Why are you blessed?
For once in our lives, everyone should have to …
… be alone on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Or both. The facade of gratitude and the idea of what’s important will be replaced with a new way of measuring things …
… everyone should know hunger and wonder if they will have anything to eat that day. You’ll never “say grace” over a meal the same again …
… everyone should know what it’s like to have no place to rest your head. It will give new appreciation to the word “home” …
… everyone should have a vital need they don’t have the resources to meet, and rely on the kindness of another. You’ll learn how to be generous to others …
… everyone should have one outfit to wear for a week, and you’ll grow in humility …
… everyone should have to travel everywhere without shoes, and you’ll learn what simple necessities really are …
… everyone should have no means of transportation, and you’ll learn what real creativity and endurance are …
… everyone should momentarily feel unloved, and you’ll learn how to love unconditionally …
… but our God, who is rich in grace and mercy toward us, has blessed us greatly. Most of us have never experienced any of the situations listed above, and never will.
But a few billion people live this way every day.
Perhaps we have been so abundantly blessed in order to share our blessings with them …
Scotty
November 23, 2012 at 11:53 am
Scotty, What truth in this post. As one who works a little with disadvantaged folk, I find it very humbling indeed that often they are so grateful for any help at all. You are right – we should all experience some of what many of these folk go through every day.
Bless you.
November 23, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Thanks, Chris. I wrote this as an effort to highlight how shallow of a measure we often make in our considerations of gratitude. We tend to proffer a lot of cheap thanksgiving, not necessarily drawn from deep roots but more from the surface. There's a real need for us to cultivate a genuine character of gratefulness.