By Tabby (Wilson ’89) Finton
Gratitude that comes from the heart is not a seasonal offering nor is it circumstantial. In good times and difficult, gratitude beckons to bubble to the surface of our hearts. We put pen to paper and what is written is meant to convey a message. But sometimes, it becomes an outflow of a thought. A doodle. A meandering of the pen can become a scribble or a work of art.
I’ve been parked at Psalm 143 lately, especially verse five. “I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done. I lift my hands to you in prayer. I thirst for you as a parched land thirsts for rain” (NLT).
I’m an under liner: a doodler in my Bible. I mark things I want to retain. In this passage I find myself underlining the actions: remember, ponder, think about, lift, and thirst. My journey of gratitude often follows this pattern as well. Remembering what God has done before shores up our hope to believe for more to come.
I have the privilege of sitting at a desk in an office on the first floor of Miller Hall every weekday for my job. I’m surrounded by memorabilia of the days of North Central past. I speak to alumni and hear stories of miracles that have paved the way for what we currently recognize as normal. I’ve heard stories of women in the 1930s walking miles from Gospel Tabernacle every day for months to clean the former Asbury Hospital, so it could eventually become what we now know as Miller Hall.
Stories continue of students in the early 1970s sacrificing entire paychecks or selling their most precious possessions to raise money to build the original F.J. Lindquist sanctuary in which we still worship today. I think about the buckets of tears that have been shed at altars and bedsides in this place. I walk these halls and I’m reminded so often of the sacrifices that others have made so current students can be taught and sent out all over the globe with the hope of the Gospel.
The shoulders of many of those pioneers lie quietly or are fragile now, but what they built is not quiet or fragile. Through the decades, God has been shoring up the living stones that make up the community of NCU today. We stand on the shoulders of men and women of God who thought their investment was worth it. The names Lindquist, Miller, Phillipps, Jones, Carlson, Clark, Danielson, Kingsriter, and Trask are more than just names on buildings; they represent people of God who invested their lives in God’s Kingdom and in His purpose at North Central. I love to remember.
I ponder the great works accomplished, and I think about what God has done in the lives of students, faculty, and staff through the years. I review the effects of their obedience as they followed God’s call. Thankfulness rises within me, and I lift my hands in praise and supplication.
My mind is drawn to our current students as I hear them passing in the hall outside my door. I listen to their stories too, and my heart hears what their words can’t quite convey. I see needs around me and it’s so natural for my heart to cry out once again. I cry out in thirst, as the parched ground thirsts for rain. God is not finished here; there is more on the horizon.
I love to celebrate our heritage and anticipate the future God has for us.
For such a time as this, our grateful hearts join together. Thank you, Lord, for all that you have done and for all that is yet to come.
Tabby (Wilson ’89) Finton is North Central University’s Director of Alumni Relations and NCU Fund.
