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WE REALLY CAN BE THANKFUL
also published in the Geauga Maple
Leaf
For those who are obvious
beneficiaries of blessings, giving thanks for them is pretty easy.
What is hard is dealing with the reminder to “be thankful” when we
don’t feel all that blessed. Maybe we lost a job or are temporarily
laid off. Perhaps our 401K has depreciated in value, and we’ll be
needing it for retirement in the near future. We could possibly be
facing, or have faced, foreclosure. Why should we be grateful?
Believe it or not, there are
good reasons. The first reason is that focusing on positive things
makes us feel better, happier, healthier. When we have to dig deep
to find good in our lives, we learn that doing that is productive.
When we recognize even a little bit of good, such as seeing a lovely
landscape or hearing some beautiful music or enjoying a little child
playing, it opens the door to discovering more good.
We do, in
fact, create our own reality. What we acknowledge as real or true is
what we’re stuck with as “our” reality. We build our expectations,
hopes and dreams on that view of “truth.” If we have a positive
outlook, we allow ourselves to have optimistic expectations.
Negativity breeds a discouraged and hopeless sense of life.
Opportunities, good things, can be right in front of us, but, we’re
too blind to see them, when negativity defines our world view.
What is our “world
view”? That is, how do we perceive the status of the world. In
positive terms...or, in negative,--a “what’s right” or a “what’s
wrong” perspective? Is the universe governed by a benign order, or
does chaos rule? Is the glass half-empty or half-full? There are, on
the human scene, many arguments for the reality and presence of
evil. But, the Bible teaches us to reject the mortal and material
(the carnal) sense of life, with all its griefs and miseries, and to
identify with the spiritual. In Romans 8, Paul says, “…ye are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell
in you,” and “we are the children of God; and if children, then
heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” In I John 3 we
read: “the world knows us not…Beloved, now are we the sons of God.”
So, how does identifying ourselves as spiritual help us to be
thankful? We are
naturally thankful when we see evidence of, are conscious of, our
blessings.
Christ Jesus told us to “seek…first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added” unto us.
The evidence will appear. But, when we doubt we are blinded by our
limited thought. Paul said, “Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We must have faith.
The Bible is full of reports
of good being discovered by those who thought all was lost. Elijah
showed the widow woman that the oil and the meal would not fail.
Jesus chastised his disciples for their fears in the midst of a
storm, calling them “faithless.” Another time, he sent them to get
money for the taxes from a fish’s mouth. He fed thousands with “five
loaves and two fishes.” And, many more stories of God’s ever-present
good abound in Scriptures. In each case, as the Word of God reversed
the seeming laws of mortal limitation, experience changed. When we
seek the kingdom of God rather than “things,” thought turns from a
limited, negative, mortal view and consequently, our experience to
the limitless and joyous, spiritual sense of life, and we really can
be grateful.
Submitted by Toni Alexander
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