"Stay alert with your eyes wide open in gratitude." Colossians 4:2 The Message Bible
The social media memes abound about how horrible 2020 has been. I don't need to go through the whole litany of challenges we have faced this year-you all know them too well. And now our presidential election is a big contentious mess, because of course it is! Is anyone surprised?
When we go through hard times, especially when a difficult season is prolonged, our problems can blind us to our blessings-all we can see are the difficulties. It's happened in my own family. Many of us have commented that 2020 is "the worst year ever." Except that our youngest grandson was born in 2020, and God has provided for us in spite of the quarantine shutdown and we are all healthy and well. In fact, I looked back through my daily gratitude journal and I've written down one thousand twenty-five blessings so far this year. Yes, some days I have to look harder then others to find the blessings in the middle of life's messes, but I've never failed to find something to give God thanks for. I just have to choose to have an attitude of gratitude instead of an attitude of hopelessness and despair and I have to keep my eyes wide open to notice God's goodness. He is good and He does good. He is doing good in us, for us and around us everyday. Are we blinded to His goodness or are our eyes wide open and seeing His goodness? It's a choice.
Thanksgiving Day will be celebrated in three weeks here in the U.S.A. But, the Bible tells us to give thanks always and in everything. Again, it's a choice. I know what it is to be so bowed down with grief, despair, hopelessness, fear and hurt that for God to ask me to give Him thanks anyway seems almost cruel. But, I also know that He knows best, that what He asks of me is always for my benefit, not for His. He doesn't need anything from anyone. He doesn't lack anything in Himself that requires my thanksgiving in order to fill Him up. Giving Him thanks and praise fills up something that is lacking, something that needs filled up in me-the assurance that He is good and He is in control of my life and all that I face.
I admit that I love headlong most days, eyes fixed on my list. I am working at the kind of alertness Paul exhorts us to cultivate along with gratitude.
ReplyDeleteI'm a work in progress in this as well!
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