We all do it.
Open our Instagram and begin the scroll through other people’s lives.
Swipe. Oh KEWWWWLL she’s on the beach in Hawaii. How nice. God bless her.
Swipe. Wow. She looks great. Look how fit she is and how the light hits her chiseled abs just perfectly as she lays on the floor in a sit up position. She’s glistening, not sweating. Good for her.
Swipe. Well BLESS THE LORD their family is all matching and loving each other and perfect and glowing. Their kids are holding hands and just all in love. Praise Him.
Swipe. Oh. Look at that. Yes ma’am. I love your $5,000,000.00 new home too. Favor.
Swipe. Oh that’s your view this morning for coffee? What beautiful fog covered glorious mountains. Hallelujah.
That scroll through people’s lives feels so second nature to us in this social media age. It’s such a part of our day, sometimes our every 5 minutes, that we don’t realize that we are being lulled into a state of discontent.
Thankfulness.
It doesn’t come natural these days. We live in a world that is constantly reminding us of the things we don’t have, the things we need to fear, the people we will never be, the places we will never go, the material things that are just out of reach and the life that we wish we had.
Thankfulness is not a knee jerk reaction, it’s not our resting state.
Therefore, there has to be a fight for thankfulness to rise to the top.
Being thankful is a discipline, requiring practice and conditioning. It takes pushing back against our natural bent and CHOOSING to see things through the lens of gratitude.
When we aren’t intentionally thankful, when we don’t stop, think and choose in the moment to breath in a big gulp of THANK YOU, we will move through life unaware of just how much we have been given.
Even in the worst of times, thankfulness can exist. It can exist because it’s our choice. It’s up to us.
Our circumstances can not dictate this part of our heart. Our seeming lack can not take away our ability to be thankful.
The absolute truth is that, no matter where this day finds you, you have MUCH to be thankful for. If you don’t think so, take 5 minutes and list simply the things you can see.
The mug of coffee on the table in your home,
the home you get to come to at the end of every day.
The rugrats running around your home.
The spouse that, even in the worst of times,
is still sitting across the table from you.
The clothes on your back.
No matter where they are from or how much they cost.
The food that you have eaten.
The water you have gulped down.
The fact that you just took another breath.
All gifts. All miracles. All deserve our utmost THANKFULNESS to the One who sustains our every breath.
I will never forget the deep dark eyes that looked up at me through the window of our van, minutes after landing in one of the poorest, most broken places on earth, Kinshasa, DRC.
He was tiny, malnourished, covered in dirt from head to toe and dressed in scraps that didn’t fit. His hands were extended up to me, begging for anything that I had to give.
And you guys, let me tell you how prepared I was for Africa. I brought everything you could imagine on that trip.
Including a FIVE POUND BAG of gummy bears. (Gummy bears: don’t leave home without them….sooo American…bless it Lord)
I reached down into the huge bag of gummy bears I had in my lap and dumped a huge pile into his hands. They were strikingly colorful in comparison to his reality. His eyes opened wide and filled with tears.
“THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!” he shouted in French as he ran off to his friends, proud of the bizarre and colorful gift that had just been given him. He was thrilled. Full to the brim with thankfulness.
He didn’t stop to think of all the things I could have given him. He didn’t continue to stand there with his hands open as if I didn’t give him anything. He didn’t complain or second guess.
Knee jerk thankfulness. Not a thought crossed his mind except
gratitude.
Imagine if someone in the dead middle of Africa had access to your Instagram. Imagine if they took a swipe through your life.
Perspective.
The right perspective is where thankfulness begins.
That person, in Africa, would be in awe and wonder over the things that YOU have to be thankful for. Things that they could only dream of having.
They would tell you: YOU HAVE MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR.
Let’s not be robbed today of TRUE GRATITUDE.
Let’s all stop. Take an assessment of our reality and CHOOSE to be thankful. Fight for it. Be intentional. Say it out loud to those sitting around you. Practice thankfulness.
May our hearts swell with joy as we think on the things that we have been given, the things that God has brought us through, the things that God has taught us, the people He has placed in our lives, the abundance of His presence and the truth that
NO MATTER WHAT we have HIS PROMISES
…and that’s all that needs to be true for us to be THANKFUL until the day we die.
