Thankful || Josh Groban || Track 7

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TEqgU4LpnA

Introducing Something New!

I know I mentioned taking December off and that there will be no blogs during that time, but…I had to keep writing. I know the “What Makes a Believer?” series is over, so what’s next?

As you’ve seen, I’ve been writing new song blogs: “Let’s Listen To…”. It’s a series where I take a random song from my Contemporary Christian playlist on Spotify and then examine it. I really enjoy talking about music, even though I am musically inept. I love talking about the meanings of songs and breaking down some of the lyrics and their meaning. I also commented on the song and what it meant for my life.

I had such a blast writing the song blogs for “Greatness of Our God” and “He Knows” that I wanted to continue the series. We’re arriving into the Christmas season, so we should take this week and the next four weeks to talk about Christmas music! So, as the title suggests, let’s listen to Christmas music.

Introducing the Song

Since we’re coming off of Thanksgiving, why not do the song: “Thankful” by Josh Groban. This song was on Josh’s “Noel” CD that was released in 2007. This song is 13 years old and still one of my favorites. I was always confused about why this song was on a Christmas album because I always associated it with being thankful for Thanksgiving. I never connected the concept that you can be just as thankful at Christmas. Heck! You can be just as thankful for the other 363 days of the year. I always try to share this song at Thanksgiving because it reminds me to be thankful for what God has blessed me with. That’s why we needed to start this 5-week series with this song.

After some research, I need help finding something from Josh Groban himself or another reputable source that talks about the overarching meaning of the song. Its meaning is self-explanatory, but it doesn’t matter. Let’s talk about a couple sections of the lyrics.

What Does This Say? – Part 1

I absolutely love the chorus of this song. It expresses thankfulness in a newer way to me, at least. The opening verse talks about how we forget to look around us some days and recognize the joy, the good, and the positive around us. We usually get so caught up in our day-to-day issues and emotions that we stay focused on ourselves. We focus on ourselves so much and take many things for personal gain when instead, we should give to others. Check out what the chorus says:

“So for tonight we pray for

What we know can be

And on this day we hope for

What we still can’t see

It’s up to us to be the change

And even though we all can still do more

There’s so much to be thankful for”

This reminded me of Jesus’ ministerial goal: the sacrifice for one for the betterment of others. Jesus continually taught us to sacrifice some personal gains to take care of others. For me, that’s part of Jesus’ favorite commandment; to love God and others. Taking care of one another is loving one another. We all can do better in this, myself included.

We need to pray for what we know can be. We need to pray for what we want the future to be. There’s still good out there in the world. We don’t see it that much because negativity, anger, and chaos gain more views and get more money than happy things. Social media will have fights, riots, arguments, or “opinions,” and condescending posts shared more often than happier ones. The news will do pieces on posts like this and dedicate a decent chunk of time talking about it over happier pieces. It’s what we see and take in, but we can still dream.

This day is in our control. It’s up to us to become the change that we want to see. It’s easier to look at the world and think: “Man, I wish things would get better.” The best way to figure that out is to determine what is in and out of your control. Once you figure out what is outside of your control, you need to accept it for what it is and learn to let that stuff go. It’s easier said than done. The benefit of this, though, will do wonders for you. This has been something that I have been trying to manage for a while now. Even though I’m still learning this process, the benefit already has shown wonders for my mental health. When you figure out what’s outside your control, you also figure out what is in your control. A lot of what that includes is controlling how you perceive things. How we perceive things is the most significant change we can make regarding everything. We can look at things with a more positive outlook. That positivity can be transferred from person to person and create a more positive world. I’ve often said that positivity kills negativity, and we need to be more optimistic about how much negativity we take from the news and social media.

There’s more we can do than be optimistic. A positive mindset is a great start, but it needs to lead to positive actions. It doesn’t have to be immediate life-changing actions, but they can still be simple ones. Holding a door open for someone or listening to a friend or someone that needs to talk or vent. Those more minor things can make a longer-lasting impact on someone’s life. Be the change that you want to see. I have always believed that material change starts with a change in you, your sphere of relationships, your city, state, and the world. It would be best to get yourself in order before you can dedicate help to others, and then after you’ve helped your sphere, see how you can help your community, and so on. That’s how I can become change, and I hope you can change with me.

Now I’ve realized that I still need to talk about the song. The song reminds us to be thankful. Among all the chaos that life can throw at us, we can still be thankful. We can be thankful for waking up in the morning. We can be thankful for that first breath we take. We can be thankful for having food in our house. We can be thankful that we have a bed or clothes in our dresser or closet. You get my point. Remember to be thankful, especially during this time of year. It’s easy to lose sight of all that with everything going on this year. We’ve gone through/are going through (I’m writing this at the beginning of October, so I have 0 clue where the world is currently.) a pandemic and social reforms. We’ve seen big riots of various kinds advocating for the racial injustices that we have seen or regarding the various legislation passed during the pandemic. It’s hard to feel positive above all that. I say that from experience, but it also has been a time to reflect. To reflect on who I am and how I got to be who I am. It’s made me realize what I need to change and what I can be proud of. I hope you can be thankful for who you are. I am just thankful that you’ve gotten this far in the blog and have been a part of this family for this long. I have huge hopes for this community for 2021 and am thankful to have you guys along for the ride.

That’s where I’m going to end this long blog. I hope you are excited about this Christmas music series as I am. I love talking about music in this sense and hope this means something to you as we dive into Advent. I’ll see you next week for a brand new song blog! Until then…STAY BLESSED!