Tag Archives: gratitude

The Grateful Series: The Mixed Bag of Unique Gifts

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(Photo of me at Muir Woods, California Spring 2016)

Romans 12: 6-8…We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance  with your faith, if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. 

In this series we’ve gone through the 5 senses God provided to experience this mortal life. There are indeed unique extra senses to which we owe our personalities, individual gifts and talents, and all the many ways we go about serving God’s purposes. These are the things we often describe as “just comes natural to us.”

An example of this in my life was 10 year old me taking drum lessons from a twenty-something pro that my dad arranged. For what felt like forever, all he’d let me do was play rudiments on the snare drum. I liked paradiddles, but the rest was terribly boring. All signs pointed to me giving that up in pretty short order. Then one evening his girlfriend stopped by while we were busy paradiddling and whatnot, and he left the room. There before me was the entire drum kit at my disposal. I had no permission to play it, but I did anyway, and I started emulating all the things Peter Criss was doing on my KISS records. For a kid with no experience except how to do a pretty slow paradiddle on the snare, I sounded pretty decent. Enough so that my long haired, super cool, teacher, was shocked as he stood in the doorway gawking at me. It just came natural to me.

How was I to know that God had no plans to make me like Peter Criss, as in my dreams? Instead, he’d use that God-provided natural instinct for his own benefit for a span of 20 something years in two different cities. I had a lot of fun and experiences on my own time, too, but the sum total of that gift turned out to be – in service to him. Quite an honor it has been.

That’s just one of my unique gifts or extra senses. There are others, as with your own, too, and the more I’ve aged the more aware of these things I have become. All of them are in use and service to God’s will and purposes.

I sincerely pray that those who’ve read this series or will in the future, seek to express their own gratitude for the wonders and grace God provides in their lives.

Onward towards the Kingdom!

Gary Abernathy

 

 

The Grateful Series: Touching the Heart

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(My hug-friendly family exploring Boston – Summer of 2018)

Luke 8: 42-45…As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelves years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

This is a great story in Luke’s Gospel. The essential human instinct of reaching out in faith for help. Or love. Or Sympathy. Compassion. In this case, reaching out in faith to be healed. Jesus knew someone had touched him for that reason, because he felt the power go out of him when she touched his cloak. She trembled at his feet explaining why she had done what she did, and how she had been instantly healed. Jesus replied, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

We take our sense of touch completely for granted. Many people are without sight or hearing, but nearly everyone alive has the ability to feel…to touch. Even as I type on this MacBook I’m not quite used to working on, my fingertips feel the slight sting as my hands try to keep up with my brain. We spend all day, everyday, processing the sense of touch. Thank you, God, for this miracle you’ve provided.

In Part 5 of this Gratitude Series, here are 5 things that touch my heart, to which I give great thanks to the Lord.

1. Holding Hands with My Daughters. They are 21 (nearly) and 17 now, so it doesn’t happen often these days. But the mental image in my mind of raising them will always be strolling along (anywhere we went) holding their hands. There is magic to that between a parent and child when they hold hands. It doesn’t just provide sense of security and love to the child. The magic flows back into the parent as well. By far, my favorite feeling of touch as a Dad has been holding their hands. The feeling is stored deep in my heart.

2. There are a great many things between a husband and wife that aren’t to be shared in a public forum. Most cherished instances of touch fall into that category. Suffice it to say, they are there with us, too, and they shall go without saying. But the sweetest can certainly be put on record. The feeling of my wife stroking my hair as we sit on the couch watching whatever we may be viewing. I adore that feeling.

3. A sincere and real hug. Without question, I’m a hugging type person. If I like you, it doesn’t matter what gender you are or who you may be, eventually, and probably often, you’ll be hugged by me. There exist several different types of hugs, and it’s a fun thing to Google sometime if you’re interested. But the best are the kind that come with a warm smile and enthusiastic embrace. One of the best huggers I’ve ever met served with me on a praise team for many years. That woman gives great hugs. Nothing weird about it, and no extra implications. She just hugs people for real. That’s a great feeling. My family has always been a group of huggers (as shown above). It means a great deal more than most people ever realize…to be hugged.

