Give Thanks
I have it pretty good, we all do, and so we should be thankful. There are times however, when parts or our lives are not as perfect as we would like, and then we often are thankful that we are not worse off yet. It struck me recently, that this kind of anti-gratitude is foolish.

However, I still do it all the time. For example, I'm generally pretty content being single, but sometimes, say after going to a wedding, seeing a couple holding hands walking through a park, or having to cook another meal for myself, I can get a little down. That's generally when I try to look around give my anti-thanks. "I am thankful that I'm stuck in a loveless marriage or already divorced, I am thankful that my wife or child is not dying of cancer." I may as well just say that I am thankful that I am not in the shoes of whatever guy my age I see that is struggling.

Jesus once told his disciples of a Pharisee whose prayer ended with "and thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there." Prayer is personal, as are God's blessings to us. We need to be thankful for what we have, not for what we don't have. If we look at someone and can only be grateful that it's not us, then we are ill-equipped to meet their needs as friends and fellow community members. Aren't you essentially saying, "if I was that person, I wouldn't have anything for which to be thankful." If your thankfulness is always based on relative suffering, when things get worse, you'll have to look harder for people worse off than you.

"God thank you for the many things that I have, friends who love me, food in the cupboard, a roof over my head, clothes in my drawers, a car that still works, a blog that people read, money in the bank and a job that I'm good at. Help me also to see and respond with love to the suffering of others. Amen."

   [ posted by William @ 10:14 AM ]