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Out Our Way: Along Goliath's Covenant Trail

Gratitude - Exodus 16

Out our way, the air is chilly but it is clean and fresh at last. For months we have cried out to the Lord for rain and then the fires came and filled the air. "Where is the Lord?" some asked. And then the clouds came and the rain began to fall. Fire crews rejoiced to see it as did farmers and ranchers. Cattle in the Beaver Creek were trailed in and began to wander the free range without fear of becoming roast beef.

"Old Doc" Goliath seems pretty pleased and, between mouthfuls of moisture laden grass, he expressed his gratitude by exhaling some of that smoke he ingested through some ear shattering hacks. Even with my cinch and legs tight, his sides expanded and contracted hard enough to nearly shake my hat off as his whole body seems to explode. But I could tell he felt better breathing in that clean air instead of smoke. He wasn't the only one who was glad to exchange cool fresh air for heavy ladened eau de forest fire. I have seen numerous folks who have had breathing problems sigh with a sense of relief. And on Sunday - in congregations in every county in Montana - people gave God thanks for the rain that has come at last.

Sadly, there are some folks who are so spiritually dead, they have no joy in the rain because they have no gratitude. Instead they complain that now its wet outside and they have to wear a coat outside because of the wet and the cold. They have already forgotten how uncomfortable they were in the drought and how the air quality in the entire state was rated as poor due to the fires. How sad to be so dead to joy that when the time of gratitude comes they feel nothing!

But there have always been folks like that - folks who grumble and complain even when their greatest needs are being met bountifully. In the Book of Exodus we meet some of these sad fools on the trail out of slavery in Egypt. Consided: Their chains had been removed, their freedom granted, their wallets filled with god and silver as they left behind their desperate poverty and hardship. God had worked miracles to free them and now they were free.

But some complained they had to walk. When God parted the waters and brought them safely across and out of Pharoah's reach, they complained that the ground had been damp. When they were safely on the other side, they complained they were hungry ... and God sent them quail and then manna. God brought water out of the rocks and gave them fresh springs along the way. God protected them from their enemies and guided them to His Holy Mountain. And still they complained.

God created a community and a society for them granting them the Law to guide and unite them as a people; but some complained that being a slave was easier and wanted to go back. Others preferred not to be the Chosen People of God and wanted to instead be like everyone else - exchanging the Living God for a lifeless idol and a religion they could control and manipulate according to their own will.

Even when God fulfilled all His promises and brought them in a few weeks to the Promised Land, they refused to go in, for their ingratitude for God's blessings had become such a habit that they scarcely noticed them at all. And so, instead of entering into the land of Milk and Honey where God had been leading them as promised, they wandered about the barren wastelands of the desert, grumbling and complaining for the next 40 years.

How sad to think of what could have been if folks had just been a little more conscious of the good gifts that were being given to them. Ingratitude kills the spirit and poisons the joy the heart needs to come fully alive. Fortunately there are those who are aware and give thanks with an open heart ... and so know joy. Just check out Goliath rolling on his back in the corral and then kicking like a young colt, racing into the pastures that begin to grow lush again. "Old Doc" is alive and living life to the hilt. You bet he's grateful. That is the source of his joy!

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Old Doc and John Bruington, when not playing in the rain and splashing puddles, are expressing their gratitude to God for the rain at First Presbyterian Church in Havre.

 

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