4. The sensation of water touching your skin. Getting into a warm shower. A hot tub. Pool. Slipping into a mineral bath in a luxurious spa. Wading into the ocean. There is a sense of home built into our DNA when we enter water (totally made that up but it seems right), and it’s triggered by our sense of touch as the water hits our skin.

5. My drumsticks. They’ve always felt perfectly natural in my hands. As if they were merely an extension of my fingers that my brain instantly controlled. They make reality of the rhythm playing in my mind. I like the smoothness of the wood. The exactness of the weight. I’m not one of those drummers that can do entertaining circus tricks with their drumsticks. That’s not me. I know that it’s showmanship and people enjoy it, but I find it disrespectful to the art. Like a monkey doing tricks at a zoo. My desire is to create music that moves another soul in all the right ways. Drumsticks? Are the tools that make that happen.

Gary Abernathy

 

 

 

The Grateful Series: Sensational Sounds

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(Photo of me Spring 1998 playing an outdoor festival in Charlotte, NC)

Acts 2: 1-2…The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

The description of sounds heard runs throughout scripture from Genesis to Revelation. In both Old and New Testaments, the writers describe the noises they experienced, dreamed, or had been told. None more dramatic than the Day of Pentecost as the second chapter of Acts opens. The Spirit of God filling the room like the sound of a violent wind and entering the bodies of the Apostles.

Our sense of hearing greatly helps to define the moments we experience. Writer, Milan Kundera, wrote this wonderful description…”The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness.” Perfectly true, yes?

In Part 4 of this series of expressing gratitude to our Father for these senses, here are 9 of my favorite sounds in life.

1. I’m a drummer. To be exact, I’m a mostly self-taught rock drummer from age 10 until present. I’ve performed thousands of songs on all kinds of stages through the years, and I’ve done so in my own original style. One of my favorite sounds is truly hard to explain unless you lived inside me, but it’s the sound my drums make when I’m fully caught up in a song to the point it becomes like an out-of-body experience. The rest of the band and the vocals are still there, but I’m driving this temporary creation on pure rhythmic instinct, and it’s nothing short of its own miracle. Like I’m inside the song itself looking out, and I’m listening to what’s being made at the very same time it is being created. It’s beautiful to experience. It doesn’t always go like that, and in fact most times, you’re just doing your job and playing drums. The picture of me above? I was inside the song.

2. The sound of Autumn leaves crunching under my shoes as I’m hiking or walking on a crisp Fall day. I love to play in leaves. When my dad would make my brother and me rake them when we were kids it didn’t seem like a bad chore at all. The entire spectrum of senses and emotions that Autumn engages in our souls always find a warm welcome from me.

3. My daughters laughing. Especially when they were toddlers through elementary, but even now as they’ve grown. That sound. It has to be the closest thing a Father can experience that comes close to the pure sounds of heaven. I would never cease trying to come up with ways trying to make them laugh just so I could hear it again.

4. This one is oddly specific…the sound of chatter mixed with clinking knives, forks and spoons, at the Cupboard Restaurant on South Blvd in Charlotte, NC circa the 1970’s. My dad would take me there for breakfast or lunch often because his office was nearby. I have no idea why, but I couldn’t get enough of that background white noise while we ate. To this day I still think about it when I’m eating at some establishment, and try to hear what I used to hear back then. For reasons that only a professional therapist could bring to surface, those sounds were a great comfort.

5. Waves crashing on a beach when the sound is isolated to the point it’s all you hear. That’s a pretty difficult situation to ever come about, because there are always other sounds mixing in with the waves crashing. When I was just barely 18 years old I was living in our family beach house in South Carolina. This was 1984. Wild growth hadn’t yet overtaken the area, and though our home was across the street from the beach, nothing stood between the structure and the ocean on the other side. The house is on stilts, but my dad had an apartment built ground level as I began college at Coastal Carolina University. By late Fall, the beach population dwindled to few, so late at night as I was falling asleep, all I’d hear were those waves a hundred yards or so from my head crashing. Pure magic.

