Thankfulness

I just started reading Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts. It is a poetical, raw, heartfelt look at the transforming power of gratitude, or eucharisteo in Greek, as she so beautifully describes. There are books I certainly look forward to reading, but this book is different, it is like I am trying to savor this one. Of my three books on my nightstand, I will try to get through some pages of the others before I “treat” myself to reading this book. There have been many quotable pieces, but one that keeps rummaging through my mind is a quote by C.S. Lewis, who said to a man looking for fullest life: “If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you will find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.”

I have always been an optimist, always favoring happy over grumpy. But I dare say, as days go by at the speed of light, life happens. And the way it happens is usually not how I planned or expected. This is not bad, just something I continue to learn to make adjustments for, learn to go with the flow. We are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 to Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. And as the saying goes, if you want to hear God laugh, make plans, right? So even in the crazy, unplanned, unexpected hiccups of life in this fallen, yet beautiful world, I am to be thankful. That is my goal for this year, thankfulness in each and every momentary circumstance! I have a feeling I will need a heaping dose of grace as well, as I am surely in training, as C.S. Lewis suggested.