Grateful

This past weekend I collected dog food for my favorite local rescue, Hollow Creek Farm ( HCF - see hollowcreekfarm.org). There are roughly 200 houses in my neighborhood.  Twice a year, I make 200 flyers, put them out 4 days before the collection date, and then drive my van through the streets that I always pray will be dotted like confetti with dogfood bags. Usually, about ten percent of the homes leave a bag by their mailbox, so in the end, I have a few hundred pounds of dog food to bring to this wonderful last chance animal rescue. HCF takes in the dogs that are on the euthanasia list in the shelters, or have such severe medical needs that they will never be adopted. They helped me when I needed it badly when we first found our sweet dog Honeybun, starving and in need of expert training for aggression issues. She was healed in body and soul, largely due to the efforts of HCF. We are forever grateful, so we do the dogfood run twice a year in gratitude.

This year, I was out doing errands before the 11:00 pickup time I had designated on my flyer. I saw a dogfood bag by the mailbox of one of my old faithful donators. I thought about snagging it early, but decided not to, knowing that sometimes it reminds others to put their donation out (or go get a donation from the store!) It was only 9:30. I would pick them all up at 11.

When 11:00, arrived, and I drove along the streets retrieving the bags, I was heartened knowing how badly HCF needed the dogfood. Donations are way down, and like so many in this economy, they are struggling to make ends meet. As I neared the old faithful donor, I blinked. Where was the bag that had been by their driveway a little over an hour ago? It was not there! It was not on their porch or anywhere in sight. Someone had stolen the donation.

I collected the other bags with a heavy heart. I could not appreciate the wonderful generosity I saw at so many neighbors' houses because I could not stop thinking of the despicable person who would stoop so low as to steal a donation out of the mouth of dogs who had already suffered so much at the hands of humans. The blessing of joy that usually accompanies my gratitude to the many was robbed by my anger over the thievery of the one.

When I finished collecting the bags, a woman stopped by with four large bags of food to add to our haul. Her hair was very short. She explained she had just finished cancer treatment but was doing well. She added her four bags to the offering.

Bitterness can grow anywhere. It is a hard choice sometimes to turn one's heart from the terrible, and from righteous indignation. I thought of the kindness of the woman with cancer, with all her obvious needs, yet moved to compassion for others. I glanced at the van, overflowing with dog food. If someone had to stoop so low as to steal a donation, he must have needed it very badly, I thought. And if not, it was God's work to convict his heart of wrongdoing. I could not let his actions rob my peace, or my thankfulness for the sacred act of giving. Better to be grateful for the shower of blessings than to be burdened by the teardrop of despair.

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• Nehemiah 12:46-47

  For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.  So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers. They also set aside the portion for the other Levites, and the Levites set aside the portion for the descendants of Aaron.
  
  

• Psalm 95:2-3

  Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.  For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.
  
  

• 1 Corinthians 1:4-5

  I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.  For in him you have been enriched in every way--in all your speaking and in all your knowledge--
  
  

• 2 Corinthians 4:15-16

  All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
  
  

• 2 Corinthians 9:11-12

  You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.  This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
  
  

• Ephesians 1:15-16

  For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,  I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
  
  

• 1 Timothy 4:4-5

  For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,  because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
  
  

• 1 Chronicles 16:34

  Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
  
  

• Psalm 7:17

  I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
  
  

• Psalm 28:7

  The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
  
  

• Psalm 100:4

  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
  
  

• Psalm 106:1

  Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
  
  

• Isaiah 12:4

  In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.
  
  

• Jeremiah 33:11

  the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, saying, "Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD is good; his love endures forever." For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,' says the LORD.
  
  

• 1 Thessalonians 5:18

  give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.