A Tough Take on Gratitude
Today I am grateful for my job and the people I come into contact with there. I am also grateful for heat that works. We need it this morning.
Doesn't it seem at times that there is nothing but bad news coming down the pike? Watching the news can be a real dose of negative. Firefighters killed in the line of duty, young children dying in a boating accident, triple murder in the metro . . . and on and on. In the last couple of weeks I have been touched, though indirectly, by: a death from lung cancer, a man is his mid-twenties killed in a motorcycle crash, and a 5-year-old receiving a very difficult diagnosis. Why? That becomes a tough question at such times. I have also learned we aren't meant to get an answer to that why, but we are probably meant to learn something.
Maybe that something is perspective. Not at someone else's expense, but through someone else's pain. We can pray for those impacted, but we usually aren't in a position to offer direct assistance. If we are, we do. If we aren't, then we tend to thank our lucky stars that it wasn't us or someone we care about. That sounds kind of heartless, like we aren't recognizing the tragedy, but it is just part of human nature. I believe we actually are recognizing the tough news, at the same time we are recognizing the gift of those we love and the gift of each day. All any of us have is today. Tell people in your life that you love them, that they make a difference to you.
Doesn't it seem at times that there is nothing but bad news coming down the pike? Watching the news can be a real dose of negative. Firefighters killed in the line of duty, young children dying in a boating accident, triple murder in the metro . . . and on and on. In the last couple of weeks I have been touched, though indirectly, by: a death from lung cancer, a man is his mid-twenties killed in a motorcycle crash, and a 5-year-old receiving a very difficult diagnosis. Why? That becomes a tough question at such times. I have also learned we aren't meant to get an answer to that why, but we are probably meant to learn something.
Maybe that something is perspective. Not at someone else's expense, but through someone else's pain. We can pray for those impacted, but we usually aren't in a position to offer direct assistance. If we are, we do. If we aren't, then we tend to thank our lucky stars that it wasn't us or someone we care about. That sounds kind of heartless, like we aren't recognizing the tragedy, but it is just part of human nature. I believe we actually are recognizing the tough news, at the same time we are recognizing the gift of those we love and the gift of each day. All any of us have is today. Tell people in your life that you love them, that they make a difference to you.
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