Thankful? Yeah, for what??

This is the Voice of One.

A lot of us spent the month of Thanksgiving posting something every day that we were thankful for. I sorta got lost from this. The newspaper sucks all the oxygen out of your life in November, since that is our busiest month and I got too busy to pay attention to Facebook and all that.

Well, I hate to leave a task unfinished so here now we answer the question: Thankful? Yeah, for what?? Well, as you can see, quite a bit! Here we go...

Thanksgiving Day One: Thankful that my Lord God would consider a sinner such as me not only worthy of salvation, but as one to be his servant in ministry. It's mind boggling still today!



Thanksgiving Day Two: I am thankful that I was given the opportunity to be with a group of over 900 people tonight who made a stand for life. The Loving Choices banquet was a powerful thing, and that so many will make a stand for life tells me that there's hope for this nation after all!

Thanksgiving Day 3: I am thankful for my honey bunches! Thru thick and thin she stands by her man, and gives my life reason and order. 35 years and going strong! Carolyn! I love you now and forevermore!

Thanksgiving Day 4: I am thankful for grandkids! Kaila and Eliana make life so worth it! I miss them terribly, and an hardly wait to see them over the holidays. I miss my grandson, Conner. When he is older we shall have good days to enjoy. I wonder, is this crop going to be it, or will there be more grandchildren to spoil rotten? Time will tell.

Thanksgiving Day Five: I am thankful for the little kid who came along and made me into a Dad...Sgt. Joshua J. Mackey! They handed him to me in the delivery room, and I'm told I looked like I was about to pass out because I had never held one of those things before! Can't believe that was 34 years ago this past October. Thank you, Josh, for making dad awfully proud!

Thanksgiving Day Six: I am thankful for my favorite daughter in the whole world: Dr. Amber Mackey. I knew early on that here was a girl with scary smarts who was going to accomplish tremendous things and do lots of good in this life. I also knew early on that my claim to fame in this world was going to be that I am Amber Mackey's father! And that's a claim worth having.

Thanksgiving Day Seven: I am thankful for my best Razorback game partner: Jordan Mackey! The youngest of my brood, he has a heart for missions and an incredible talent for music. Which is why he is not allowed to play my bass. Too embarrassing!

Thanksgiving Day Eight: I am thankful for rainy days, complete with the sound of the rain pouring on the house, the rumble of thunder and in the middle of all that the sound of a train off in the distance. Relaxing!

Thanksgiving Day Nine: I am thankful for the group of guys I meet with every Wednesday for lunch. We always pick places that are organic, fresh and healthy, only heart happy foods and healthy. Yesireebob, health foods only. Well, I could be lying about that...

Thanksgiving Day Ten: I am thankful for Oak Manor Christian Church. Of all the churches I have ever been a part of, either as pastor or attender, OMCC is my favorite of them all!

Thanksgiving Day Eleven: Well, it’s Veteran’s Day so we’re all supposed to say how we’re thankful for Vets. Which I think is an awesome idea! If you’re a vet, or currently serving, and you read this post this is what I have to say to you: Thank you! Your service and your sacrifice is appreciated! America first, baby!

Thanksgiving Day Twelve: I am thankful for Arkansas Razorbacks Football games I get to attend! I am VERY thankful for Arkansas Razorbacks Football games I attend when the Hogs win! When I was a kid I would listen to KAAY-AM in Little Rock at night, and when there were Razorback games they’d call the hogs which I thought was just cool! Wooooo Pig Soie! Razorbacks!

Thanksgiving Day 13: I'm thankful for my car! It's an older car, a 2002 Toyota Avalon with all the bells and whistles. At 150,000 miles it is at about the halfway point in its serviceable life. It's named "The White Rabbit" after the Jefferson Airplane song of the same name. It has hippie attitude, enough afterburners to take care of you, and luxurious trappings and I have enjoyed this car more than any other. It is smoooooth!

Thanksgiving Day 14: I am thankful for the magic elixir of life: a Route 44 Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper from Sonic!

Thanksgiving Day 15: I am thankful for the Christ on Campus student ministry at the University of Arkansas. Mike Armstrong and the gang have a powerful outreach to University students. Tonight Oak Manor CC presents our annual ConC Thanksgiving Banquet at the Rock House, which is at the corner of Dickson and Arkansas Ave there at the University. Students! Come chow on some great Thanksgiving grub and meet Mike and the crew. We serve 5:30 to 7:30 so be there or be square!

Thanksgiving Day 16: I am thankful for the Wednesday Night Prayer Group. This is a small group, but it is a powerful group of prayer warriors. About half a dozen or so of us gather each week, we share a meal and then get down to the business of praying for each name on our Military Prayer List, for each attender of OMCC by name, and a host of other things we bring before our Awesome God. We have three groups that are devoted exclusively to intercessory prayer, this is the one that meets weekly.

