20 Random Things I'm Thankful For in 2012

I love Thanksgiving. Here are twenty random things in no certain order that I'm thankful for:

1)     I'm thankful for Angela, my beautiful wife of ten years (tomorrow is my anniversary). I'm the luckiest man alive. But more on that tomorrow.

2)    I'm thankful for my four children, Grace, Daniel, Emma, Lily. Each is so uniquely different and yet so precious.

3)    I’m thankful for my parents who raised me in the Lord and have always loved me.

4)    I’m thankful for Billy Graham, whose ministry helped bring my father to Christ.

5)    I'm thankful for the Church. I'm thankful for my church. I'm thankful to serve in the church as a pastor.

6)    I'm thankful to live in the 21st Century with technology like my iPhone, my Macbook, Twitter, GPS, and other such things. I don't pine to live in some other era like the 1950's. God put me in this age at this time. And so I like it.

7)    I'm grateful for good, deep, rich, wonderful friendships that last the test of time.

8)    I'm grateful for annoying people, trials, and character-building things I hate but that God sends for my sanctification.

9)    I'm grateful for coffee, for the delightful Mexican restaurant near our house: Grande Jakes, for Netflix, for Frasier, and for thrift shops where I can buy quality shirts for $3.00.

10)  I'm grateful for good books, for a love of reading, for men like Tim Keller, Mark Buchanan, Randy Newman, Max Lucado, D.A. Carson and other Christian leaders and authors who have inspired me.

11)  I’m grateful for Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where I’m studying for an Mdiv.

12)  I’m grateful for my assistant pastor, Jay Lovelace and his wife Cheyenne.

13)  I’m grateful for Amazon.com and especially Amazon Prime.

14)  I’m grateful for Ginger Kolbaba, who published my very first piece of published work, for Andrea Mullins, who published my first four books, for the guys at Crosswalk.com who continue to give me a platform, and for anyone who has ever published a piece of my writing.

15)  I’m grateful for Tamela Hancock Murray, my literary agent who has helped me get published.

16)  I’m grateful for insurance companies, good health care, air conditioning, and Diet Mountain Dew Red.

17)  I’m grateful for email, texting, podcasting, and fantasy football.

18)  I’m grateful to live in Chicago, to live in the United States of America, and for the opportunity to travel to other countries and see the world as it really is.

19)  I’m grateful for Trevin Wax, Tim Challies, Kevin DeYoung, the Gospel Coalition, Aaron Armstrong, Michael Hyatt, Paul Tautges, and the host of other blogs I follow.