Thank God! Thank God! And yes, Thank God!

You and I, all of us, every one of us have so much to be thankful for.

I am blessed! Sometimes I may be a mess, but still I am blessed.

Awhile back I came across a poem, the poet unknown, and it really rang true with me. The poem goes like this:

Count your blessings instead of your crosses; Count your gains instead of your losses. Count your joys instead of your woes; Count your friends instead of your foes. Count your smiles instead of your tears; Count your courage instead of your fears. Count your full years instead of your lean; Count your kind deeds instead of your mean. Count your health instead of your wealth; Count on God instead of yourself.

Richard Stearns served as the president of the Christian relief organization World Vision for ten years. He tells of a visit he made to a church in Haiti nearly a year after the devastating earthquake of 2010.

The church’s sanctuary was a tent made from white tarps and duct tape, pitched in the midst of a huge encampment for thousands of people who were still homeless after the earthquake.

He describes the church and the lessons he learned from that visit to Haiti:

“In the front row sat six amputees ranging in age from 6 to 60. They were clapping and smiling as they sang song after song and lifted their prayers to God. Their worship was full of hope and thanksgiving to the Lord.

“No one was singing louder or praying more fervently than a 32-year-old unemployed single mother of two. During the earthquake, a collapsed building crushed her right arm and left leg. After four days both limbs had to be amputated.

“She was leading the choir, leading prayers, standing on her prosthesis and lifting her one hand high in praise to God .… Following the service, I met her two daughters, ages eight and ten. The three of them now live in a tent five feet tall and perhaps eight feet wide. Despite losing her job, her home, and two limbs, she is deeply grateful because God spared her life on January 12th last year …

She told Stearns, “God brought me back like Lazarus, giving me the gift of life. I believe I survived the earthquake for two reasons: to raise my girls and to serve her Lord for a few more years. I am so very thankful!”

The attitude of this Haitian mother, the worship leader in her tent church, reminds me of the poem I shared: “Count your blessings instead of your crosses; Count your gains instead of your losses… Count your health instead of your wealth; Count on God instead of yourself.”

Rev. Johnson Oatman, Jr., was a well-known gospel song writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a child he became acquainted with the hymns of the church through the singing talents of his father.

When he was 19 years old, Oatman joined a Methodist Church and several years later he was licensed to preach.

Though he preached on occasion in various Methodist churches, Oatman was busy working in business, and writing more than 5,000 hymns. One of my favorite of Oatman’s hymns is the well-known, “Count Your Blessings.”

For all of us grateful folks, those of us who make it a practice to say, “Thank God! Thank God! And yes, Thank God!” This one’s for you…and me! Go ahead and sing out loud…

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear? Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly, And you will keep singing as the days go by.

Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

When you look at others with their lands and gold, Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold; Count your many blessings. Wealth can never buy Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small, Do not be disheartened, God is over all; Count your many blessings, angels will attend, Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

(I don’t know about you, but I lost count at about seventeen zillion or so. But I’m still counting.)

Thank God! Thank God! And yes, Thank God!