Skip to main content

With Gratitude

Last week I think I was making people crazy with my Pollyanna attitude. Well, maybe only myself. On Saturday, 27 October, as I was getting ready for bed, I found that my septic tank had backed up and flooded my downstairs bathroom. It was already 9 o'clock at night and I needed to call a plumber, wait for him to come and then clean up the mess after he left. I was so very tired and still needed to get up early and preach the next day. Yet when I went to the store for cleaning supplies at 11:30 at night, I found myself walking through the parking lot praying this: "Thank you, God, that we had money to pay for the repair. Thank you that there is not significant damage and we still have a house. Thank you that this didn't happen on the first night Rob was home."

When I realized what I was doing, I kind of laughed at myself because of my seemingly ridiculous level of optimism. Yet I felt happy because I knew things were going to be okay. My high continued to escalate throughout the week as I knew the time when I would be reunited with my husband came closer and closer.

My happiness forced some reflection: on families whose father/husband/mother/wife/son/daughter isn't returning, on people who have lost loved ones and long for the reunion hereafter, on people who are not in a spot where they can be happy at this time.

Mostly,though, I really reflected on how blessed I feel at this time in my life. I love the work I am doing right now and the people around me who are shaping me. And I am finally living in the same house at the same time with the man I promised to share my life with and whom I love dearly. While I don't know that my Pollyanna-ability to see the good will last indefinitely... I'm enjoying it for a few weeks. I've a lot to be thankful for and I don't mind sharing a little joy. Thanks be to God.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm In

A few weeks ago ,  I was using voice-to-text to compose some prayers. After I was finished speaking the whole list, I was proof-reading the document and   realized that everywhere I said “Amen”, the voice-to-text wrote “I’m in”. “Amen” essentially means  “may it be so”,  but what would it look like to end our prayers with “I’m in”. What would change if we rose from our knees, left our prayer closets, closed our devotionals, and moved with purpose toward the goals for which we had just prayed.  Lord, in your mercy:  Grant justice to the oppressed and disenfranchised (I’m in) Cast down the mighty from their thrones (I’m in)  Console the grieving and welcome the prodigal (I’m in)  Welcome strangers and attend to the marginalized (I’m in)  Grant the space for the silenced to speak… and listen (I’m in)  Fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty (I’m in)  Forgive others as I am forgiven (I’m in) Be merciful as God in h...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Reign of Christ and the Long Defeat

At one point in The Lord of the Rings, the royal elf Galadriel describes her life and experience and says, “… we have fought the long defeat.” Galadriel, like other elves and the Hobbits and many others, is depicted as being on the right side of things in the books. The Company of the Ring (the Fellowship) wins and defeats the forces of evil. Why would she consider this a “long defeat”?  Furthermore, why would J.R.R. Tolkien, the author, apply the same term to himself. He wrote in a letter, “Actually, I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a 'long defeat’ – though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.” (Letter #195) Tolkien, a Brit, fought in World War 1. Though he was on the side that “won”, he saw the devastation following the war on all sides- how the “winners” struggled with what they had seen and done and how the “losers” were galvanized to see ...
2 comments
Read more

Top Ten Things to Learn from the book of Job

Readings: Job 1:1-22; Job 38:1-11; Luke 8: 22-25 10. Job contradicts Proverbs.   The writer of Proverbs offers the hope and consolation that people who live wisely and faithfully, according to the will of God, will flourish and prosper. The very first chapter of Job says: it ain’t necessarily so. You may well live righteously and with great integrity and, still, terrible things may happen. A faithful life is not an automatic buffer to calamity. Due to this contradiction between the books, both of which are categorized as wisdom literature, we are reminded of all those who have gone before us who tried to make the Bible speak with one voice. It doesn’t. The Bible has many voices, some of which are quite dissonant together, but they sing one song about the presence and providence of God.  9. Job is an old story, but a young book, relatively speaking. Since Job doesn’t mention Abraham or Moses or the laws or the Temple, some interpreters have considered it the oldest story ...
Post a Comment
Read more