ebenezer.

(scroll down to my playlist, press pause, and listen to this instead)

I've listened to and sang "Come Thou Fount" a handful of times in church services and have a rockin' Sufjan Stevens version on my iPod, but I never made the connection with the word ebenezer. Did you catch the line? Here I raise my ebenezer. On a basic level, I think I understood that an ebenezer was something- some sort of offering - that you're supposed to give to God. But I never really got it until last week. 

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us." (1 Samuel 7:12) 

Last week at MissioDei, we reflected on this passage (1 Samuel 7:3-13). An ebenezer, as the passage says, is a stone of help. It's symbol that Samuel uses in this story to remind the Israelites that God was with them. He was their help. He was the one who brought them to that place, providing what they needed exactly as they needed it along the way. 

That's not unlike us, either. Until this day, the Lord has brought us here. He has given us exactly what we need, good, hard, bad, fun, painful, joyful, and anything and everything in between. He has brought us to the exact place we're at. He has given us RENEWAL. He has made us new and continues to make us new. If we're not aware of that, if we're not aware of the goodness that God's brought in our lives, it's easy to turn away. Easily, we get blind-sighted by our idols - by image and helping and work and materialism and ideology and comfort and approval and control and power. If we're not aware of the work that God's done and is doing and will continue to do in our hearts and in our lives, we fall apart.

I want to live with eyes wide open to the ebenezer in my life; to the renewal God's given and will continue to give. I want to pick out and celebrate with thanksgiving the reminders of His goodness and help. Bethesda. Redemption. Young Life. Transformation. Friendships. Freedom. Worth. Identity. Reminders of God's goodness. 

I want to be a person who lives with a spirit of thanksgiving. Last week at church, we were challenged to think of thanksgiving as an act of worship. A lifestyle. A posture, not a gesture. Not a one time event. Not one day of the year or one holiday, but rather, a way of living and doing and being and thinking. I want to be so consumed with thanksgiving that it's bursting forth my soul. The way that we remember our past shapes the way that we think about our future. I want to remember and live my whole story with thanksgiving, lifting up praises to the God who gives and provides exactly what we need exactly when we need it. 

That's where I sit tonight. Thanksgiving. Ebenezer. Renewal. 

What's your ebenezer? What's the renewal that God has brought unto this day? Are you living with a posture of thanksgiving?