Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Thankful for Thabiti's thankfulness toward C.J.'s thankful attitude

Thabiti has written a post that I resonate with. C.J. Mahaney is teaching me to express my thankfulness. I love to read C.J.'s books and listen to his messages, because they are all Cross-centered, and all are filled with expressions of gratitude. I was able to expereience C.J.'s genuine gratefulness at T4G '06. I was helping to put out the free books before one of the sessions (I confess, I had mixed motives: I wanted to serve but I also wanted to know what books we were going to be getting). There were about 10 of us standing in line waiting to pick up a box of books to distribute when C.J. walked by. He had several people with him and they were obviously heading somewhere important. C.J. stopped for a moment and expressed his gratitude that we were serving by helping with the books. I could sense his genuineness.

My very first experience with C.J. was at the 2004 Desiring God National Conference. Before the evening Q&A session, he led the entire auditorium in expressing gratitude for John Piper's life and ministry. Piper appealed for C.J. to stop. C.J. continued.

1 comment:

Clif Cummings said...

You are absolutely correct about C.J. He is as much of a genuine, humble servant of God that I have ever met.
While attending this years Desiring God pastor's conference I had the opportunity to personally thank him for his book "The Cross Centered Life" and shared with him how I had used it as one of the many books in my Shepherd's Disciples curriculum.
With genuine tears in his eyes, he thanked me for telling him that, asked for a card and then in less than two weeks upon returning home, I had a box of Sovereign Grace books and compact disc setting on my desk -- from C.J.!

C.J. can honestly say along with the Apostle Paul -- "be followers of me as I follow Christ!"