3/3/26- Study Update and a Note on Gratitude
Hey there! It’s been a couple of weeks. To give an update, I’m still working on the previous study that I posted an introduction for; it’s taking me a little while to pull together the scripture and organize my thoughts for everything, so if anyone happens to be waiting for the follow-up, I apologize for the wait and I appreciate your patience. I won’t lie and say that it’ll be done soon, but I am trying and I’ll make sure to get it shared as soon as I am able!
To be totally honest, a part of the delay might be that I’m also participating in a study through the book of Romans with several of my in-laws, and this week in particular I have been focusing a lot of my attention towards that. The “template” that we’re following along with is interesting; it’s a study titled “Repaving the Romans Road,” led by Rabbi Damian Eisner from Shalom Macon in Macon, Georgia. I’m listening ahead and trying to process everything said a little bit ahead of time- and going through the book of Romans myself- and it has been a challenging series so far; there’s a lot I already agreed with, several things that I’m still mulling over, and a few that have made me go “well, I agree with your conclusion, but I’ve never heard anyone reach it this way before.” Overall, I like it; it doesn’t fully seem to agree with another Romans study that I’ve listened to, but it has gotten me to re-read/listen to Romans with a new lens, and has offered solutions to a couple of other common points of confusion in Paul's letters. If you’re interested in revisiting the book yourself and potentially learning something new- even if you don’t fully agree- you might consider giving it a listen. The presentation style is dramatic at times, but it’s engaging, and Rabbi Damian clearly put a lot of time, thought, and work into it.
Aside from that, I don’t have a major update or anything like that to share today though I would like to take a moment to encourage you to be grateful- consciously grateful- and give thanks to God for what you have. My wife and I were chatting the other day (Sunday) about how my mom tends to be a very generous, giving sort of person, and I, by default, tend not to be. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true: a good chunk of the time I need to pointedly tell myself to go an extra step for someone or something because if I don’t I might not go as far as I should My mom really isn’t like that; she’s always going above and beyond for other people, putting in a little (or a lot) more effort than she should in whatever she’s doing because she wants the love she puts into it to be felt by the recipient. She gives so very freely, and I used to not understand how. Over the course of the last year, though, I have learned something: gratitude and contentment. I have spent more time in the last year reading and listening to scripture and sermons than I probably have in the rest of my life, and one of the biggest themes I have seen across the pages has been that those who love God and know Him know how to be grateful to Him in all things, to be content with what He puts in front of them, and that from the overflow of those cups- some admittedly sweeter seeming than others- comes peace, and from that much service and giving of oneself to others. There are times that these traits are more or less present than others, like David in some of the Psalms or Job in his sufferings, but in the best stories these traits always come through in the end. There’s a pervasive “it is well with my soul” attitude on display. I see a lot of these traits in my mom; she has despaired over many things in our family’s past, from lost friends to jobs and her own frequently struggling health, but she has always returned to the simple statement that God is good. She knows and believes this to be true, and in that simple, quiet conviction she is always giving more to others instead of hoarding her time, energy, and life to herself. She’s an incredible blessing and one of the greatest examples I can think of in my life of someone that models the “it is well with my soul” attitude, and in that way I think I could very much stand to learn a lot more from her. She is responsible for a lot of who I am today- although I was a very obstinate teenager and young adult that didn’t make her job easy- and in this way I hope that she can be responsible for a little bit more of who I turn into. I have noticed that in my life the more gratitude I feel and express towards the Lord and others the less I need to remind myself to give to whoever I am with.
The short version is this: we could all learn to be a bit more grateful, I think, and we could definitely learn to find more contentment with the lot in life that God has given us, and in these things I think we (I) could learn to be just a bit less selfish and a little more like Yeshua/Jesus.
I’m sorry that this isn’t a very structured or engaging post like I usually try to share; I just wanted to check in, share a bit of what has been on my heart this week, and give an update on the study. I hope that this can in some way encourage you to look at yourself and find some areas of stress or ingratitude towards God that you may be able to amend. Have a blessed rest of your week, and see you next time!
