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Lou Gehrig, the legendary Yankee first baseman, gave one of the most famous speeches in sports on July 4, 1939. Although a Yankee delivered that speech, all of Red Sox nation can admire it because of its heart-warming tones of him saying good-bye to the fans and organization. Even I've seen bits and pieces of it despite the fact that it pre-dates my birth by nearly thirty years because it is played and replayed over and over and over again with it's heart warming tones.

But the most heart warming moment of that speech is when Lou Gehrig declared, "[T]oday I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Why is that so heart-warming? Because that's not the common sentiment we hear coming out of the world of sports. (Remember Latrell Sprewell publicly venting his outrage when he was offered a $21 million contract to play basketball by insisting, "I have a family to feed"?). We rarely hear gratitude from the lips of athletes, even from those honored and revered. But we did out of Gehrig's lips that day.

Additionally, what ramps up the heart-warming factor for me is that it came on the heels of learning he had ALS less than one month earlier. The doctors told him what his future held in terms of incurability, a fully aware mind coupled with a degenerating central nervous system, and the end of his beloved baseball career. Yet, Gehrig still mustered gratitude... to fans, grounds keepers, his manager, his teammates, his in-laws and his wife. He resonated with gratitude that day for all the good extended to him despite the injustice of ALS ravaging his body and claiming his life less than two years later.

The ability to recognize the good extended to us in life, despite the bad in life is simply that beautiful. Gratitude is simply that profound. And that's why I really love Thanksgiving because it is a built in gratitude opportunity where we have a yearly chance to focus on all the lavish good brought our way despite the bad we may be experiencing in life. We're given a chance to recognize the good of friends and family, jobs and places to live, cars and leaf blowers for cleaning up leaves (don't laugh, I actually thanked God for mine as I recently cleaned up my yard!) despite a shaky economy, health difficulties, challenges at the job or problematic relationships.

So as I look ahead to Thanksgiving, there is one item that I am profoundly grateful for in our church. And here it is: God is on the move. Simply put, God is on the move in undeniable and unmistakable ways through formal and informal means at GracePoint.

I look out on the formal means where God is on the move through programs or designs of the church. There was the Great Pumpkin Giveaway where hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people came and were surprised by grace and brushed up against the goodness of God among us as we gave them pumpkins and a fall experience with no strings attached. There was the Moldova mission's team experience where God has used our efforts as a church to open a door for the gospel in an obscure orphanage in Tocuz (the team will be sharing about it during a Sunday morning service on November 23rd - don't miss it because there are some amazing things that happened). There's the Mom-to-Mom ministry that has been meeting for two months with 17 mothers coming to be revitalized through relationships and motherhood direction and this group continues to grow through relational networks. There are the Life Communities who take a turn each month to serve a meal at Place of Promise. I could go on and on and on about the stories I hear and the divine activity I see in KidsTown, the youth group, our partnership with World Vision in Northern Uganda, the Life Communities themselves or the prayer team.

But if it were only formal means where I saw God working, I'd be a little bit suspicious of us trying to engineer something. However, I hear stories and I see God on the move through informal avenues among us too. There is the stream of visitors going to sit by Diane's bedside to love on her during her latest health trials. There is the work crew who helped out cleaning up leaves for one who'd receive their help. There are the latest efforts of the Tuesday women's Life Community collecting kitchen supplies to stock up Place of Promise. There are the individual efforts to do good with no strings attached, to have people over for dinner to build trust, and the grabbing hold of God's open doors presented to them. I could go on and on about how God is at work through these informal channels like impromptu prayers for others, spontaneous acts of care extended to one another, and genuine connection extended to our guests on Sunday morning.

We have so much to be grateful for, but this especially extends to how God is at work in and through us at GracePoint. God's on the move all around us, which blows my mind to the extent that he's doing so and how good he is to do so. And his movements only feel like it is building and that God is increasing his influence in and through us. So it behooves us to shout, say or whisper, "Thank you God because today we feel like the luckiest people on the face of the earth."

Much to be Thankful For with You,

Steve's Signature