6. The sound of a woodpecker going to town on some tree deep in the woods. It’s a mystery to me why I love to hear that, but I do, and I got to experience that on a hike last October. I was plowing along shuffling my feet through the leaves as I mentioned above, and I heard that distinct knock. It took me a bit to find that beak beating fella, but I finally did. I just sat and listened happily.

7. The sound of rain pinging off a distinguished umbrella with personality, as I stroll a path or city sidewalk. In those times I laugh in my head and say, “Yes, dad, you’re right. I really don’t have the sense to even know to come out of the rain.” I will gladly put on a raincoat, grab my red and green tartan umbrella, and take a walk through a steady, yet friendly, soaking rain.

8. The jet-like whoosh of a massive stadium filled with people when the home team does something great. It’s a magnificent sound. That initial roar as it builds to deafening levels. I’m a big fan of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. One of my favorite moments in life was in January 2016 hosting the NFC Championship Game in Charlotte. I was there, along with my older brother, my dad, and my stepmom. It was a frigid evening game against the Arizona Cardinals for the right to go to the Super Bowl. We won. Big. It was fantastic. I heard this sound repeatedly for 3 hours.

9. The sound of a favorite or cherished song(s) coming on at just the perfect moment. This happened to me again today before writing this latest list. I was in our pool with my family here on Memorial Day 2019 in Florida, and floating on one of the high quality new floats my wife and I purchased. They’re super comfortable and perfect for catching some sun. My phone was synced up with the blue tooth speaker I have out there, and right when I was totally relaxed (rare thing) and enjoying the moment, a trifecta of great songs came on back to back to back. “California Stars,” by Wilco, followed by, “Last Song I’ll Ever Write,” by Jason Isbell, followed by, “When You’re Done,” by Lucero. Dude. What a treat 🙂

Gary Abernathy

The Grateful Series: A Matter of Taste

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(Photo by me at Sue’s Best Burger, Oct 2017, in Blue Ridge, GA)

Job 34: 2-4 (ESV)…Hear my words, you wise men, and give ear to me, you who know; for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food. Let us choose what is right; let us know among ourselves what is good.

As we continue with Part 3 of this series in expressing gratitude to the Father by acknowledging the wonderful senses we’re provided to experience life, I looked to this passage in Job. Referencing our senses of hearing and taste and the abilities they give to discern, the scripture implores us in the same way to actively choose right over wrong, good over bad, in our decision making. “As the palate tastes food.”

The palate is incredibly unique in each individual. While we certainly share common love or dislike with many others over any particular taste, no two palates are exactly alike. Have you ever considered that? Stunning to realize the complexity of His creation in these ways. The list of things that send my tastebuds into heavenly orbit would never exactly match another person. Yet, all individuals have “a taste” for certain items, and from that first initial bite or sip, many other emotions are engaged, the best of which we in America describe as – Comfort Food.

With great gratitude to my Father for the sense of taste, here are just a sample of some of the things I adore to experience. Create your own list and give prayers of Thanksgiving!

Disclaimer: I am not an Aristocratic man of highly refined palate and taste. I’m a southern boy raised on real cooking and great tasting foods. This list will reflect that 😉

1. South Carolina mustard-based bbq sauce slathered on pulled pork and served on a white bread bun. Preferably at a divine placed named, “Maurice’s Piggie Park,” in Columbia, South Carolina. The original one. With the enormous sign in the sky with a smartly dressed pig standing on top. I love that place deeply.

2. Steamed Dungeness, King, Snow, or Stone Crab, dipped in melted butter. One of the greatest (and most expensive meals on earth), is also one of the most simplistic pleasures to be found. There’s almost nothing to preparing, plating and then selling this meal (for great profit), but the reason it’s done is because it’s soooooooooooooo good. Sure it can be a bit cumbersome to get to that meat, and in the case of King Crab, it can also be painful, but slap down a mess of it in front of me and I won’t talk again until it’s all gone. I’ll just look up at you right before I start and say, “See you on the other side.” After that…it is just a fury of flying shells, dripping butter, and a series of pleasurable grunts and moans.

