The Bryce Crawford Podcast - Episode 2: Thankfulness

Episode Date: November 25, 2021

In this episode, Bryce talks about being thankful even outside of the holiday of Thanksgiving!

All right, what's up, guys. Welcome back to the Heaven on Earth podcast episode two. I'm excited. Again, I'm really excited, actually, because the first episode was so fun to film. I just record. I love it. I have fun doing it, so I'm excited to do this, be a part of this with you guys. And I want you to know that if you're watching it on YouTube right now, that we do have Spotify as well. So definitely go check that out. I'll link it in the description below. And yeah, let's get right into it. Today, episode by the title is on thankfulness. Now, I'm really excited about this because the day this episode comes out is on Thanksgiving. And I think we overlook Thanksgiving a lot. And I don't mean the holiday. I mean the heart behind Thanksgiving and outside of what it represents as a holiday. The word Thanksgiving. I just want to dive into like the heart and character of Thanksgiving for a moment. Just because I think it's something very special. I don't think this episode's going to be terribly long. And I'm just excited to get it rolled. So let's get a start. I want to give a definition, a dictionary definition of Thanksgiving real quick. The number one definition that pops up

on the, the Google definition, says the expression of gratitude, especially to God. And I, I, I, I, I I love just the definition, the expression of gratitude. Actually, earlier today in these past few weeks, I've just been pondering a lot about being thankful, like what it means to be thankful. And I saw a quote that my friend Emma Tici said today, where it's like, yes, we can celebrate Thanksgiving, but as a Christian, every day is like Thanksgiving with God. We should, we have so much to be thankful for, so much to be thankful for. so much to be thankful for when we genuinely reflect over our life.

And I was sitting these just past few weeks, praise God. God has been moving in my life so much lately, and he's allowed me to kind of sit. One of the things that I've been doing a lot lately is listening more and talking less. So I love listening. I love observing. It's not that I don't have anything to say. It's just I would like to surround myself with the people that I think have a lot of good insight. And they do, and I've just been listening a lot and hearing a lot of different perspectives

and a lot of different inputs on different subjects, and it's awesome. And so I've been listening a lot. And what I've come to realize is how many good things happen to us rather than bad? Like one of the greatest, one of the most common questions I get, just, why do bad things happen to good people? And I think that's a horrible question to ask. It's not why do bad things happen to good people. It's why do good things happen to people? We're bad.

We're bad people. We deserve death and condemnation. Yet it's by God's grace that good things happen. And it is a true blessing that good things happen. And we overlook that because we focus and zone in on the bad things that happen in our life, and we tend to blame God for it. When in reality, we deserve death and condemnation, and this little road bump in our life, we get all upset and curse God for?

No. We should cling to the feet of Jesus in that time. in trial rather than curse him for it. And another thing, sorry, this is a side note. I was just thinking about it. Another thing that I found that we often get upset at God at is we pray for refinement. And then when the refinement comes, we forget we prayed for refinement. So we get upset and question God and ask God why.

And we just question him in his existence. When we prayed for refinement and the refinement comes, then we question God. It's like in these times of struggle and strife, first of all, we must recognize that we're sinful beings that we deserve. We deserve death and condemnation. So this quote unquote bad thing that's happening to us, it's uncomparable to what could happen if we choose not to give our lives to Christ. Completely incomparable. But on top of that, we must cling to the feet of Jesus in this time. I mean, there is nothing that will get you through.

your time and trial greater than Jesus. There is nothing better to cling to in your time and trial than Jesus. There's just nothing is. I found the most comfort through my entire walk being with Jesus, sitting with Jesus, praying with Jesus. I stopped looking at prayer as this like repetitional thing and start looking at it as an intimate time with the Lord

because it is we're literally talking to God. I started looking at different things in different ways, and I became more thankful for it. Because we, like I said, we zone in on the bad things in life. When in reality, we should be so thankful for the good things. And when I actually genuinely sat and reflected on that, I would even think of the smallest of things. Like, there was, I was driving, actually, to Chattanooga a few weeks ago, and I got upset that a car cut. me off, but if that car didn't cut me off, I would have rear-ended the car in front of me. And, like, it was just small stuff like that, like that. And, like, I am a big fan of the karate

kid and bonsai trees. I've absolutely loved them since I was a kid. Me and my brother, when I was young, would watch old movies at Karate Kid and Star Wars, stuff like that. And I've always loved bonsai trees. I just think they're very beautiful and interesting. And there was a guy that was selling them in Chattanooga. And I just, like, pulled over and I was going to buy when they were two expensive for what they were, but just looking at them, like, I think they're beautiful. I'm thankful for them. And I started, like, you know, looking into the scientific things of trees and algae and how they produce oxygen and different biological things that happen within our bodies and how

if one element was missing or one procedure didn't happen, then our body wouldn't function correctly or stuff like that. And I learned to become more thankful for it because these things are so specific. There's so much order, intricacy, and detail to life that we just have to be so much thankful for. There's actually a protein in your body called laminant. Lamin is the protein that holds your body together, and without laminin, your body would just be like a blob. It would just be like a bunch of mush and gush and like that blue blob man from that old monsters versus aliens movie. That's what your body would look like.

