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Steven Curtis Chapman has a song that says:

This is everything I want
This is everything I need
I want this to be my one consuming passion
Everything my heart desires
Lord, I want it all to be for You, Jesus
Be my magnificent obsession

The song always struck me because of the ironic juxtaposition of a “magnificent” obsession. Most people think of magnificent as good and obsession as bad. Of course, the irony is that an obsession with Christ is an obsession with all that is holy and good; thereby making it magnificent.

However, there’s another part to this. An obsession with Jesus is magnificent because it makes Christ bigger in our life and us smaller. In other words, it literally magnifies our Savior by demonstrating His supremacy. In an individualistic society where we think of even our relationship with God in terms of its personal impact, we forget that an obsession with Christ isn’t about us being concerned with the right things. Just as with any real aim in life, its about acknowledging God’s rightful position. It’s saying “more of you Lord, less of me”; “You must increase that I must decrease.” Our single minded concern with Christ isn’t about what good it brings me; its about the glory it brings Him.

David Wells said “God rests too inconsequentially upon the Church.” Maybe if we were more obsessed with magnifying Him, making Him larger in our life, the impact would be a little more difficult to contain and the consequences for us, and the world, a little more tremendous.

Every year proclamations of “Happy Turkey Day” are met with rejoinders to remember the real meaning of thanksgiving. The celebration is supposed to be about being grateful, and not about football (Go Cowboys), big meals or shopping. Sometimes it seems that the expositions on the genuine reasons for the holiday are just as contrived as what they are rallying against. Their purpose is understandable but I fear that their redundancy sometimes results in them being tuned out. Does anyone really think that they are going to convince an adult to be grateful instead of glutinous by recounting the stories of Presidential Proclamations?

However, this season, I considered another meaning behind the admonition to “give thanks.” After all, we tend to think of it as another way of saying “be grateful”, but what if instead, we tried to be the reason that others gave thanks. In other words, instead of giving thanks for what we have, what if we, through our actions, bestowed thankfulness to others; if our actions reflected God’s goodness and caused others to express gratitude to Him? Would that also not be commensurate with the purpose of the celebration?

I think it is. And I hope that this holiday season I’ll find ways to give thanks.