Thanksgiving is an especially meaningful day for me. Regardless
of my circumstances over the years, it’s the one day that has always made me stop and really appreciate just how well
I’m blessed.
As I write this, I’m blessed with
excellent health. Income-wise, I can’t complain. While I’ve made more money in the past, I’m
very grateful for the living I’m able to make today.
My
relationship with my wife is stronger than ever and I’m looking forward to many more years of wedded bliss.
I couldn’t be a more blessed man.
Spiritually, while
my confidence in my fellow “Christian man” was crushed to near non-existence years ago, my faith in God is stronger
than it’s ever been. And, yet, with that growth in faith, I’m painfully aware of how far I fall short, encouraging
me to strive to be the “me” God wants me to be.
For
all of this and more, I’m sincerely thankful. That’s how I feel during this personal time of relative plenty.
I’ve experienced very lean times, too.
In the past, I’ve moved from a nice, middle-class home with a pool that I designed
and supervised the construction of to a cramped apartment and wondered how I was going to pay for even that.
In the past, I’ve lived on two for $1 Jack In The Box tacos (and have
the spare tire to show for it) and often wished that I could take my family out for a nice night out.
In the past, I’ve started many, many days in search of meaningful employment,
only to end them with seemingly nothing to hope for. I’ve had glimmers of hope that turned out to be what felt like
cruel jokes.
In the past, I’ve had lots of sleepless
nights.
In the past, I began to learn to be thankful
for what I had because, despite how rough the going got, I began to see that it could be a lot rougher than it was.
I started consciously looking at the things that I should be thankful for. I began to be thankful
for the little – even silly – things: water, electricity, the air that I breathed, the gas in my tank, the junk
food I survived on, the old clothes I wore that just didn’t seem to wear out. My wife even tells
me that, to this day, she’s thankful every night as she slips into a nice, warm bath.
Slowly – very slowly (and after many more bumps in the road) –
I began to have a better perspective on things.
During those dark days,
I was reminded of an old Andre Crouch song that the organist often sang at the small church I used to attend as a kid. The
song is called Through It All. The lyrics say, in part,
I Thank God For The Mountains,
and I Thank Him For
The Valleys,
I Thank Him For The Storms He Brought Me Through.
For If I'd Never Had A Problem,
I Wouldn't
Know God Could Solve Them,
I'd Never Know What Faith In God Could Do
I
know that some of you will say that I’m being pollyanish or that I’ve overdosed on the “opium of the people”.
That’s fine. I’m not saying any of this in order to jam my faith down anyone’s throat.
What I am saying is that, a) regardless of what your status is in life, you do have something to be thankful for so
choose to dwell on those things and, b) if you’re going through dark, difficult times, don’t lose hope. Things
will get better.
In the mean time, be thankful for
what you got.