You'd just be a blob. But, and it's in the shape of a cross. and I don't think that's coincidental. And we also look at things like the mitochondrial leaf, where all of humankind, me and whoever you are listening to this or watching this, me and you share 99.9 something of the same mitochondrial DNA. Me and you share 99.9 something percent of the same mitochondrial DNA. Now, in order for that to have, mitochondrial DNA comes from your mother.

So we have to have the same mother relative, which links back to Eve from Adam and Eve in the Garden. Like, there's cool stuff like that. And just we have so much. to be thankful for. And even goes down to something that we overlook oftentimes, just a breath of life. A breath of life, I think we overlook so much

because today, if you are listening or watching this, God's not done with you yet. If you woke up this morning or you were watching or listening to this, God's not done with you yet. And we overlooked that. We take for granted a breath of life because it's become a routine thing to some of us when in reality, like there are people that genuinely didn't get to wake up this morning.

And it's a sad reality, but that's life. I mean, Genesis tells us that because sin in the world that that that that to dust we were made and to dust we shall return. And so death became a reality after sin entered the world. But when we wake up, this breath of life is not only just an absolute blessing, but it's also a sign. God's not done with us yet. And we should be so thankful for that. imagine being a tool for the kingdom. Like, we should be so thankful for that.

I just want to read off a few verses just about thankfulness. And First Thessalonians 518 says, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Just in every situation, the good and the bad, give thanks to Jesus. There's nothing more precious than Jesus himself. And the things that go on in our lives, good or bad, happen for God's will, there's a purpose behind everything.

We should be thankful for it. And Ephesians 520 says, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, I just can't stress enough like my whole perspective of God changed when I realized how precious the things of this world and the things that happen to us are.

Like genuinely, when we say, sit down and reflect on even the smallest things of life, we tend to become more thankful for them. And then not only when we reflect on the small things of life, when we realize that those things could not have happened randomly, that there has to be a brain or something behind it, and then we become more appreciative of it. Then it makes us wonder, and then we find God through it.

All Romans, one of my favorite passages, Romans 1, 18 through round 23, lets us know that God's divine righteousness and powers displayed through all of creation so that humankind is without excuse. Like, we see God in everything. We break it down and look and look at the smallest of pieces. It's a beautiful thing. It's an absolutely beautiful thing. I just want to close this out this episode.

It's a really short episode. We're just a closing word. Another few housekeeping things. just, we always got to do some housekeeping. That's how it is. But I want to close that out with today. I don't know if you're listening to this on Thanksgiving or not, regardless of the holiday of Thanksgiving.

Wherever you are, genuinely sit down at night or in the morning and get a piece of paper and notebook and write out the smallest of things, the grandest of things that you were thankful for. And when we sit down and look at those things, and read over them, even the smallest of things. It can be flowers. It can just be... One of the things I'm thankful for is for two years straight,

I drive on the morning to school. And there's an old man that walks in the morning, 7 a.m. He starts at around 6.15, walks all the way to the front of the neighborhood, pass it. And by the time he's on his way back, I see him going out of the neighborhood. Waves to me every morning.

Don't know his name, don't know anything, but his smile and wave makes my morning every morning. those things we can be thankful for. We can sit there and look at even the smallest of things like that and reflect on life and just pray and talk to God and sit there. Just be like, Jesus, thank you. Jesus, thank you.

Because that's something we overlook. We tend to often pray for things that we want. We oftentimes forget to just sit and thank God. We pray to him and say, God, I need this, this, this, this, bye. I'll see you next time I need something. And that's how a prayer should be. We should sit with the Lord, say thank you.

God, thank you for a beautiful sunrise. Thank you for the colors in the sky. Thank you for the different changing leaves and different seasons. God, thank you for the man that waves to me every morning. God, just think for my classmates, my friends, my peers. I think for my family. I thank you for my circumstance. These things,

we have so much to be thankful for you, but just overlook it. And I think that's because we tend to the zoning on the bat. So I just want to encourage you with that. And a few housekeeping items. Number one, if you're watching this on YouTube again, we have a Spotify. It's going to be linked down in the description.

Go check it out on Spotify. Everything in the Instagram is the Heaven on Earth pod. Please go follow it. Stay up to date on it. I upload on it a lot. or try to keep it posted. I'm horrible at it. I really am horrible at updating it and stuff like that.

Number three, DM the account, Heaven on EarthPod, and let us know people that you want to see come on the podcast. I mean, genuine people that you want to see come on the podcast, DM us who you want to see come on, or DM us different topics that you want to see us talk about. And again, my name is Bryce Crawford. This is episode two, the Heaven on Earth podcast. If you're listening or watching this, God bless you.

Jesus loves you and stay safe and be thankful for every day and every breath of life because if you woke up and you're listening in this god's not done with you yet thank you goodbye