3. Dr. Pepper. No kidding, for a great portion of my life to this point I consumed Dr. Pepper like it was my paid job. I used to joke that my body chemistry consisted purely of the 23 flavors of Dr. Pepper. It was all a beautiful great ride. Until a Doctor one day ruined everything. In a nutshell, if I didn’t stop gulping down the truthfully really bad for you, yet amazingly delicious soda, I was on a fast train to a fried pancreas and early death. Begrudgingly, I put down the sodas and started drinking water like a normal human being. However, I still treat myself on occasion, and the Good Doctor still holds my heart. P.S. I visited the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas earlier this year. My advice if you love the drink? Don’t go. It’s sadly disappointing for what should be a grand palace honoring the world’s greatest soft drink. 🙂

4. An expertly prepared Strip Steak, either NY or Kansas City cut. I’m always down to chow on a strip steak. Anytime. Anywhere. But all steaks are not created equal, and neither are the cooks making them. To this day, the best Strip Steak I’ve ever had the great pleasure to eat was at Emeril’s in Orlando, Florida. A place that no longer exists. Hall of Fame Chef, Emeril Lagasse, of New Orleans fame, for a time had a great restaurant at Universal Studios Florida. I was there with my kids and wanted something more upscale than park food. I had no idea the most mouth-watering, buttery, juicy, awesome steak I’d ever eat was on the menu. But it was. I’ve been seeking its equal ever since. I’ll gladly keep searching.

5. A fried seafood platter on the Carolina Coast. Flounder, shrimp, scallops, oysters, deviled crab, hush puppies…it’s all deadly. Deadly delicious. The style is officially known as, “Calabash Style,” named after the small NC fishing town that calls itself the Seafood Capital of the World. That of course is silly, but the food is not, and it is served all up and down the coasts of both Carolinas.

6. New York City Pizza. My personal favorite (because you have to have one) is – John’s of Times Square. NYC is a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me the city is – Pizza. I could take or leave the rest, but give me that pizza.

7. The Eastern North Carolina Style Chopped Pork BBQ Sandwich that was served in the Charlotte Coliseum during Charlotte Hornets basketball games. Not the Michael Jordan owned Hornets of now, but the original George Shinn owned Hornets. With Larry Johnson, Alonso Mourning, and Steph Curry’s Dad, Dell. Those Hornets. We went to all the home games back in those early years of the franchise, and oh my…there was a NC BBQ stand outside in the concourse that served up both Western and Eastern styles. The Eastern? Mouth-watering, unbelievably good. North Carolina is one of the 4 pillars of BBQ along with Texas, KC, and Memphis. The state is full of legendary joints. For me to sit here and say the best I ever tasted was from a stand at an NBA game? I could be banned permanently from the state. But I’m telling you truth…it was the best.

8. The Red Beans, Rice & Grilled Smoked Sausage at Acme Oyster House in New Orleans, LA. I have had the honor of sitting at the bar at Acme for many lunches and devouring their red beans, rice and sausage. The flavors just pop like a fireworks show in your mouth. If you ever find yourself having a drink or two in the French Quarter any given night, go to Acme the next day for lunch and order this. Fix you right up.

9. Breakfast. Let’s not even bothering to break it down to a specific breakfast food. Just – breakfast. You walk downstairs to the smell of bacon or sausage sizzling in the pan, fresh eggs are about to become something delicious however you like to have them…oh man. I love it all. Breakfast. Just typing the word makes me happy.

10. My Mom’s Baked Chicken. She was a splendid southern cook and had the skills to make all kinds of dishes. But for me growing up, my favorite was her basic baked chicken. I don’t know what she did because I was too stupid back then to pay attention. But whatever it was, that baked chicken was the comfort food of my childhood. I’ll never get to eat it again. She passed away in 2000. But my palate? The memory is still fresh. Thanks, Mom!

