I’m sitting in the dark in a hotel room nine hours from home the weekend before Thanksgiving, all five of my people sleeping deep after yesterday’s cross-country meet. Last night my hubby mumbled as he drifted off to sleep, “We made it! Can’t believe it.”

Made it through months of juggling three football teams and cross country, or as, little E put it: “Running and falling and hugging and tiredness and changing and waiting and waiting and waiting!”

We’re thankful we made it through joyful-anxious wins,

And persevered through crushing losses, like the time Zaza lost track of his laps at the Junior Olympics and got beat at the finish line,

Or when Jo, wearing fear of loss on his face, “Beat myself before I started the race.”

Or that time in Joplin, and then again at Nationals, when M, feeling the pressure to win again, panicked and nearly scratched his race–

We’re thankful for teammates to cheer and be cheered by through highs and lows,

And coaches who truly care.

But most of all we’re thankful for the invitation to face fear and walk into weakness, to trust that win or lose, Jesus’ love holds fast,

To run and play fearless as a living expression of gratitude for His good gifts. 

Reflection Questions

What good gifts are you thankful for? In what ways do you hold back in fully enjoying those gifts? What would it look like to grow in trusting God with that gift?