Being grateful

My Internet just came back on this morning after being down for two days following a snow and ice storm.  We've been driving my wife's garage-kept car while my two outside vehicles sat under a sheet of ice.  Yesterday, I took an ice pick to open the doors so I could start them and begin clearing the windows.  I have do doubt that the ice was the reason our Internet went down.

For me, it's frustrating to be without Internet.  So much of what I do is on-line so a lot of the things I wanted to do was on hold.  I've now got a ton of e-mails to answer, and it's no telling how many millions of dollars I've lost from being unable to respond to my good friends in Nigeria who want to share their wealth with me.  However, as I went to bed last night my prayer was one of gratitude.

Our son has been without power for three days.  Our electricity and heat has never been off.  I thanked God we are in a warm house with food to eat.  I heard last night a friend was recently diagnosed with cancer and given two months to live.  Hospice has been called in.  My family and I enjoy good health.  These storms were the cause of numerous accidents which at the minimum created problems in people's lives, and in some cases took people's lives.  We have been safe as we've traveled the roads.  There is so much pain and heartache in so many marriages.  I thanked God for a wife who has been a joy and blessing to me for nearly 48 years.  Rather than asking God for things last night I simply spent some time thanking him for everything we already have.

During my twenty year pastorate there were times when I was frustrated with things that occurred at the church.  More than once I considered leaving, but then I would look around at what was happening in some other churches.  That was often enough to cause me to stop complaining and begin thanking God for the people he had given me, and for the ones he didn't!  Our church may not have been everything I wish it was, but it was a blessing to serve there for two decades.  Although I do not question my call to the ministry I have now, there are times when I miss serving as the pastor of that church.  My ministry there is one of the greatest joys in my life.

I recently told a young person who was making bad choices in life that one of his problems was that he was not grateful for what he had.  I began to describe some things that could have happened in his life and did not because of the family and support he had.  That lack of gratitude is not limited to young people but can infect anyone regardless of age.  Society does a good job of creating a sense of entitlement that causes us to want more than we've got and makes us dissatisfied with the things we do have.  That's why people will stand in line overnight to buy a new cell phone to replace the one they bought last year.  It's also why too many pastors never unbox all their possessions when they move to a new church.  They are always on the lookout for the next church or ministry rather than being grateful for the one they have.

The next time you are complaining about rather insignificant inconveniences in your life take a walk through a children's hospital.  Spend a week on a mission trip to Haiti as I have done.  Talk to someone who has a missing child.  Visit a hospice facility.  After doing even one of these things compare your inconvenience to the situations others live with every day of their lives.  If that doesn't help you become grateful for all you have something is seriously wrong.