Gravyness!

Here is a testimony that I gave at the AABC Thanksgiving banquet.

GRAVYNESS by Mark Okada November 21, 2009

I love this time of year! Why???? Grandma June's GRAVY!

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved putting gravy on my food. I will eat almost anything if you put gravy on it. And Grandma June makes some awesome gravy. I have never understood those people who JUST put it on their mashed potatoes or just on their rice or their turkey or JUST on their roast beef. THERE IS NO “JUST” WITH ME…

Here’s my nine step game plan for Thanksgiving dinner: 1. Drink a lot of water the night before to stretch the stomach. 2. Eat a normal breakfast with plenty of fiber to stay regular. 3. Skip lunch, but keep drinking water. 4. Help Grandma June and Pam with the cooking (okay, “Help” might be too strong of a term) 5. Give a thanksgiving blessing. 6. Load up my plate with rice, turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes until all the surfaces are covered (no need to bother with adding green things to the plate) 7. By pass the gravy boat, go straight to the big pot of gravy warming on the stove and proceed to cover the entire plate with gravy until I can’t see the food beneath! 8. Eat and repeat steps 6, 7 and 8 as many times as possible. 9. Collapse in a happy food coma…. Well, what does this confession of my issues with gluttony and love of gravy have to do with a thanksgiving testimony? Since Pastor Michael Ong asked me to share today, I have been meditating on the idea of thankfulness, and it has dawned on me that, thankfulness is the gravy of life. I repeat, Thankfulness is like Gravy for everyday life! Let me explain what I mean. Gravy is something you add to your meal that can take an ordinary meal and give it HOLIDAY status. It changes a meal from a regular season game to the super bowl. And if the meal is sometimes not up to par; the meat is a bit tough or dry or overcooked, which I assure you NEVER happens with Pam’s cooking, it can make it much more enjoyable. It’s a lot like that with thankfulness in the bible. Psalm 100 is sometimes referred to as the Thanksgiving Psalm. It’s a very short psalm which says: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Why is the psalmist thankful? Because God is the Lord and he is good and he made us and we belong to him and he loves us and is forever faithful. Notice that all these things on this list are about God and who he is and what he is doing. Nothing here is a matter of material blessings, our circumstances, the success in our lives or our happiness. As I think deeply about that I believe it is the key to understanding what “with thanksgiving” really means... It is the goodness of God that is the basis for my praise and thankfulness.

Now, can I get by without being thankful? I guess I do that all the time. I confess that I am an incredibly selfish, broken man. And as I have been struggling with my business these past 2 years, often times I have wallowed in fear and self pity. Why me lord? Why would you do this to me God when I have worked so hard and faithfully for you? Of course, when things were going well with my work, it was easy and natural to be happy and thankful. But in these past several years of heavy trials there were many times that I was unhappy and unthankful. In fact, Pastor Ben Wong had asked me to share at last year’s thanksgiving banquet and I was struggling with what to say because in my heart of hearts I wasn’t thankful at all. And when I was called to go overseas for a business trip that conflicted with the banquet, I was actually relieved when I called him to cancel. But the psalm doesn’t tell me to be thankful because things are going well with my life. It doesn’t tell me to be thankful because I am a successful businessman or things are going well with my TEENAGERS. (by the way, when you tell people you have termites, you don’t have to bother qualifying it by saying I have trouble with termites, everyone knows you have trouble if you have termites, it’s the same way with teenagers.) I am being convicted that the psalm says to be thankful because God is Good and He loves me. And so, we can be thankful in all sorts of good and bad things because of this truth. Thankfulness can be added to any circumstance and bring me to a place where I can praise him. Thankfulness, like gravy, makes even bad things better. It reminds us of who is truly good and who is in control and who my hope is in. Yes, the old saying is so true, Gravyness is next to Godliness!

So, lately I have been intentionally adding prayers of thanks for things. As I pray at night and in the morning and as I go through my day, I try to list the things and people on my mind and thank God for them. “Thank you God for Pam and Lauren and Luke and Lindsey and Leighton and Lilly. Thank you God for Jesus' death and resurrection and my salvation. Thank you god for AABC. Thank you god for my lifeshare group. Thank you God for saving me from the swine flu. Thank you God that I lost my hair and gained a lot of forehead. Thank you God that I have Teenagers that you love. Thank you God that my arm hurts from the surgery because the pain brings me back to you on my knees. Thank you God that my business is struggling because it was becoming my idol. Thank you God for you are the Lord and you are good and your steadfast love endures to all generations and your faithfulness extends to all generations. Thank you God for Grandma June's gravy. Thank you God for your gravy that goes so well with the Good and the bad.”

It is my prayer for you that your plate, your life, might be covered with the gravy of thankfulness this thanksgiving. If you are a visitor here at AABC, I pray that you might come back to fellowship with us and be blessed with the gravyness of AABC. That God’s goodness would cover you and bring you to a place of true Thanksgiving. AMEN