Pastor Devin Strong, Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church.

I have been through a few challenges in my life. I was born with Cerebral Palsy, which caused me to walk on crutches until I was 38 years old. My dad was an active alcoholic throughout my childhood, which made him quick to anger and emotionally distant. When my kids were just infants, I was minding my own business in a lefthand turn lane when the guy behind me fell asleep at the wheel and hit me at 50 miles per hour, which I believe was the primary factor in a spinal cord injury that put me in a wheelchair a few years later.

My son is on the autism spectrum, which made him a challenging kid to raise. I started a Mission Church that closed at the beginning of the 2008 recession, which caused me to be out of work for nearly two years. When I did find work, it took me years to find an open-ended call to a congregation, and the call that I have now is to a smaller church than the one that I served as a new seminary graduate nearly 35 years ago.

When I got discouraged about these and other difficulties, my mother often challenged me to make a Gratitude List. To be honest, at first, I thought that this was ridiculously stupid! Sure, there is usually something good that happens almost every day, but these things are often small and barely noticeable. What good is a nice breakfast when you are out of work and the bank is foreclosing on your house?!

But I defy to intentionally list six or eight good things that happened to you this week and still feel as discouraged as you did before you made the list. I bet you can’t do it.

Here’s another perspective on my challenges above.

Even though I was born with Cerebral Palsy, I am one of the high functioning folks with this condition. My dad was an alcoholic, but he went into recovery and celebrated 26 years of sobriety before he died in 2019. At the end, our relationship was better than ever. I was in an awful car accident. My kids should have been in the backseat because it was my day to take them to daycare. If they had been, they would surely have been killed, but I had an early meeting that day, so my wife took them instead. I always say that being in a wheelchair isn’t as bad for me as it would be for others. It’s not like I was running track before! Oliver was born on the autism spectrum, but today, he is married, working, and thriving in every way. It was a shame to see my Mission Church close, but in the process, we were able to shepherd a few dozen lapsed Christians into other congregations. My years as a temporary pastor certainly carried some anxiety but also some fun adventures, and while the church that I serve now is small, it is also young, energetic, and filled with laughter. I am blessed to be here!

On Thanksgiving Day, most of us will sit down to a meal that is the envy of the world. We can count either the challenges in our lives or the blessings. I suggest that it’s more fun to count the latter.