Up & Coming Weekly

January 07, 2020

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 20 UCW JANUARY 8-14, 2020 You find what you look for by LAURA BOARTS OPINION On New Year's Eve of 2018, my boss, Dorothy, laid a bright blue spiral notebook on my desk. I slipped my thumb under the front cover and turned to the first page, the quiet crack of the card stock separating from the paper it protected, prov ing it had never been opened. "A new notebook for a new year," she said. This was a challenge. Several years ago, Dorothy read a book called "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp, and remember- ing it sparked her to buy the entire staff a notebook and a copy of the book. The chal- lenge was to chronicle 1,000 God-given gifts, no matter how big or small, by the end of 2019. It could be a good meal or beautiful f lower, a credit card paid off or sweet baby laughter. The first chirp of a bird when spring arrives. Family. Common things. Uncommon things. Silly things. Serious things. Any good gift from God. At first thought, this sounds cliche. It's so easy for me to gloss over those stick y-sweet quotes dressed in beautiful fonts slapped on a well-edited photo of some snow-covered trees that friends on social media post almost daily. Those graphics that say, "Don't cr y because it's over, smile because it happened," or "Life's a jour- ney, not a destination." Ugh. Give me a break. The quotes never really have any thing to do w ith the background they're plastered on and they k ind of make me want to throw up, but I digress. If those k inds of things help you, that's great. More power to you, I say. For me, its a big "thanks, but no thanks". For the first half of last year, I participated in this challenge, chronicling nearly 500 of the thousand I was to come up w ith. I must say, I was feeling might y fine. I was lov ing life — tak- ing care of myself, seeing some relationships in my life have some major breakthroughs, cook- ing supper for my family ever y night. I was mak- ing my list day by day and it was really mak ing a difference. That summer, one of the most unk now ingly over whelming seasons of my life hit like an anv il to the forehead. I had family members become life-threateningly ill. My 1-year-old started day care for the first time, causing a change in my work schedule and time at home, in addition to bringing sick ness after sick ness home w ith him for months. My husband and I sold our home and moved back to my family's farm to better tack le some debt and be near to those sick family members. Most of it was not all that weight y, but all at once, it was a lot of change in a short amount of time. Somehow, as I tried to keep on keeping on, my 1,000 Gifts list trailed off. Over the course of just three months, I found myself irritated, unmotivated, easily offended, critical of others, over whelmed, ex hausted, disappointed, disengaged, cr ying a lot, inatten- tive, rude to my husband and telling myself how much of a failure I was because of the important things I let slip through the cracks at work and at home. I had a lot on my plate, but I k now that all those things would have been easier to chew if I feasted on thanks-giv ing. I am conv inced now more than ever that there's actually something to this gift list. In the last 24 hours of Jesus's life before he was crucified, he did a strange thing. In Luke 22, we find the account of the Last Supper, where Jesus brings his disciples together to share a meal. Luke 22:19 says, "And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them ..." Originally w rit- ten in Greek, the word for "he gave thanks" is "eucha- risteo." The root word of eucharisteo is "charis," meaning "grace." Jesus took bread, saw it as grace, and gave thanks. Also found in eucharisteo is "chara," which means "joy." Isn't that what we all long for? More joy? It seems that deep chara joy is found at the table of euCHARisteo — the table of thanksgiv ing. Voskamp w rites, "So then, as long as thanks is possible, joy is always pos- sible ... W henever, meaning now. W herever, meaning here." In ever y circum- stance, in ever y season of life, joy can be found if we can focus on giv ing thanks. To say it better, joy is found when we see God in the here and now. So, I'm starting over. This year, I'm mak ing a list called "Seeing 2020" — get it? It's time for a new perspective — a grateful perspective — that can only come by finding today's good and lovely. I'm filling it w ith things Philippians 4:8 talks about. It says, "... whatever is true, whatever is honorable, what- ever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excel- lence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Today's things. You can find — I can find — today's good and lovely in the middle of heartache, tumult, emo- tional debris and disappointment. It's there. We just have to look. I want more joy. I definitely want God's grace. I must be intentional in giv ing thanks no matter what this year holds. You f ind what you look for. W hat can you f ind today? LAURA BOARTS, Music Director, WCLN. Comments? Editor@upandcomingweekly. com. 910-484-6200.

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