Thanksgiving Day 17: I am thankful for the Ed Marshall Prayer Group. This being the second Thursday of the month we met tonight, like the Wednesday night group, we share a meal and then get down to intercessory industrial strength prayer. Tonight (we didn’t plan this) but we had a deep discussion about issues in the past that have faced Oak Manor CC, and we brought forth a commitment to look not to the past but to the future that our Awesome God has for this church family. More than once I have come to Ed’s group discouraged and depressed, and left uplifted and confident in the future. You guys mean more to me than you’ll ever know!

Thanksgiving Day 18: Back to something less serious, but something I am thankful for indeed. I am thankful for Mexican food! Surely when St. Peter ushers us through the pearly gates (ignore the faulty theology here, just work with me!) the first thing we’ll see is a ginormous buffet of Mexican delights! Tacos! Enchiladas! Burritos! Chips with salsa so hot your face melts off! Refried beans and Mexican rice flow in rivers you just jump in! Two words: Cheese Dip! I could eat this stuff every day, and sometimes I do! Ahhhh, I believe it’s Friday, so I have a scheduled trip to Acambaro’s in Lowell for lunch! Yes!

Thanksgiving Day 19 I am thankful for our final prayer group, the Dave Whitmire Prayer Group. We gather at the Whitmire home in Springdale once per month, and like the other groups the agenda is great food great fellowship and industrial strength prayer. Like with the Wednesday Night Prayer Group and the Ed Marshall Prayer Group, many is the time I’ve arrived discouraged, depressed and down but left lifted up and encouraged and ready to take on the next challenge. A high point of the month, for sure!

Thanksgiving Day 20 I am thankful for The World’s Most Dangerous Praise Band. Led by worship leader Rick Herring on guitar and vocals, we feature Carol Bursey on keyboards, Karen Hendrix vocals and your humble servant on bass. We have more fun than any one human being should be allowed to have! And while we’re at it we do our best to point our church family’s hearts toward home: toward our Awesome God.


Thanksgiving Day 21 I am thankful for the money grubbing owners of the Beatle’s catalog of music, who for money grubbing reasons released the music of The Fab Four to the likes of Pandora so I can listen to it a bunch on my Moody Blues radio! Woohoo!

Thanksgiving Day 22 I am thankful for flying machines. So I’m sitting there waiting for something, and I gaze into the sky and see contrails high above and a Cessna over there and what do I hear but a chopper? Flying machines are the coolest piece of technology ever invented by man! I’ve flown in every kind of flying machine from Piper Cub to Cessna to Beach Bonanza to T-38 to F-4 and F-16 and a C-130 even a Ford Tri-Motor once! Of course that’s not to mention the 727, 737, 757 and the 777 (and others). I missed the 747, somehow. That’s not to mention a hot air balloon (closed circuit to Elizabeth Alex: that little girl you were carrying around at the station watching while I flew in the balloon is now a surgical pathology resident in San Diego) and the choppers I flew in, a couple of which I hung out of to take pictures and one that I did a flying live shot from for the late KPOM-TV. Hmmm. All of my thanksgivings have been a couple of lines. This one is a paragraph. Can anyone say where my passion lies?

Thanksgiving Day 23 I am thankful for the horseless carriage. A very recent invention, as far as the full course of human history goes, we have forgotten what freedom comes when you don’t have to hitch up the horses to go somewhere. You just get in the thing, fire up the internal combustion engine, and away you go. Just think. If I decided to up and go see Amber in San Diego, all I have to consult is my pocketbook. Well, I may have to consult Amber. But you know what I mean!

Thanksgiving Day 24 As I mentioned in the first part, a lot of this was written after the fact. Truth be known, thanks to my work at the newspaper I wasn’t in much of a thankful mood this week because this is the heaviest week in the newspaper business because of Black Friday. The largest paper of the year comes out today, and this is a day of “all hands on deck.” Bah, humbug!

Thanksgiving Day 25 I am thankful for times with my family at holidays. For instance, when Eliana walked through the door and first laid eyes on her old grandpa, she made a bee line towards me and lifted her arms up for me to pick her up immediately. We were quite the buds, and let me tell you that all at once life was worth living. Kaila and Eliana have a way of reminding you what love is all about!

Thanksgiving Day 26 I am thankful for that All-American culinary art form: a well made hamburger! Cheddar Burger at Sassy’s, Jalapeno Burger at George’s, Chubby Cheese Basket at Babe’s, any burger at Five Guys, and whatever that thing is I custom make at Burger Life are all awesome treats for the taste buds for which I give thanks to The Almighty and receive with joy, gladness and thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day 27 I am thankful for another All American culinary art form: a well made plate of onion rings and/or french fries! Yum!

Thanksgiving Day 28 I am thankful for the fact that these eyes saw Joe Adams return a punt for a touchdown in a style that only can come from the Razorbacks!

Thanksgiving Day 29 I am thankful that I have been blessed to be born in and to live in the most awesome nation that humanity has ever seen: The United States of America!

Thanksgiving Day 30 I am thankful that I finally got this list finished!

This is the Voice of One!