 

The Grateful Series: My Favorite Aromas

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Psalm 115: 4-8 (NIV)…But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

In the second part of this series seeking to instill gratitude in our hearts that the Father made us the way that he did, I’m going to be honoring the sense of smell. Our creator has blessed us not only with these bodies to function with, but also with 5 wonderful senses that bring those parts to life. Unlike the endless false idols man uses attempting to usurp God, we can see, smell, taste, touch, and have ears to hear. Do we not take this for granted? For those missing one of these senses for whatever reason, they certainly do not take any of the others for granted. But we sure do. These simple list exercises help to instill appreciation and thankfulness for these miracles. I encourage the reader to make their own lists.

My sense of smell is easily my weakest. I’m not sure why, but no one would ever mistake me for a blood hound. However, it does work well enough for me to have a list of favorite aromas and memories of great smells.

It the spirit of gratitude for our Father, here are some of my favorite aromas 🙂

1. Walking in the doors of Godfather’s Pizza from 1980 to 1984 at Park Road Shopping Center in Charlotte, NC. “Wow, that’s intensely specific,” you say? Ha! That’s my favorite smell of all-time. Nothing has topped it yet. Everyone knows how great the smell is when you first walk into a pizza joint, but this one in particular was ridiculously great. At least that’s how it lives in my memories.

2. The Evergreen Trees at the summit of Calloway Peak in North Carolina. Sitting at 5,964 feet, this is the highest mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountain range. After a strenuous, long hike to reach the summit, the first reward is not the incredible view. It’s the aroma. It smells like Christmas exploded in the best possible way. The commercialism evaporated in God’s wrath, and all that remains is the pure and wonderful smell of natural growing evergreen. When you reach that peak you know you’re somewhere super special. Your nose tells you.

3. My wife’s dirty hair. “What???” That’s right, I said it. My wife’s hair when it hasn’t been washed? Dude. It smells fantastic. I stick my snout in there until she swats me away like a pesky gnat. Then I come back for more 🙂

4. The blooming Jasmine bush Easter Weekend 2019 in Savannah, Georgia. We were staying at an Airbnb on gorgeous Jones Street in Savannah, and upon checking in late at night I could smell something great but I couldn’t see what. The next day I discovered the source. A gigantic Jasmine bush/tree/whatever they are called, in the courtyard of the townhouse. In full bloom. And sending out waves of awesomeness aroma. That bush had strong smell game.

5. Smoldering wood sending smoke wonderfully wafting through the air at any real BBQ place in the Southern United States. It doesn’t matter which type of wood is burning: Hickory, Oak, Cherry, Mesquite, Peach, Apple…it’s all a delight to the sniffing senses. In my opinion, THAT is the official smell of the south. I crave the scent.

6. Freshly cut grass in the summer. Isn’t this a universal favorite smell? Have you ever met anyone that said they didn’t like that smell? No, you haven’t.

7. The aromas of the South Carolina Coast. This goes beyond the obviously great smell of salt air that we all love and identify with as the beach, but also to those unique things about the South Carolina coast that are so amazing. Shrimp boiling or frying, footlong hot dogs being served to your table, the myriad of aromas of a beach boardwalk…I could go on all day. This time next week I’ll be there once again. I always come home.

8. Play-Doh. I was one of those kids. I didn’t eat it, but I wanted to, because it smelled so freaking good to me. I could just bury my snout in the cup and stay there. (Btw, this might be one of the weirdest things about me, but certainly not the only thing). I’m not the only one in this boat I’ll have you know. If you Google, “the smell of play-doh,” you’ll get this description: “Hasbro formally describes the trademarked scent as a unique scent formed through the combination of a sweet, slightly musky, vanilla-like fragrance, with slight overtones of cherry, and the natural smell of a salted, wheat-based dough.” See???
They do it on purpose 🙂