A month of gratitude

According to Brennan Manning, "It is simply not possible to be simultaneously grateful and resentful or full of self pity".  I believe this to be true ... I also believe that those who follow Jesus do not model a life of gratitude nearly enough for a broken and hurting world.  People do not need any more relationships in their lives that are based solely around commiserating with perceived trials and challenges.  We don't need any more "life sucks then you die" fed into our lives.  Resentful and self pity are becoming the norm, like the concrete skies of a Seattle winter.  Gratitude is like a sunbreak when all that is expected are clouds. 
We have much to be grateful for here in the earliest days of Common Table.  The most obvious, for me, is that we would even be entrusted to a task so large and eternal in nature as the establishment of a new church community.  For that we are exceedingly grateful...but there are more involved and invested in this eternal effort than Joanie and I.  Locally, we have a growing core of people who are becoming the hands and feet of Jesus in the neighborhood.  Beyond the local, we have an ever widening team of people who have invested in us through prayer and or financial support.  During the month of November, as a unified expression of gratitude to the one who makes all things possible, members of our team, both locally and beyond, will be sharing posts on this blog.  The posts here will be as diverse as the people who are posting them...the only thing the same will be the feelings of gratitude behind them.
We, those of the Common Table, invite you to enjoy, to meditate, be inspired and encouraged to interact with each of these.  Please comment freely and share these posts and this blog everywhere its needed.