Thankful for Disappointment

We’re all cracking open our hearts and thanking the Lord for what we have this year.

But sometimes joy is not found only in the things we have, but also in the things we don’t have.

As Thanksgiving dances its way across our tables and we pluck birds and mash sweet potatoes, I won’t only be thanking God for all the things I’ve prayed for and received.

There have been so many things that I’ve been down on my knees and begged God for. There are places I could be today, people I could be sharing this day with. Oh, if I had gotten my way, today would have been a very different day.

I’m wrapped up in joy, thanking God that He didn’t give me all the things I’ve asked for.

I’m thankful that life seldom ever works out the way that I plan.

I’m made of high hopes.

I don’t know if you know that about me, but I’ve got dreams that could leave the writers of fairytales completely speechless. I could silence a room full of the world’s most ambitious with just a handful of the things harbored in my heart.

And all the while, I’m bracing for the impact and looking for a reason to drop everything and run. Because dreaming is scary and hopes are risky and well, like I said before, life never works out quite like I plan.

Sometimes that breaks my heart.

But, today I’m thankful that even if all my hopes are disappointed; He tucks my dreams away in a safe place.

I’m thankful that today I don’t have the misery of having every little thing I thought I wanted. That I don’t have the kind of loss that comes with living a life you weren’t born to live.

That of all the things I could have done; He kept me from that path because I was born for bigger and greater.  And this year, I hold to the hope of all the He will bring and the dreams He has saved for me.

Happy Thanksgiving. Be thankful for all you have. Be thankful for what you don’t have. Be thankful that there is still much more on the way.