On Gratitude Part 1: Grateful for Your Stuff

"The things you take for granted someone else is praying for." - Unknown

This week I am beginning a three week series on thankfulness. I'll take a moment to talk about the plan because I think it's an important topic that we struggle with as a culture, and with the Thanksgiving theme, I want to take a minute and get us ALL involved and actually thinking about what we're thankful for. The first two weeks will be kind of regular essay writing. This week I've written about being grateful for stuff, and next week will be about being grateful for people. The third week, the week of Thanksgiving is the application. I'll be making and sharing a Thankfulness list, a list of as many things and people that I'm thankful for as is humanly possible, and maybe some brief descriptions. I'm asking that you consider making a list as well. It doesn't have to be long or fancy, just a list to get you thinking about all that you have. I think you'll be surprised how hard it is to stop. I'd love to read your lists if you feel inclined to share yours after I share mine, but feel no obligation to share. I'm just asking us all to do it and think about it. Without further ado (because there's been plenty of ado already) I'll get going with this essay. Please let me know if you no longer wish to receive these. 

In all honesty, this is the least important week of the series and here's why in the simplest terms possible. When you die, no one will care that you had a fancy couch and snazzy shoes. The stuff doesn't really matter. You may have a lot of stuff to be grateful for, quite frankly you might not. It doesn't matter. Which is why this has to be mostly about contentment for what you already have. 

If you struggle with contentment consider this fantastic picture/quote/stat thing that I find every year around this time. 

Yeah. Real problems in our world today that you are more than likely not dealing with. Do you know what it means to not worry about where your next meal is coming from? Do you know what it means to not worry about getting burned at the stake for your religious beliefs, and the farthest thing from metaphorically? Maybe you don't. It's entirely foreign, something so shrouded from us in our society that poverty really exists that fear and terrorism and all these things are actual threats to people, not of the "I hope it doesn't happen," variety, but of the "it's happening as we speak, I love you mom, dad..." variety.  We're trained to be negative because we don't actually know what positivity is. I read a gut wrenching story about a six-year-old boy in some depressing part of Africa walking home from church with a Bible in hand. Six years old guys. I have a six-year-old sister. Some people receiving this email teach first graders or are around them daily. Six-years-old. Took his Bible and threw it into the fire and then lifted the boy, picked him up and flipped him upside down so that his head was towards the ground, and then held his head inches from the fire swearing at him all the while. These people have nothing, yet they are infinitely more grateful than we are here.  I may have shared the story of our pen pal in Ethiopia who we support. I think he's nine or so, and once he was asked what his favorite chore was. Do you know what he said? His favorite chore was going to the well and getting water for his family. It inspired the sestina attached below; a rudimentary attempt at poetry, but still, I think, one that captures my point of how much we don't know here. (It's a creative take on the information given to me from the boy, and isn't meant to be taken literally in its interpretation) How touching. The kid walks in his bare feet and gets the water for his family to have a sip. It's murky water, there are mosquitos biting at him, it's probably hotter than any of us have ever known, and his favorite job is bringing that pale of water home. How pathetic, how sad, and how ungrateful does that make us? It's time to take a serious look at how we view our stuff.  We're trained to be negative, ironically because we have so much. People with less tend to be more grateful because they know the value of what they have and what it is to be without. We have to train our brains out of that way of thinking. Need some examples?  Dirty dishes means food on the table.  Laundry? Clothes on your back.  Busy? You've got a job and money in the bank.  Persecuted? At least you aren't being stabbed to death.  Wondering how to pay the bills? You've got electricity now and running water now. Huge luxuries.  We take for granted these things and that is terrible. I'm not trying to put on a great guilt trip, but I want us to realize that we will all die someday way sooner than we expect and all these things won't matter. They will not be in your obituary. Your wealth, ask any rich person on their deathbed, will come to nothing. So I'm not even saying just be thankful for what you have. Don't take more. The world is in poverty. If you've got clothes on your back and food on the table and you're grateful for it than show that by giving what else you have to the world. I firmly believe that the one who has given us all that we have can take it away faster than we can imagine. Take nothing for granted. It's all incredibly valuable for it. Be thankful for the stuff, but do not dwell on it. It's not important. It will pass away. It's irrelevant. Stop caring so much about the stuff. Give to others. Stop caring so much, and remember to be grateful.  Remember to work on your lists. Have a great week!