17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
-ephisians 5:17-20

A lot of these thoughts are from a random chapel speaker at a summer camp i am at. Credit to him. The thing that stands out to me in this is that paul, in episians, over and over again talks about " finding out what pleases god, what his will is, ect" and then follows up each one of those commands with, " always give thanks, live in thanksgiving, ect." So, if we are to search out the will of God and then commanded to give thanks in everything i think the two are pretty closely tied. i heard this and then thought, " i'll start giving thanks in everything." in less than 24 hours i realized that this is going to be a lot harder than i thought. I was supposed to have the afternoon off here and ended up working until 8 at night throwing hay bales. side note: i do feel much more manly after throwing 1500 bales of hay. a few hours into throwing hay bales and stacking them and not even being halfway done i have the worst attitude in my heart. I was grumbling in my heart with things like, " i am not even supposed to be here, i am supposed to be off, ( insert self centered thoughts about what i deserve) " then there was another staff member, one of only a few not grumbling who just says, " you know, i really couldn't care if this takes all night and into the morning. we're helping this farmer out. so, it's all good. we're in ministry right now."

Hearing time speak those words, each one was like a brick hitting my heart, since he lived out every bit of what he said. Yeah, i have to work on giving thanks a lot more. Since, in the end, i am learning about what i deserve. The one thing, the only thing i know i deserve in life, and i can say this with no doubt in my heart, is hell and separation from God. Anything past that is grace given by God, since anything except hell is not what i deserve. In the process of throwing hay and getting blisters and migraines, that is still a blessing from God. It is all a blessing.

In the end, my purpose, your purpose, God's will, is for us to work for His kingdom and work on expanding His kingdom and combat satan. We are in a war and we are serving a king, King jesus. We are members of His kingdom and we are meant to spread the joy he has given us and spread the eternal community we are in. It is not just to show people something better, but also to make people aware of what we deserve, hell, and what we can have through a gift, Heaven. Something i would ask you to pray for me and for yourself is for God to challenge you and me to see things in an eternal perspective.

it is raining today and it is a glorious rain.