In a recent service, we were talking about things for which we’re thankful that were unexpected.  This is how I opened the service.

It was a sunny Spring Day. The wind was in my hair as I drove up 100a toward the camp.  I remember feeling almost carefree and loving.  I remember thinking that this place in life I was, couldn’t get grander.

Seven years later, I reflect back on that day, and all that has happened between now and then. I consider the hardship and the sacrifice. I consider events that are not what we praise at Thanksgiving dinner with family.  These are not events we often share with friends when asked how we’re doing, or, what’s new?

Yet, as I look back over these years, this season of life, I find myself being thankful and grateful for all God has done in my life. For the way I have been led and encouraged, challenged and changed.  I’m thankful for the voice that calls to me when I am alone.  I am thankful for the solitude a sometimes lonely hill has offered and for the challenges and joy of marriage and living together.  I am thankful for an old dog that I didn’t ask for or seek. I am thankful for minor injuries from time to time that remind me of my fragility. I am thankful for work that I can’t do alone or with my own abilities and for the relationships that causes in my life.

I am thankful for the joy that has resulted from relationships, gifts and work that I discovered along the twisting path I’m traveling.  I’m thankful for the gift of walking any path at all.  Thank you, Great God, for this gift of life.

Brandon Bergey