across our son’s high school history project that included grainy photos of my mother and late father from the 1930s. The closets had to wait while I stared at the past, smiling sadly.

Sharon. There’s no one else I could imagine sharing this journey with, even if we don’t always know when the next turn’s coming.

Matt and Ellen. A son and a daughter whose heart and intellect leave Sharon and me in awe.

All the people who help bring God’s love alive: Pastors and volunteers who visit the sick and homebound, knit a shawl for the bereaved, make a casserole for the hungry, dish out seconds for the homeless, pray for those with restless hearts. I know I’ve left someone out, which is a blessed thing because there are so many people expressing God’s love.

Stephen Ministers – Lay caregivers trained to do perhaps the most important thing we can do on this earth: Listen.

Everyone who makes music in this place, all year long but especially now, when the harmonies make our hearts sing at the holidays.

Goodness Gracious!, where the coffee’s always hot and the conversation’s always warm. Plus they have cool stuff. Plus proceeds go to outreach all over the world. It sure beats a big-box store on Black Friday.

Playing softball. Ah to be a kid again for a few days in spring and summer. May there always be a position for me.

Older folks, whose determination moves me more each day. In this church and beyond, they endure the loss of a loved one. They struggle with pain and loneliness. The next fall is always a misstep away. And still they put one foot in front of another to get where they are going because there are places to go and people to see in the time they have left.

That new TV show, Glee. A goofy pleasure about the innocence (and daily crises) of youth.

Fellow staffer Carol Tate, and not just because she helps people find their calling through the Wired 4 Ministry program. Carol and I are fellow Yankees who spent the best part of our youth cheering on the New York Yankees. We spent the best part of this autumn cheering on our Boys of Summer to the world championship, each one of us remembering what it was like to be a kid when Mantle roamed the outfield. And if you want to be impressed, e-mail Dr. Howell sometime and ask him to name his all-time New York Yankees team, position by position.

Leaving work Friday night and running into out-of-town folks trying to get to the Sanctuary for a wedding rehearsal. I love walking them over, chatting them up, feeling the joy they feel on a weekend oozing love and possibilities.

Hearing Bob Seger, Johnny Cash or Creedence on the radio, when there’s still time to hear the whole song before you get where you’re going. The old stuff makes us feel young?

The chance to profile nine Holocaust survivors in the November issue of Charlotte magazine, to be able to play some small role in keeping their stories alive.

I’ll end there, for as the holidays approach, I am more grateful than ever for having a job, a ministry really, that gives me the chance to tell stories. In the telling, there is a sacred truth: Each one of us has some unforgettable tale worth sharing, and lessons worth learning.
 
As 2010 looms, may we share and learn, and love.